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Show 380. In any case, Harper's bought Muir's article: it worked. By accepting such material, they suggested that Muir continue to write in the same vein for an eastern audience. And so he did continue to write picturesque essays in the late seventies, and he would continue even as he returned to writing in the late eighties. One looks for a sharp transition from the wild Muir of the early seventies to the mannered Muir of the late eighties, and one finds instead that he gradually accommodated himself to the exigencies of writing for an eastern publication. His articles in Harper' s and Scribner' s established his reputation in the seventies as a master at describing picturesque scenery, and when he came back to writing, he found that his reputation limited his possible publishers. He would have to work within the excessively mannered conventions of a publication like Picturesque California. THE PICTURESQUE SCENE AND THE NEAR VIEW It is important to remember that Muir the writer was very self-conscious and always knew what he was doing. Just as he invited the public to a moderate landscape at Twenty Hill Hollow, so too he invited the reader in "Snow Banners" to stand on a ridge with him while he pointed to a scene which was, "in the strictest sense of the word," sublime. The aesthetes claimed that a sublime scene could only be appreciated from a safe distance which allowed the viewer to comtemplate what would otherwise be a distressingly powerful impression. |