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context.html
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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Context</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=EB+Garamond:wght@400;500&family=Esteban&family=Fanwood+Text&family=Kurale&family=Noto+Serif+Oriya:wght@400;500&family=Ovo&family=Zilla+Slab:ital,wght@0,300;0,400;0,500;1,300;1,400;1,500&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">
</head>
<body>
<nav class="nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="design.html">Design</a></li>
<li><a href="context.html">Context</a></li>
<li><a href="index.html">Text</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
<h1>Context</h1>
<div>
<p>"J.A. Baker (1926-1987) is now widely acknowledged as one of the most important British writers on nature in the twentieth century. When his first book, The Peregrine, appeared in 1967 with all the unexpected power and vertignous daring of its eponymous bird, it was instantly recognised as a masterpiece. Today it is viewed by many as the gold standard for all nature writing and, in many ways, it transcends even this species of praise. A case could easily be made for its greatness by the standards of any literary genre."</p>
<p>This is a book wrote by a guy who lived all of his life in a village watching birds. His descriptions are incredibly rich and intricate. I chose two segments which both contain descriptions of a peregrine. The first one is an entry from the 20th of October 1965 and it's a dreamlike description of the bird as it flies above river meadows, its golden feet flashing through the sunlight. This is a display of the author's admiration and it feels bright, majestic and somewhat optimistic. It attempts to hunt but fails in doing so. The vibe here remains positive.</p>
<p>The second segment, however, plays out differently. Set on December the 8th, it depicts the following events. The opening paragraph is once again a serene picture of the winter sun, blue skies and misty fields. But the mood changes with a sudden gesture: "keerk, keerk, keerk, keerk, keerk". The peregrine has sensed prey! It becomes tense and prepares for the act of killing. We get the explanation that "predators that kill species that are the commonest, have the best chance for survival. The ones who develop a taste for one species only are likely to go hungry and ill". This is very powerful. What follows is a very graphic description of the peregrine attacking a pigeon. It's extremely violent. At last, a moment of great intensity (whole fields seemed to lift into the sky), only to fade away with an image of the same green field which is now empty and indifferent. Nature is ruthless!</p>
<p>I found out about this book from Werner Herzog, who is a filmmaker that has been making movies since the 70s. He's quite a character and so I was watching an interview with him, and he mentioned this was his favourite book of all time. A lot of his movies are about unknown heroes with impossible dreams, and the writer J.A. Baker surely classifies as someone who might serve as inspiration for a Herzog main character. He's a writer who literally and metaphorically chased his dreams with great intensity and wrote one of the finest books of a particular genre without any formal training in writing</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>