3.2 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desert Solitaire | 5/5 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T08:38:34.549236+00:00 | kb-cron |
A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, power lines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there. I may never in my life go to Alaska, for example, but I am grateful that it is there. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis. The wilderness is equal to freedom for Abbey, it is what separates him from others and allows him to have his connection with the planet. But he wants others to have the same freedom. His only request is that they cut their strings first. When Abbey is lounging in his chair in 110-degree heat at Arches and observes that the mountains are snow-capped and crystal clear, it shows what nature provides: one extreme is able to counter another. That a median can be found, and that pleasure and comfort can be found between the rocks and hard places: "The knowledge that refuge is available, when and if needed, makes the silent inferno of the desert more easily bearable. Mountains complement desert as desert complements city, as wilderness complements and complete civilization." Abbey makes statements that connect humanity to nature as a whole. He makes the acknowledgement that we came from the wilderness, we have lived by it, and we will return to it. This is an expression of loyalty: "But the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need if only we had the eyes to see". He continues by saying that man is rightly obsessed with Mother Nature. It is where we came from, and something we still recognize as our starting point:
Standing there, gaping at this monstrous and inhuman spectacle of rock and cloud and sky and space, I feel a ridiculous greed and possessiveness come over me. I want to know it all, possess it all, embrace the entire scene intimately, deeply, totally, as a man desires a beautiful woman. An insane wish? Perhaps not – at least there's nothing else, no one human, to dispute possession with me. Finally, Abbey suggests that man needs nature to sustain humanity: "No, wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread."
== References ==
== Bibliography == Abbey, Edward (1968). Desert Solitaire. New York: McGraw-Hill. Abbey, Edward (1979). Abbey's Road. New York: Dutton. ISBN 052505006X. Abbey, Edward (1988). Desert Solitaire. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0816510571. Pozza, David M. (2006). Bedrock and Paradox: The Literary Landscape of Edward Abbey. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 0820463302. Scheese, Don (1995). Nature Writing: The Pastoral Impulse in America. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415938899.