ABSTRACT
Wilderness differs in curious ways from the comparable metaphors of garden and forest. In both city and wilderness, feeling out of place is a vivid component of the experience. The wilderness environment does not stand apart from the rest of nature. The wilderness city possesses reciprocal meanings. Metaphor embodies reciprocity: not only does wilderness become a metaphor for the city, but the city also becomes a metaphor for wilderness. The meaning of 'wilderness' changes when juxtaposed with 'city', and conversely, so that one can no longer speak of their prior significance in accounting for their function in the metaphorical expression. One might expect the wilderness metaphor to offer a better understanding of the city by seeing it as a reconstructed, rationalized wilderness, interpreting the city, that is, through that image, though one somewhat hidden behind a coating of civility. A new metaphor will have to be fashioned to do the work of the old wilderness.
