Desert Solitaire Project

Desert Solitaire Project Assignment:

EDWARD ABBEY FILM IN CANYONLANDS (link)

Read (at least) the following chapters in Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire:

-Author's Introduction

-The First Morning

-Solitaire

-The Serpents of Paradise

-Cliffrose and Bayonets

-Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National PArks

-The National Parks

-Water

-Rocks

-The Heat of Noon: Rock and Tree and Cloud

-Down the River

-The Deadman at Grandview Point

-Episodes and Visions

-Terra Incognita: Into the Maze

-Bedrock and Paradox

Student Assignment:

1 Take notes in the margins of each chapter; you will need to access passages from the chapters.

2 Keep a journal for the backpack and the solo. Record your thoughts and observations each day.

3 Take pictures on your backpack and your solo.

4 On a poster or foldout , paste at least three photos, three journal excerpts (type them), three passages from Desert Solitaire, and three analyses of these passages.

-Your Analyses must include three defines concepts from the following list:

1 Self Reliance 48-9: natural self emerges when humans are reduced to their most empirical selves and come to thoughts on their own from direct observation of nature

2 Organic Transcendence 6, 21, 125-7: humans become more akin to nature than the human through prolonged time in nature; recognize the human as a member of the ecosystem

3 Ascetic Aestheticism: luxury ruins us (56): reduce reliance on material items, watch, phone, even food, to appreciate beauty in nature more

4 Machine in the Garden: industrial tourism (48-9): any mechanized travel ruins the chance of humans to see nature on its own terms, as it is.

5 Inviolable Order in Nature 10: there is an unalterable organization in the natural world and it cannot be altered by man's influence ultimately.

6 Ecological Interconnectivity 10, 125-7: all flora and fauna are interdepedent within the ecosystem

7 Ecocentrism 125-7, 216: a perspective of the natural world that sees any object in nature as a integral member of the ecoystem

8 Limits of human comprehension of nature 240-2: the natural world is beyond human perception and comprehension and this leads to a humility in one's approach to nature

9 Deep time: increased awareness of time in nature 267: a human's perception of time expands when one contemplates how long geological processes have been forming the landscape observed

ALL JUNIORS: DUE THE WEEK AFTER THE CANYON LANDS TRIP.

EDWARD ABBEY'S DESERT SOLITAIRE

Reading Guide:

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION:

-What does Abbey tell us about striving for accuracy and truth in his natural descriptions of the desert?

-What does Abbey say about his focus on the physical reality of surfaces and avoiding philosophy on the "underlying realities"?

THE FIRST MORNING:

6=reverence for geology, not God

7= What is the paradox and bedrock wish?

SOLITAIRE:

11=intricacy and purpose in nature's design

13=silence and continuous present

15=machine of the flashlight

16=nature enters after the machine

THE SERPENTS OF PARADISE:

19=resists dove personification

24-25=resists anthropomorphisma dnembraces continuity

WATER:

157=frog songs, joy and "nothing is lost"

159-160=economy, Colorado Water Storage and loss

THE HEAT OF NOON: ROCK AND TREE AND CLOUD

162=need for wilderness is need for hope and refuge

163=need wilderness for guerrilla warfare against tyranny

165=nowilderness / no freedom

166=nature as the only reality

169-170=nature increases sensory awareness