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Great wilderness writer, or greatest wilderness writer?
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Dec 21, 2015 19:38
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| # ? May 2, 2024 01:17 |
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environmental terrorism is cool.
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Dec 21, 2015 19:50
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He sounds like he was an elitist jerk if you hung out with him but I agree with him on things
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Dec 21, 2015 20:05
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I like a lot of his work but there are a few thing sI don't like about him his view on nature can be a little bit elitist like "if you ain't rappelling down a canyon with an old army pack and going off into the desert for weeks at a time, you ain't poo poo" i like doing that sort of thing but a lot of people don't and i would still be thrilled if the squares of the world wanted to enjoy nature and learn to love, respect, and appreciate it... you won't really have that (realistically speaking) unless you have things like e.g. roads to get you there, and i just got the impression when reading the monkey wrench gang that one of the things he was opposing was developing infrastructure to help people come out and enjoy the desert because he was upset that all of these lamewads were going to be coming for tourism and he just wanted to be alone in the desert in other words he had sort of a relativistic nativist approach to enjoying nature - if you're not already here and steeepd in outdoor culture then gently caress you like i respect his views on industry not intruding into pristine nature and even on taking direct action to stop it, which is also what a lot of mmonkey wrench gang was about, but then they spent a lot of time opposing a bridge/road being built and talking about all those city folk who would soon be flooding their beautiful lonely desert... it's been a while since i read that so maybe i'm mis-remembering i might be wrong about his views about eco-tourism but generally i think it can be a good thing and while I sometimes feel sad to see a once-empty place in nature become more popular, I can't really be mad about it because hell yes I'm glad all these people are enjoying this place now (just please don't gently caress it up) also i heard he was kind of a jerk esp. to women
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Dec 21, 2015 21:20
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alnilam posted:i might be wrong about his views about eco-tourism but generally i think it can be a good thing and while I sometimes feel sad to see a once-empty place in nature become more popular, I can't really be mad about it because hell yes I'm glad all these people are enjoying this place now (just please don't gently caress it up) 
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Dec 22, 2015 01:04
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LOL gross     
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Dec 22, 2015 03:03
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Those photos are a bummer sure, but the whole forest would be destroyed if you let slack jaw tourists just walk where ever they feel like moseying. Just imagine the breadcrumb trail of Capri Suns. 
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Dec 22, 2015 04:16
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Also there's only so much land, you're gonna have to learn to share it eventually, if you can make people admire it and love it like you do then that's better than people hating it and wanting to turn it into a mall
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Dec 22, 2015 04:39
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Apparently half dome is much better these days since you need a permit
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Dec 22, 2015 04:54
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Watermelon City posted:Those photos are a bummer sure, but the whole forest would be destroyed if you let slack jaw tourists just walk where ever they feel like moseying. Just imagine the breadcrumb trail of Capri Suns. Oh yeah, I know, I'm in school for ecotourism and outdoor leadership. But it's pics like that which make me glad I'm Canadian because crowds are rare here past the couple highways and parking lots in the region.
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Dec 22, 2015 04:57
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Most of those pics are from Yosemite if I'm not mistaken so that's pretty much the worst it will get worldwide.
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Dec 22, 2015 05:07
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friggin goku....lmfao.
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Dec 22, 2015 06:47
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There's a need for wild spaces on this planet. A place where someone can go and be alone with nature. To challenge themselves and their limits. We as a society need to work to preserve these places because humanity needs them to exist. And once the wilderness is gone, it's gone forever (practically). So we should preserve it now. That's what I always gathered to be the core of Desert Solitaire. The best views and the best experiences should not be made easy, else it turns into the pictures above. That being said, it's alright to build up some in parks, so that those who should take it easy can still see some wonder in nature, so as to fight for it. But that growth should fulfill a desperate need, not a want.
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Dec 22, 2015 20:12
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I like wilderness areas a lot for that reason. Idk maybe I'm misreading him i just think a lot of people simply won't ever go enjoy nature if it's all hard to get to, so there has to be some hard ones and some easy ones. I like the hard ones but I'm glad the easy ones are there, for people who i could never convince to go backpacking, or who can't. And i feel like Abbey was kind of like "gently caress all nature appreciation that isn't hardcore backpacking" but i might be reading into him falsely.
