ST204 The Green and Eco-Horror

The Parliament of Trees

Issue #47: the ancient elementals, their silence, and what they tell the creature about the Green and himself.

About 150 minutes. Sample lesson, open to everyone.

Reading for this lesson

Introduction

"The Parliament of Trees" (April 1986), drawn by Stan Woch, takes the creature to a grove in Brazil south of the river Tefé, where the plant elementals who preceded him have rooted themselves and slowed almost to stillness[1]. They speak, barely. They tell him what he is, what the Green is, and what will become of him if he stays. He does not stay.

The issue is the run's ecological creed, and it is delivered by beings who have given up doing anything. That is the tension this lesson reads: the Parliament knows everything and acts on nothing, and the creature, who knows less, goes back to act. Colin Beineke's open-access article reads Moore's creature through the folkloric Green Man, the foliate face carved in medieval churches, and it is the first piece of published scholarship in this degree that you can read in full for free[2].

What you are studying

One issue as an ecological statement, and the first scholarly article on the run.

Learning objectives

  • Analyse #47 for what it claims about the Green, the lineage of elementals and the creature's future.
  • Read Woch's art as a departure from Bissette and Totleben and assess what it does.
  • Engage with Beineke's Green Man reading and test it against the issue.

Key concepts

The creed

List every claim the Parliament makes. Sort them: about the Green, about the elementals, about the creature, about humanity. Then note the one thing the Parliament does not say, which is what the creature should do.

Stillness as wisdom

The elementals have become trees. Their wisdom is a withdrawal from action, which the issue may or may not endorse. Ask how Woch draws them (faces in bark, the pace of the panels) and whether the art makes stillness beautiful, sad, or both.

The Green Man

Beineke's argument connects the creature to the foliate head of medieval carving, a figure of vegetation and renewal[2]. Read the article after your own reading and test it: does the Green Man explain the Parliament, or only the creature?

Questions to think about while reading

  • Who are the elementals? What were they before? Does the issue name them?
  • What does the Parliament say about Alec Holland, and does it settle ST201's question?
  • Why Brazil? What does the location do that Louisiana could not?

Things to notice

  • Woch's line against Bissette's. Where the art is looser, and where it is more still.
  • Colour in the grove. Compare with the Green of #23.
  • The creature's exit. How the issue frames his choice to leave.

Reflection questions

  • Is the Parliament a paradise or a warning?
  • Would you stay?

Homework and tasks

Draft Assignment 1: a close reading of #47, its creed and its art, and what the issue believes about action and stillness.

Next lesson

Next week: the Green off Earth. #61 and the planet of plants.

References

  1. Alan Moore (writer), Stan Woch (art). The Saga of the Swamp Thing #47: "The Parliament of Trees". The Saga of the Swamp Thing, #47. DC Comics, April 1986.
  2. Colin Beineke. "Her Guardiner": Alan Moore's Swamp Thing as the Green Man. ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, vol. 5, #4. 2010. Link