Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

And now the channel opens. But nothing alters.Mile after mile of tangled struggling roots,Wild-rice, stumps, weeds, that clutch at the canoe,Wild birds hysterical in tangled trees.And not a sign, no emblem in the sky. … 9In Le Pan’s poem, the elemental world does not confront the travelerin its midst but rather retreats before him, sometimes in the form of passiveanger, yet closes in behind him and cuts him off from the myths andmeanings of the old world. There are some similarities here to the Americanexperience, in that many of those who came to the United States left thingsEuropean on the far side of the Atlantic but seemed to have done so at leastsemiconsciously in their desire to take up a new life in a new land. In contrast,the experience pictured by many Canadian writers is the newcomer’sfinding that the forms and meanings he tries to bring with him are simplyswallowed up in the vastness of Canada and are proved incapable of helpinghim chart a course into it.A number of Canada’s painters have also tried to engage and revealwhat lives hidden in the elements of earth, water, and light. In the work ofA.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald, LawrenHarris, and others of the Groupof Seven, one experiences the artiststanding reverently and expectantlybefore the Canadian wilderness withthe thought that, in the words of LawrenHarris, “this North of ours is a source ofspiritual flow which can create throughus … a flow of beneficent informingcosmic powers behind the bleaknessand barrenness and austerity of muchof the land.” 10The imagination that a Spiritworth meeting lies hidden behind thewild, barren, and even hostile mask ofthe land is also evident in the work ofEmily Carr. Born in Victoria, BritishColumbia, in 1871, this eccentric, indomitablewoman tramped the forestsof the Pacific coast, spent lonely and Emily Carr, Forest Landscape (1), c. 1938sometimes terrified nights in aban-59