Grauland’s Last Trees in Second Life

Jim Garand never fails to intrigue / please with his periodic re-designs of Grauland, his Homestead region. Since 2019 he has consistently offered environments for people to visit which have mixed themes and ideas in multiple ways – landscapes, art, architecture, history, mystery, science fiction, and so on.

As such, it is always a pleasure to drop in and witness what he has most recently created for people to enjoy. And for me, this is particularly true of the April 2024 edition of the region, which he has called Grauland – Last Trees, as it reminds me of one of my favourite – and potentially one of the most underrated classics of of the genre – science-fiction film, Silent Running.

The region does this in two ways. The first is that – like the film – it appears to offer a commentary on the environment and the damage being done to it by the human species. In this, the setting also perhaps echoes Waterworld, given it appears to be a lone outpost rising from an unending sea; but I’m sticking with Silent Running simply because of the two great biodomes sitting to the north and south of the outpost. If you’re familiar with the film, then it’s hard not to see these two massive geodesic structures of glass and steel and not think of Valley Forge and the precious cargo she and her sister ships carried in the home of one day replanting Earth.

Here, however, the domes do not protect woodlands or the fields of plants and all the insects and smaller animals vital to a healthy biosphere as seen in the film. Instead, each dome is home to a single giant oak rising from a sea of grass and spreading their boughs in defiance of the glowering sky outside of the gentle lights (and warmth, perhaps?) of the domes. But as with Silent Running, it would appear that this outpost, anchored to the bed of the shallow surrounding sea, is dedicated to the preservation of these two great trees and also to the renewal of plant-life to some degree, given the hydroponics farm located in the lower level of one of the great domes.

Whilst not out in the void of space near Saturn, Grauland’s outpost is crewed by people clearly trying to make the best of things – as were the crew of the Valley Forge. Part of the station is devoted to living quarters offering creature comforts and sitting over floating docks where jet skis and RHIBs are available for recreational enjoyment on the water (and yes, you can ride the jet skis), while lidos and floats bob on the water, suggesting swimming is also to be had. In this, the jet skis – for me – offered a further indirect link to the film, standing-in for the four-wheeled buggies Freeman Lowell and his colleagues used to let off steam as they raced around their cargo ship.

Sadly, Huey, Dewey and Louie are absent from Jim’s design – probably because the similarity to Silent Running is entirely of my own making -, but there are three android-like heads and upper bodies awaiting discovery instead. Quite what their purpose might be is for anyone visiting to guess. Perhaps, within their I, Robot-ish looks, they are the brains monitoring the station. You decide.

A series of landing pads, four of them occupied by hopper shuttles, suggest that flight is required to get to the station from elsewhere (wherever that might be), with two of the craft apparently for rescue / evacuation use. However, given a wheeled amphibious truck is hauling itself out of the water onto an elevator platform, there is also the suggestion that land of some kind might not actually be too far away.

If land is relatively close by, then the question must be asked what has happened to require a station such as this, dedicated as it seems to be, to the preservation of the two great oak trees and the growing of new plants (or trees)? Indeed, is this base actually on Earth at all – or are we perhaps somewhere else in the cosmos, a place sufficiently like Earth so as to support Earth-based animal (i.e. human) and plant life? In all of this Jim offers no clues, instead leaving the door of the imagination wide open to allow us to formulate our own ideas and stories about this place.

What is clear is that while the waters here might be shallow, they would appear to be wracked at times by storms of a sufficient enough violence to warrant sitting the majority of the base atop massive girder-like legs, presumably to lift the buildings, landing pads and so out wall out of the reach of ravaging waves and spray. It’s also clear that there is much to explore here as well – stairwells climb between levels, catwalks, ramps and gantries connect different areas, elevators offer ease of access to the water up to higher sections of the outpost for those who don’t fancy counting steps, and the crew quarters offer their own curiosities.

All told, another expressive and imaginative build by Jim, and one well worth visiting and exploring.

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)