Nature Literature discussion

Please add your comments about About This Life to this thread.

Hello-- I mistakenly thought I could easily and inexpensively get a used copy of this book... but perhaps because the author has recently died, there is a run on this title. I ended up getting it new and it will arrive Feb 4th - Feb 8th, so I will be a little late to begin.

The edition above Becky posted is a first edition... and expensive... the latest edition I believe is this one
About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory

Also, this book is available via Kindle and through Audible. Often I like to listen, but I felt I wanted this collection in my library.

Anyone else planning on joining ? Ray are you planning on joining for some of this book...?

My area library system (27 libraries throughout 7 counties) has one copy, which I've requested!

I have requested an audio book version through my local library. Fingers crossed they'll release it to me by February!

Looks like my regional library system has three copies. Two are available so I ordered one. There’s probably more copies through our state library system.

That's great John- I will be interested in how you find the narrator!

Julie, Becky, Amanda -- all good reports. I hope the libraries come through for you...

Apparenty I'm 5th in the queue, so it might be tough to get access by Feb. 1st, but I'll join in when I can!

I just got a note from Amazon and my book should be here by Jan 28th, which is a week before they said originally -- we will see. :)

I ordered the book from Amazon (no good bookstore in my rural setting). But it won’t ship until later in Feb—probably because of his recent death. I may get it via audible, too.

I tried to get it used, but no go. Not available from my library either. I am reading it on Kindle.
The introduction goes a long way in explaining his early learning and motivation. He was not yet public about the dark matters revealed in the essay first published in the Atlantic, "Sliver of Sky," but the content is good in this book. I really enjoyed the second essay, with its focus

with its focus on Hokkaido. I have always been fascinated with the Ainu.

My book arrived and I finished the first chapter . which is autobiographical. Really strong and attractive writing style. He has made his early life and how he tried to find his voice really interesting.

It was remarkable to me the many fine writers and well known persons Lopez was introduced to while he was young. Wonderful opportunities.

Sounds good! I have the book and will start reading soon.

Sher wrote: "My book arrived and I finished the first chapter . which is autobiographical. Really strong and attractive writing style. He has made his early life and how he tried to find his voice really intere..."

I liked the introduction too. There is more on his interactions with Native people in the essay from Granta: https://granta.com/invitation/

The Chapter on Bonaire (first after the introduction) has a lot to say about tourism as economic development and how it stands sometimes in opposition to conseervation but also to other forms of development.

Thanks Ray- I am halfway through Bonaire. I had to look up some images to see Bonaire. I will report back. Glad you are joining us Julie!

I have a copy from Amazon that should be here in a week. I am listening to the audible version (I didn’t realize it when I ordered, but it must be abridged as it’s just under 7 hours). However, Lopez reads it and I’m loving it. That first chapter about his early life was amazing.

Hi Jeff- I noticed quite a few of his works on Audible are abridged. Too bad this one is also. But Lopez reading it must be a plus.

I have finished C1 on Bonaire and will post some notes soon.

Introduction. I suffer with him as he has to move from California back to New York. For a teenage boy, it must have been so confining to move from the fair-weather countryside back to the darker, colder, crowded northeast. I love his description of Steinbeck in his cabin cruiser and dinghy. I recently read Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (which I recommend for the nomadic spirit during this pandemic quarantine) where he travels the USA with his dog in a truck camper. In the book, Steinbeck writes of his life on the east coast and his boats, but not of his children.

In this introduction, he's establishing his voice. To me, his voice is not only the sound of good writing but of a gentleman. I wonder if he realized his white educated privilege with a deeper insight through aging, much as I am with mine.

It's fascinating that he entered college with the idea of becoming an aeronautical engineer and left with a degree in communication arts. He began writing in college, and it sounds like he found some professors that nurtured his writing. Lucky us!

C1. His description on my edition's page 21of the stark island with its brazilwood and lignum vitae forest gone is heartbreaking. So many decimated islands from human history. And I'm thinking all the way back to early homo sapiens, forward. Still stripped by donkeys and goats.

