Overview
Big Mouth is about modern Amazonia. It is also about the intense and frequently fetishistic and myth-ridden coverage which Amazonia has received in recent years.University of London lecturer Stephen Nugent first went to Amazonia in 1975 and has returned many times since. His interest is in the real Amazonia, not the unspoiled nature preserve of first world poseurs nor the bottomless well of natural resources dreamt of by urban Brazilians. It's a place where people live trapped between a neo-colonial present and a post-colonial future where only high-minded outsiders know what is best for them.
In Big Mouth, Amazonia is visually represented not by photographs, but through the gaze of Humphrey Ocean who, fragilely armed with nib, pen and pad, pursued his distinctive agenda. Ocean lives in London and is a painter with portraits in the National Portrait Gallery, and the London and Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
Synopsis
Big Mouth is about modern Amazonia. It is also about the intense and frequently fetishistic and myth-ridden coverage which Amazonia has received in recent years.
University of London lecturer Stephen Nugent first went to Amazonia in 1975 and has returned many times since. His interest is in the real Amazonia, not the unspoiled nature preserve of first world poseurs nor the bottomless well of natural resources dreamt of by urban Brazilians. It's a place where people live trapped between a neo-colonial present and a post-colonial future where only high-minded outsiders know what is best for them.
In Big Mouth, Amazonia is visually represented not by photographs, but through the gaze of Humphrey Ocean who, fragilely armed with nib, pen and pad, pursued his distinctive agenda. Ocean lives in London and is a painter with portraits in the National Portrait Gallery, and the London and Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
Library Journal
Originally published in England in 1990, this travel book also concerns the anthropology and sociology of the Amazon region of Brazil, particularly Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon, and Santarem, which is upriver. The author (Univ. of London) spent a year and a half in Santarem in 1975 and returned in 1988 with an artist named Ocean. His drawings are evocative of the area, but a few photographs would have helped in understanding the region. When Nugent sticks to description of their travels and adventures, he is mildly amusing. He devotes several chapters to the destruction of the rain forest and problems with the economy. He writes in a flippant, popular style, using many incomprehensible references to English items and events. In addition, the material is dated; no reference in the notes is later than 1989. With many changes that have happened since in the rain forest, there seems to be no reason to bring out an American edition at this late date. Not recommended.-George M. Jenks, Bucknell Univ., Lewisburg, Pa.