Now that Vermont is reviewing Act 250—legislation that has done so much to create a unique rural landscape in our state—it’s worth asking what we value in landscape in the first place. Why are inhospitable mountains beautiful? What’s actually attractive about a ruined barn?
New York Times Bestselling author M. T. Anderson considers the politics of beautiful scenery and the hidden national longings behind our sense of landscape. He’ll look at the history of our attitudes toward landscape, traditional New England landscape painting, and the work of some contemporary Vermont artists to discuss how different societies have found the sublime in their surroundings—and what that might mean for us in the future.
Anderson’s satirical science fiction novel, Landscape with Invisible Hand, has been turned into a movie starring Tiffany Haddish and Asante Blackk.
About the Speaker
New York Times Bestselling author M. T. Anderson writes books for children, teens, and adults, including The Pox Party, which won the National Book Award; Elf Dog & Owl Head, which won a Newbery Honor Award, and the science fiction satire Feed, which was a Finalist for the National Book Award and which won the L.A. Times Book Prize. Another science fiction satire, Landscape with Invisible Hand, was made into a movie starring Tiffany Haddish and Asante Blackk. His nonfiction book Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad was one of the Wall Street Journal’s Best Books of the Year. His most recent book, Nicked, is a historical heist story set in the eleventh century. He lives in New England.
Photo by Erin Thompson
