I hadn't heard of either of the authors before I read their introductions. Both introductions gave little to no reason why the authors write about what they do. I would have liked a little more background and personality thrown in, to understand them and their methods better. Jim Harrison's introduction tells us little of his childhood. I have seen the movie version of Harrison's novel, "Legend of the Fall," starring Brad Pitt, but didn't know the film was based on a book. Harrison mostly wrote about "Michigan's Upper Peninsula," which made me wonder if that is where he grew up or if it was just one of his favorite places. The scene of location usually is important key to the story, so the author has to know it backwards and forwards. The introduction also tells us "The Beginner's Mind" is about "a camping trip taken in New Mexico with fellow writer Doug Peacock," which is an interesting location in contrast to his series of Michigan settings in his writings. This tidbit made me wonder how he found The Gray Ranch in the first place and how it compared to Michigan. The editor also tells the story is "reminiscent" of Edward Abbey, who we will be reading from in the next unit, so I look forward to comparing the two authors. David James Duncan's introduction also doesn't tell us much of his childhood and family life. It does tell us he first lived in Oregon. When "logging destroyed the watersheds and fisheries," he moved to Montana with his family. Oregon and Montana must have been good as inspirations for his writings. His writing subjects are rivers and environmental protests "against the ways in which extractive industries like mining are threatening their survival." The editor compares him to Rick Bass, who I am not familiar with.
"The Beginner's Mind" by Jim Harrison, like the introduction tells us, is "a camping trip, taken in New Mexico with fellow writer Doug Peacock." He describes Peacock as "grizzly bear renown" and "the ultimate camper," who he feels inferior to, skill wise. They take two sleeping bags to sleep under the stars on an "April afternoon" and hike to Animas Peak in The Gray Ranch. Harrison mentions, two years after their first trip, The Gray Ranch, was "sold to Ted Turner," which he feels strongly opposed to. While they hike, Harrison "scours his guidebooks," looking for exotic things. He has to rest every now and then because of hip pain, which "torments" him. While he watches the sunset at the peak, in his sleeping bag, he ponders who the people and what the animals were like, who have crossed that land before him. He wonders how much Ted Turner is going to ruin the location's beauty with machinery. By the end of his trip, he says, "the gray ranch was still here, big as all outdoors." In "Northwest Passage" by David James Duncan, he writes about trying to recreate a photograph of "the Ganges and Jumna rivers in India" from "National Geographic" in his bedroom, by displaying the photo and building a tent, when he was sixteen. Duncan considers the Indian rivers to be a "holy" place and tries to find his own holy place near his home. He describes his friend Jered, who he went fishing with, even though they are complete opposites. They went fishing at the Columbia river for three reasons: they "shared a respect," Jered had "enough boraxed salmon roe for" both of them, and the location was "a joining of rivers." He describes the Columbia river "still beautiful at the confluence, even though mills lined the shores. They don't end up fishing, "just watching the salmon leap as the day grew dark."
Both authors described their experiences in clever and humorous ways, both leaving me to question the future of their locations. In "The Beginner's Mind" by Jim Harrison, he writes "a nap can give you an hour's break from needing to be right all the time, an affliction leading to blindness to the natural world, not to speak to your wife and children," which I thought was pretty funny. I think a camping trip would be quite a peaceful but restless experience as well. Harrison says, "Not so long ago, only a few minutes in geological time, we attacked the wilds with implements of greed and domination. Now, or so it appears, we are having run at it with sporting equipment, none of it as friendly to the earth as the human foot or the hooves of horses" causing us to wonder how much we are going to ruin the earth's beauty. In "Northwest Passage" by David James Duncan, he describes, a small river called Lacamas as looking like "Satan's own nostril risen from hell, blowing out an infinite, scalding booger. But it was steaming, poisoning, killing joke that shot across the Washougal's drought-shriveled mouth in a yellow-gray scythe, curved downstream and coated the Columbia's north shore with what looked like dead human skin for miles," which shows how much hatred Duncan has for the mills. By Duncan's description, we can how much he despises the toxic chemicals from the mills and how sad he feels that they are damaging the river's beauty. The only break in his hatred is when he stops to appreciate the salmons leaping out of the water, which give him hope, and he says, "salmon are not stupid, they grow tentative in rivers." He almost makes its seem like he hopes life will survive in such harsh environments.
In "The Beginner's Mind" by Jim Harrison, he writes he wasn't great a "life science and geology in school," which is relatable to me, as science was my worst subject in school. I do however enjoy Anthropology, because of the cultural explorations and how it relates to specific groups of people or animals. David James Duncan also mentions he "hated high school" I also hated high school, but love college. I felt like I was limited to a standard and specific learning experience and never had a chance to take the wide variety of classes like college. I have never slept under the stars in a sleeping bag in any place besides my backyard. When I go camping, I usually sleep in a trailer, a cabin, or a tent. Whenever I visit somewhere that is scarcely populated, but on the map, I also wonder who was the first to discover the location and how does it maintain its beauty. I look at farms close to the freeways and feel sad, wondering when they will start development on the latest housing or shopping district. In "Northwest Passage" by David James Duncan, he admits to ripping pictures out of magazines and taking them home to give them "a better life than one they'd led in the library." I would agree with Duncan, as photographs should be displayed on walls and framed, not locked shut in a book or magazine. Duncan writes he would "stare" at photographs till "they swallowed [him], and would virtually worship that daydreams, wanderlust, and longings these makeshift icons allowed [him] to feel," making it seem like photographs capture the beauty of places which is ironic as certain religious people in India believe photography steals a piece of their souls with every flash. I wondered how they would feel about the land's souls being taken. Whenever I see a photograph in a travel magazine of a place I haven't been, like Europe, I do stare like Duncan, wondering what it would be like to be there.
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