Forests and Giants

Abstract

The presence and function of simulacra in the forest inspires the appearance of other Beings, unsettling our sense of the sublime woods. Such disruptions—while marginal—present a liminal threat to our comfortably modern lives: there either is or is not something in the woods watching me. This paper offers a critical reflection of my own writing process over the past four years, as I sat at my desk and looked out the window to the edge of a boreal forest in Northern Ontario. During this time, I was overcome with a compulsion to write about giants. Now, at over 800,000 words, my unpublished manuscripts offer an exploration of the giants rooted in the woods and the giants that haunt the deeper parts of our consciousness. “Forests and Giants” looks to the outer forests—much like the inner forests of our minds—and how they are places that invite the interplay of darkness and light. These spaces produce the simulacra of shadows that can either torment or entice our sensibilities, all the while showing us reflections of who we are and where we come from.