Veith Princess Mononoke

PRINCESS MONONOKE IS AN AWESOME MOVIE! It is visually stunning, and I especially liked the adorable nature of Ashitaka's pet Yakul, as well as those little kodama tree spirits. 

Since it is a movie having to do very much with humans and their interactions with nature, I was reminded of my high school Environmental Science class. In that class we had a discussion on two essays written by environmental experts, one which states that, no matter what, no matter how serious global warming gets, or how may natural and human-induced disasters occur in hte world, the world always adapts. No disasters ruin the world, and we are eternally in a cycle of destructing, fixing, and improving the world. The other essay very much attacked humans for ignorance of how to treatt he world, and the world will be destructed sooner than it should because of our mistreatment.

We were told to choose a side, and I really had trouble deciding then, but now I think I agree with the guy who says we’re destructing the world too fast. We humans forget that we are too a part of nature. The importance of nature is shown in Princess Mononoke by the fact that animals are beautiful, mystical, humongous, godly creatures that run a lush forest.

But then again, Iron Town’s conflict with nature makes the point that perhaps humans cannot live in a world without destructing nature a little, and treating animals poorly. Conflict between man and nature has gone on since the dawn of time, and no one seems to be backing down, even though America has “gone green” or whatever. Each year we knock out a huge number of trees.

Princess Mononoke is symbolic of human conflict with the natural world, especially in the sense that it won’t ever stop. In the battle between the humans and the forest, no one really wins. Here I am going to quote Wikipedia, because I like the way they put it: “There can be no clear victory, and the hope is that the relationship between humans and nature can be cyclical.” I guess we won’t know if this relationship is cyclical, or if humans are destroying the world too quickly, until the world ends.