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Dec 22, 2015 20:51
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the only edward abbey book i ever read was "The Monkey Wrench Gang". Its been over a decade since i read it so the details are a little fuzzy, but I remember that there were two characters who drive around and burn down billboards along the interstate in the book. I think they call it Highway Re-beautification or something like that. When i drive in the midwest and see a lot of crazy right-wing billboards ad nauseum, I always think of that and am slightly tempted to commit a little ecoterrorism of my own hehe.
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Dec 22, 2015 21:55
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Piso Mojado posted:the only edward abbey book i ever read was "The Monkey Wrench Gang". Its been over a decade since i read it so the details are a little fuzzy, but I remember that there were two characters who drive around and burn down billboards along the interstate in the book. I think they call it Highway Re-beautification or something like that. When i drive in the midwest and see a lot of crazy right-wing billboards ad nauseum, I always think of that and am slightly tempted to commit a little ecoterrorism of my own hehe. same
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Dec 22, 2015 22:06
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I remember the monkey wrench gang advocated drinking and driving
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Dec 22, 2015 22:12
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Levitate posted:I remember the monkey wrench gang advocated drinking and driving yeah that part pissed me off a lot, he went into excruciating detail about haYwood getting wasted while driving 
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Dec 22, 2015 22:26
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alnilam posted:yeah that part pissed me off a lot, he went into excruciating detail about haYwood getting wasted while driving i still have the book and need to read it again, but wasnt haywood the guy with the willys jeep? I thought he was mostly riding around drunk in the middle of nowhere?
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Dec 22, 2015 22:32
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im not saying its okay in either case, but its hard for me to take issue with that when the same character bombs a train lol.
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Dec 22, 2015 22:35
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The Monkey Wrench Gang is pulpy as hell and Abbey was not seriously advocating drinking and driving. I'm pretty sure he did want the reader to pour sugar into the gas tank of construction equipment after finishing the novel, though.
Watermelon City fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Dec 22, 2015 |
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Dec 22, 2015 22:44
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idk abbey strikes me as the kind of guy who would get wasted and drive around the desert and if he got pulled over he'd grumble "it's MY loving desert" and about how in his day all the cops knew him and he could do whatever he wanted... Haywood felt a lot like a self insert to me
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Dec 22, 2015 22:49
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I do like the extensive details he gave about how to disable construction vehicles though 
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Dec 22, 2015 22:50
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Yeah it felt like an extension of the "loving government meddling in poo poo" theme of the book. But whatever
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Dec 22, 2015 22:54
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The Monkey Wrench Gang blew my loving mind when I read it in highschool. I got real into blowing stuff up. I am amazed I still have all my fingers and don't have a police record.
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Dec 23, 2015 01:44
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I'm just finishing up Monkey Wrench Gang now and it's a great, great book. Desert Solitaire is also awesome. I love this passage that encapsulates the southwest:Edward Abbey posted:Down from the sacred mountain into the rosy dawn he rolled, into the basin of the LIttle Colorado River, the pastel pink and chocolate brown and umbrous buff of the Painted Desert. Land of the petrified log. Land of the glaucomous Indian. Land of handwoven vegetable-dyed rugs, sand-cast silver concho belts and overloaded welfare case loads. Land of the former dinosaur. Land of the modern dinosaur. Land of the power-line pylon marching league on league in lockstep like 120-foot outer space monsters across the desert plains. My home. 
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Dec 29, 2015 02:42
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I remember the monkey wrench gang was a better book than that other one i read for school with the freakin talking gorilla... think he really hated indians or something? nature is for critters not people imo... your stupid views don't matter to no drat deer
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Dec 29, 2015 07:41
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| # ? May 2, 2024 01:17 |
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Levitate posted:I remember the monkey wrench gang advocated drinking and driving And stashing peanut butter.
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Dec 29, 2015 09:55
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