NATURAL + HISTORY = NATURAL HISTORIES
The word "natural history" has the scent of objective knowledge. It radiates the impression that it is possible to observe and describe and understand nature, if you just pursue your investigations long enough. But the latter part of the word: "history" reveals what is at stake: a history, a story, a tale.
That's why I love the word "natural history" - there is a certain consciousness integrated in the word - an awareness of the impossibility of describing nature objectively. The observer is "a piece of nature" as well.
That's why it is necessary to write in first person - I am inseparable from the observed object: NATURE. And also from the HISTORIES about it.
