Desert Solitaire

By Edward Abbey

Add this book to the list of potentially dangerous works. Other books in this list are Dharma Bums and Into the Wild - clearly I'm joking about their danger, but my joke stems from some truth. In this case, Abbey's disdain for bureaucracy and exultation of the desert come together in a compelling case for forgetting what you know about what life ought to be and instead seeing what the world really is; to him it is a simple, beautiful world in which the confinement of culture is an unnecessary byproduct of civilization. Despite heeding you not to, Abbey convinces the reader (me at least) that maybe dropping everything and living a baser life isn't such a bad idea after all. 

But he does more than just describe a hard land of sand and rock. Desert Solitaire contains loads of political and philosophical commentary as well, whether blasting the National Parks Service for their infatuation with industrial tourism or inciting Hume, Sartre, or Sophocles in a moment of philosophical questioning. Every once in a while Abbey falls into the self-described trap of trying to describe the natural world with language - an impossible task to him; an activity that he must remind himself not to partake in. This sentiment is made clear at the beginning of the book: 

"Since you cannot get the desert into a book any more than a fisherman can haul up the sea with his nets, I have tried to create a world of words in which the desert figures more as medium than as material. Not imitation but evocation has been the goal. "

Wittgenstein, a philosopher who agonized over interpretation and the feasibility of using language to recreate the true world, is called upon to elaborate on Abbey's point:

"What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence. "

Meaning that it is better to not attempt to put something into words if there are no words for which to use to describe it. Abbey echoes this inability of words to do justice to nature, proposing that "something else is involved." I've sort of fell into just tossing around quotes willy-nilly but I have to put one more in because I found it funny. Another thought Abbey ponders from time to time is what existence truly is, whether anything is real, etc... One large group of thought is solipsism, which proposes that the self (or mind) is the only thing that can be known to exist, and conclusions on all external things are guesses at best. Abbey, a practical man, replies:

"To refute the solipsist or the metaphysical idealist all that you have to do is take him out and throw a rock at his head: if he ducks he’s a liar. "

One whole chapter is dedicated to a proposal for the eradication of poverty in America, with a hypothetical case study of Native American communities. Nearly all of it is politically incorrect (something I'm sure Abbey would wholeheartedly hope for), most of it is insensitive, but some of it is indeed thought-provoking and perhaps insightful. I wouldn't say he's a genius by any means, but he has some interesting ideas and is a compelling writer. In another chapter, his journey through Glen Canyon is a beautiful goodbye to a place that he describes as forever lost to people of the future, thanks to the dam built shortly after the trip. Such stories instill a passion not for conservation of nature, exactly, but of earth and stone. Abbey makes the argument that destroying the thousand foot stone walls, perfectly red-orange and etched by millions of years of work, is analogous to (using either paraphrased or my own examples, but the idea should hold) blowing up the coliseum; turning the great wall of china into a highway; using the Mayan ruins as steps to a mall. And not only is it disrespectful to history, but it denies future people the amazement found in such creations. Throughout the book, of course, Abbey lambasts the implementation and expansion of what he terms "industrial tourism" rampant in the National Park Service and the U.S. Government. Again, he doesn't just complain - another chapter is dedicated to a fairly fleshed out list of concrete actions that could be implemented to better the park service in his eyes. I agree with many of them. Centered around limiting the use of automobiles in the parks, his ideas would create a peaceful, more "natural" place to explore nature. He proposes prohibition of any tourist automobiles within the park - replace them all with free bikes, perhaps a few instances of a public transport. Train better rangers, provide guided expeditions, more (primitive, of course) campsites, and else. Additionally, he argues all his requests could be funded simply by not paying for the new roads and other unnecessary additions planned. 

Desert Solitaire doesn't blow your mind, I think, but it is a supremely sublime read and full of questions worth pondering. 

(11/23/2021)