Journal—Wendell Berry

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
I am not really making sense about this poem. But one thing I am sure that the farmer is really mad. I got this emotion from the way he expresses. He uses a lot of extreme and negative things, paradox things and realistic sentences to show the farmer is mad. Like, he said “So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute.” I think I would like to tell my friend do something that will be compute. Also, he said “Ask the questions that have no answers.” People want to get the answers based on the questions. I like one sentence which is really realistic is “Lie easy in the shade.” I have question that what is the reason which made the farmer so mad? I think it would be related to the historical events, because I read the introductory information from the beginning of the reading, it said “as the voice of a new agrarianism, with an old fidelity…”Also, the word “profit” appears in this poem many times. So it related to some rules that the farmers don’t satisfied.

The Making of a Marginal FarmI think the story is beginning with “The differences between knowing a place and living in it, between cherishing a place and living responsibly in it.” This is an important thing that Wendell Berry discovered in his whole life. He was responsible for the land he lived. Through the description of his land restoration experience, he wants to show us evidence that restoration of land is not only good for environment and also good for people’ life from economy perspective. Because he said “it is possible to for a family to live on such ‘marginal’ land, to take a bountiful subsistence and some cash income from it, and, in doing so, to improve both the land and themselves.” Sustainable development is the concept flashed in my mind after I read this reading. Our economy, society, resources and environment protection should get coordinate development. I think they are an inseparable system, it is necessary to achieve the purpose of economic development, but also protect the nature system. One question in this reading is what is the meaning of the word “marginal”?