Andy Letcher - Article Review

Andy Letcher’s article on Eco-protest details the culture that flourished as a direct result of the construction of new road’s in Britain in the 1990s. Letcher explains how the “fairy mythology”, became a major part of the movement and how it was adopted by the protesters. Rather than predominantly detailing the culture of eco-protest, the article focuses on an overview of the road protest movement and also demonstrates the three common responses to the fairy mythology.

 

The information regarding the culture that Letcher does detail, is mainly concerned with the poetry and song associated with the eco-protest culture. This is probably because he was a part of many prominent bands that performed at protests. A number of song lyrics are quoted and are used to demonstrate the protesters identification with fairies and pixies.

 

The responses to the fairy mythology are divided in to three responses. Letcher describes them as: hostility and rejection, symbolic identification and literal beliefs. The hostility stems from the divide between the “aesthetic” protesters and the “political” protesters. The political protesters see the aesthetic protesters as being over indulgent with the middle class, rather than focusing on the political goal of overthrowing capitalism. As well as this, the general attitude held by society in general, tends to be rational and not accepting of supernatural phenomenon such as fairies and pixies.

 

The second response seems to be the one held by most protesters. Rather than having a literal belief in fairy mythology, these protesters simply associate themselves with fairies, trolls and pixies, using the mythology to shape their identity. This seems to be the attitude that many associate themselves with. Unlike the protesters disagreeing with the fairy mythology and the protesters who have a genuine belief in the fairy mythology these protesters take a middle ground. They do not take the mythology too seriously and only take on a temporary identification and seem to do so for entertainment and a feeling of purpose and identity.

 

Finally, Letcher interviews and gives examples of protesters who have a literal belief in the fairy mythology. These protesters believe that they have had encounters with fairies, pixies and trolls and truly believe in their existence. Many of the encounters were fuelled by psychoactive drugs such as cannabis, mushrooms and LSD, and it can be argued that this is the main reason for their genuine belief.

 

Overall, the article does not provide much insight into the religious practices and rituals associated with eco-protest; however it gives a good outline of the different attitudes held by the eco-protesters and the relationship they share with fairies. 

Benjamin Muller