His vivid descriptions of the reef and the exhausting variety of life is amazing. I love how in his travels he buys a local guide to the birds because it is a more accurate and less political survey of life in the region. I wonder how Bonaire's reefs fair today.

In the first two essays, I love that despite his fine writing he does defy the rules at least twice by ending a sentence in a preposition. And he gets away with it. It works.

C 1
I felt like the title is spot on for the content in the essay "Finding Depth in Bonaire." What struck me wasn't the place or so much even the story, but the writer's voice. He's always looking, questioning, and wanting to know more. For example when he was diving, he listed the names of fish, but at the time he dove, he didn't know all the fish- he couldn't identify them. It reminded me how someone feels when they are out birding and they encounter new species. They want to be closer to the species by knowing more about them.

So many places and scenes resonate and linger in Lopez's imagination. That's it, I wrote in the margin --I love how he brings imagination and a desire to more deeply know into his writing.

"Sudden bursts of domestic noise, the sprawl of sleeping dogs under a yard light, the stillness of toys on pounded earth, the order in wash hung over a line--all compel a desire to embrace the unknown associated with these things, as if all the unwanted complication had gone out of life."

I see an author who has compassion and a person who wants to deeply understand and connect with his surroundings including human , animal, and environment. This really brings depth to his nature writing that I find quite touching.

Yes - the richiness of the coral reefs is a marked contrast to the struggling residents of the island.

I'm listening to an abridged copy of the book while I am waiting for a hard copy to arrive. This quote, from when he's in Seoul and sets out to explore the city, rings so true:

"I wanted to see things that can't be purchased."

A little later he says:

"We daily accept myriads of corporate solutions to our own discontent."

I can't wait for the book to arrive.

The most interestiing chapter so far was The American Geographies. His comments on Nature Tourism and the expectations of customers, our perception of the landscape etc. are spot on, in my opinion.
I also thoroughly enjoyed reading his perceptions of the Galapagos in the chapter which follows the one on Bonaire. I will have to reread that one.

Ray-- in my book the chapter following Bonaire is on Japan. I am so interested in his chapter on the Galapagos. The one place in my lifetime bucket list I have not visited. Well, to tell the truth there are a few places ...sigh.

Glad you are enjoying the book.

Jeff- what I love about this writing is how Lopez packs so much layered meaning into a sentence. Magnificent.

Yes, the third essay is about Hokkaido, Northernmost of Japan's major islands.

The Galapagos chapter is further in.

I found the essay about Hokkaido intriguing, particularly the encounter with the Ainu elder. The Ainu figure prominently' in the book The Sacred Paw, particularly due to their connection with the brown bears of Hokkaido.

Julie wrote: "Introduction. I suffer with him as he has to move from California back to New York. For a teenage boy, it must have been so confining to move from the fair-weather countryside back to the darker, c..."

Julie, I just recently read Travels With Charley, too. And sometime this past year I had read The Red Pony, so I got a little delight out of mention of that book, and of Lopez at summer camp with his sons, who Steinbeck mentions stopping to see on his way out to travel with Charley. It all adds to the feeling of interconnectedness.

I agree, it adds a layer of valuable humility that he recognizes his privilege in the introduction.

Jeff wrote: "I'm listening to an abridged copy of the book while I am waiting for a hard copy to arrive. This quote, from when he's in Seoul and sets out to explore the city, rings so true:

"I wanted to see th..."

I'm reminded of many years ago when we were exploring the California coast and had stopped to rest a night in Monterey. This was when I still used Facebook (which I like to call Fakebook), and I had shared photos and had someone ask, "did you go to this place, or this place (paid admission, manmade tourist attractions)? I remember wondering how I could politely say that we would never go to those kinds of places! I did my best to explain that we avoid tourist attractions, and instead prefer to experience a place like locals. I wish I'd been armed with Lopez's quote.
"I wanted to see things that can't be purchased."
I love that.

This is the book I mentioned earlier. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Hokkaido figures prominently in this book, as do the Ainu and the brown bears of Hokkaido. The rest of Japan has Asian Black Bears, but the brown bears of Hokkaido are related to our grizzly bear and feed on salmon. They are sacres]d to the Ainu.

