A landscape may be defined as an extent of land which is visually distinct. It is often associated with beauty or pleasure when not limited by an adjective such as 'polluted' or 'devastated'. However, there are almost certainly different connotations of the word produced by cultural values.
The city of Muscat, in Oman lies between the sea and a beautiful mountain landscape that seems to embrace the city. Early in the twenty-first century a tractor appeared as if by magic on the top of one beautiful mountain known as the 'white mountain'. Systematically it began to destroy the beauty of the mountain by gouging a motor way across the face of the mountain. In some western societies this would have been an environmental outrage.
In parts of the world where nature still rules, as in desert countries where waterless environments forbid human intrusion there tends to be less veneration for wild scenes. In a country like England attitudes to the environment were defined to a large extent by poets like William Wordsworth and Gerard Manley Hopkins. His words, 'Glory be to God for dappled things' set the almost religious reverence for the natural environment that is encoded in the language.
As Hopkins perceived, both natural and built environments have their own aspects of interest, depending on what is in the mind of the viewer. To some, the only built feature in a perfect view may be a rustic cottage. To others, factories and smoke stacks are beautiful in their own way.
People with distinctive cultural affinities are either sensitive to distant perspectives or indifferent to them. People who use English and understand something of its literature may have difficulty in understanding people of other cultures who are unmoved and indifferent when viewing the same scenery.
Online searches for the word 'landscape' will yield about half a million potential results. This illustrates the contemporary currency of the word in our global community. Even in remote African environments some politicians are following cues from countries like China and attempting to revitalize the environment by planting trees. However, most people now live in cities and it is in city contexts that they will respond most significantly to a built environment. Read more about: Landscape
The city of Muscat, in Oman lies between the sea and a beautiful mountain landscape that seems to embrace the city. Early in the twenty-first century a tractor appeared as if by magic on the top of one beautiful mountain known as the 'white mountain'. Systematically it began to destroy the beauty of the mountain by gouging a motor way across the face of the mountain. In some western societies this would have been an environmental outrage.
In parts of the world where nature still rules, as in desert countries where waterless environments forbid human intrusion there tends to be less veneration for wild scenes. In a country like England attitudes to the environment were defined to a large extent by poets like William Wordsworth and Gerard Manley Hopkins. His words, 'Glory be to God for dappled things' set the almost religious reverence for the natural environment that is encoded in the language.
As Hopkins perceived, both natural and built environments have their own aspects of interest, depending on what is in the mind of the viewer. To some, the only built feature in a perfect view may be a rustic cottage. To others, factories and smoke stacks are beautiful in their own way.
People with distinctive cultural affinities are either sensitive to distant perspectives or indifferent to them. People who use English and understand something of its literature may have difficulty in understanding people of other cultures who are unmoved and indifferent when viewing the same scenery.
Online searches for the word 'landscape' will yield about half a million potential results. This illustrates the contemporary currency of the word in our global community. Even in remote African environments some politicians are following cues from countries like China and attempting to revitalize the environment by planting trees. However, most people now live in cities and it is in city contexts that they will respond most significantly to a built environment. Read more about: Landscape
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