I really enjoyed the essay about Hakkaido. What stood our for me was the role gifts played in this essay. Perhaps it was the language barriers, but the gifts seem to have deep meanings that captured the layers of humanity these people shared despite living in such different cultures. I am thinking of the gifts of homemade jelly Lopez brought, and the book about Foxes, and the two carved figures the elder gave to Lopez.

In the end it was the fish owl's primary feather --"here in the owl's long flight feather , is the illiterate voice of the heart."

Very much enjoyed the chapter on Bonaire that I just finished. I've had the privilege to visit several times (most recent 2007) to dive the reefs (and see the frogfish!). It's an extraordinary place. I was sad to see the foreign development of mega-mansions in the decade or so that I traveled there.

My favorite memory is the time a group or a dozen or more Caribbean Reef Squid surrounded my daughter and I in an orderly circle and "played" with us. She was wearing a hot pink swimming skin and the squid kept passing the hot pink color between them. They would advance and retreat a few inches as we moved inside the circle. It was surreal.

Hi Cindy Ann:
Thanks for sharing your experiences in Bonaire. That swimming experience sounds neat and unforgettable.

Has anyone been to the Galapagos Islands? Where? And do you have any reflections on the Galapagos regarding your experiences and the Lopez essay. It's C 3.

I just reread the Bonaire chapter. Really like the description of the pictographs and the graffiti.

Here is an essay by Lpez titled "The Naturalist." I ejoyed it thoroughly and it seems to reveal the essence of his way of being in the world.
https://orionmagazine.org/article/the...

I just discovered this essay from December of last year. It mus be one of his last published works. https://lithub.com/barry-lopez-on-the...

I have finished part one of the book, and so far my favorite chapter is the one about his visit to Hokkaido.

The long chapter about freight planes was interesting to see behind that subject. It also seemed a little too long.

But, it made me reflect on a farm across the Columbia River where they raise and sell all sorts of exotic animals: Bactrian camels, wallaroos, bison, and giraffe - all come to mind, and these animals are sold to various people around the world. I was at the farm several years ago, and I met Karlson a baby giraffe, and he was going on a plane like described in Lopez's essay --with the farm owner to a new home in Japan. Price? $ 40,000.00 ( and this was the price 9 years ago).

I won't say more about this practice of raising and selling exotic animals.

So far, the Hoikkado essay is my favorite. I feel like I can see it. Great essay. I haven’t been to Japan, but now that I know about remote Hoikkado, I’d consider it. Some of my colleagues haves worked in Japan. They all comment on the practice of giving many smalls gifts. Many of the Japanese gifts I’ve seen are thoughtful but boughten trinkets. The gifts in this essay are better.

I liked the Hokkaido essay and the essay on Galapagos, but "The American Geographies," is my favorite thus far. It reveals ignorance and wisdom within the same population.
The one titled "Flight" was distressing. Goods shuttled anywhere and everywhere as rapidly as possible, whether needed or not. It exemplifies the worst aspects of consumerism.

I actually like the chapter "Flight." However, I also agree with Ray that it was an example of the "worst aspect of consumerism." However, the globe travel in cargo planes was an interesting way to explore the world and what's it has become.

I also like the chapter, "Speed." He and a friend taking the backroads in a corvette as they drive way too fast. In a way in this chapter, Lopez reminds me of Edward Abbey, fighting against the machine destroying nature while driving an old pickup through the desert, guzzling beer and tossing the cans out the window. We are complicated beings that often live within the paradoxes of life.

https://www.austrian-anagama.at/en/
Late in the book is a chapter about the ancient practice of anagama wood firing ceramics. I'm not a potter but my next door neighbor is, and years ago--before I met my husband he was interested in batik stamped pottery and gatherings and firings were popular in our region. The above link shows the process and what the pottery looks like after it is fired.

Lopez's chapter is long on this topic about wood firing pottery, but he does an excellent job of capturing the unique community surrounding the wood firing event. Sort of a mystique about it all.

I am struck by how many different topics Lopez writes about.

Sher wrote: "https://www.austrian-anagama.at/en/
Late in the book is a chapter about the ancient practice of anagama wood firing ceramics. I'm not a potter but my next door neighbor is, and years ago--before I ..."

Thank you for sharing the link to the Austrian Anagama pottery page. I enjoyed the chapter on the wood-fired kiln. It reminded me of gatherings I have attended with artists, music, and poetry. They usually included food and a bonfire.

I'm not impressed with "The American Geographies." I know what he's getting at. I remember when I was fresh out of high school and I traveled the USA coast to coast. My travels were the best geography lesson I had ever had. The diversity of geography was mind-blowing. But in this essay, he's not at his finest hour. It does feel dated. I looked in the acknowledgments, and it was first published in 1989 in Orion, which explains the outdated feeling. To pinpoint why I don't like some of this essay, I think is his point of view from privilege. Very very few people on the planet will have the opportunities that Lopez had to travel for their work and travel all their life. Some people are never able to travel at all. In this essay, more than any, I feel he is looking down at people. I agree overall though that the geographies and the communities within all the geographies of the USA are vast and nearly impossible to fathom. This is an amazing land on an amazing planet.

In this comment, I'm more sympathetic to Lopez. I was looking at more of his work and history because I read him as a teenager, but haven't followed him since then. His website now has a lovely memorandum to him. Sadly, I also learned on his website that his beloved valley and the forest he has been stewarding for a long time, all burned last fall. His house is still standing, but most of his neighbors' houses are gone. He and his wife had to flee to Eugene and rent an apartment there. Although he woke positive even on his last day, according to his wife, I can't imagine how crushing this was for him in his final weeks. And how it remains so for his family, neighbors, and so many folx around the world losing so much to these extreme wildfires. So sad.

Julie wrote: "In this comment, I'm more sympathetic to Lopez. I was looking at more of his work and history because I read him as a teenager, but haven't followed him since then. His website now has a lovely mem..."

I think Lopez is incredibly respectful of indigenous people. Aside from that, he was not that privileged. "This is from his memoir, Sliver of Sky."
"To support the three of us, my mother had taken a day job teaching home economics at a junior high school in the city of San Fernando and also a job teaching dressmaking two evenings a week at Pierce Junior College in Woodland Hills, on the far western edge of the Valley."
https://harpers.org/archive/2013/01/s...

Those of privilege also have hardships. Those without privileges have exponential hardships. Lopez, eight years later when he published "Effleurage: The Story Of Fire, states it head on early in the essay, "I've met men of my own culture--middle-class, educated, white..." And he writes a wonderful essay about people, fire, clay, beavers, rivers, and all living together.

Our best friend has been a potter for decades so this essay really resonates with me. Our friend has traveled the world, often with miniature pots to give to the potters he seeks to meet in his travels.

This essay has gift-giving like the Japanese essay. Lopez listens to the beaver in their location, takes what he hopes are their discarded sticks, and returns later with pottery. It's the best pottery-firing essay that I have ever read. Thanks Sher for the link to anagama wood firing too.

Julie- I agree a wonderful essay. I plan on giving this book to Lorie my potter friend who has a kiln at the farm next to ours. I told her I would drop it off on Saturday.

I am almost finished will be back with a few more comments later.

Julie wrote: "Those of privilege also have hardships. Those without privileges have exponential hardships. Lopez, eight years later when he published "Effleurage: The Story Of Fire, states it head on early in th..."

Exponential Hardship - interesting term.
Lopez is a talented author, and each of his books is a gem, shining brightly in the literary world. His 2013 essay, "Sliver of Sky," was shocking to me and perhaps to many of his other readers. In this essay, he revealed his childhood trauma of long term severe abuse by a "friend" of the family. He is lucky to have survived. I am glad he did.

I agree that Lopez was an amazing essay writer. But I came across one that did not sit well with me. Overall his work is a treasure.

I have finished our book. The only other Lopez work I have read is _Arctic_ Arctic Dreams, and I very much like his shorter pieces, but I am sure this is because I am big fan of essays or short takes.

The final part of this book, comprising essays, was my least favorite, because it was so personal. His writing is excellent, and some lines and scenes can't be forgotten. My favorite piece is the visit to Haikkado.