Rick Bass

http://www.yaakvalley.org/index.html/board/document_view

This is a link to the Yaak Valley Forest Council and Round River Conservation Studies web page. Rick Bass is one of the board member for the foundation.

The Mission is to:

1) Permanently protect the last remaining roadless cores in the Yaak Valley, which total nearly 180,000 acres in the northern tier of the Kootenai National Forest through Wilderness designation and other management tools; 2) Maintain and restore the valley’s ecological integrity by conserving and improving habitat for populations of native species; 3) Encourage and support the development of local economies increasingly based on stewardship principles, value-added forest products, habitat conservation and ecological restoration; and 4) Empower local residents through education and solidarity toward the above mission. YVFC is committed to cultivating and encouraging meaningful dialog between historically polarized groups within the valley as well as the region, bringing these groups to the same table to find common ground on ecosystem-based forest management practices.

Explore the link and find out ways in which you can help conserve the last remains of the Yaak Valley in Montana.

A few of his works are

Fiction:

* The Watch: Stories. New York: Norton, 1989.

* Platte River. (stories) Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

* In the Loyal Mountains: Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

* The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness: Novellas. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

* Where the Sea Used to Be. (novel) Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

* Fiber. (short story) Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998.

* The Hermit’s Story: Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

Nonfiction:

* The Deer Pasture. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1985. Reprinted by Norton, 1996.

* Wild to the Heart. New York: Norton, 1987.

* Oil Notes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.

* Winter: Notes from Montana. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.

* The Ninemile Wolves: An Essay. Clark City Press, 1992. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.

* The Lost Grizzlies: A Search for Survivors in the Wilderness of Colorado. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

* The Book of Yaak. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

* The New Wolves: The Return of the Mexican Wolf to the American Southwest. New York: Lyons Press, 1998.

* "Postwar Paris: Chronicles of a Literary Life." Portfolio. The Paris Review 150 (Spring 1999).

* Brown Dog of the Yaak: Essays on Art and Activism. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1999.

* Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

* The Roadless Yaak: Reflections and Observations About One of Our Last Great Wilderness Areas. New York: Lyons Press, 2002

.http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/bass_rick/

Visit this website:

http://www.cetconnect.org/MediaPlayer.aspx?vid=232

to listen to Rick Bass read The Hermit's Story

Rick Bass Paper

I. Introduction:

Henry David Thoreau is one of the founding fathers of nature writing. This genre of writing was created in his effort to educate society about their toxic and destructive interactions with nature. By educating society Thoreau hoped that society would conserve their consumption, thus preserving nature. Conservation is defined in this paper as the ability to control a destructive influence; preservation is the absence of destructive human influences in nature by allowing nature to regulate itself. Walden, or Life in the Woods is Thoreau’s social critique on society through his explicit recount of his re-immersion into nature. Thoreau’s re-immersion was his active participation in challenging, and hopefully changing, society’s views and values. The intention of his act was to re-focus society’s attention back to nature, the natural world in an effort to divert their attention away from the materialistic world.

He foresaw society’s destruction if they continued to consume material goods. The values society placed upon the material goods facilitated their consumption. Walden, or Life in the Woods is Thoreau’s attempt to educate society by illustrating the importance of nature for the self and the valuable recourses it provides; which would lead to society heeding the warning that natural resources are not infinite. Society’s consumerism is poisoning the self. For the purpose of this paper self will be defined as the spiritual essence, the soul of an individual or a society. Nature and self are intertwined; they are one. In order to achieve a spiritual awakening society must acknowledge this interconnection. As Thoreau stated in “The Bean Field,” “it was no longer beans that I hoed, nor that I hoed the beans” (175). His embodiment of nature deepened his connection with the self, which allowed him to engage with the natural world. Thoreau’s recognition that nature and self are one broke down the distinction between the two so that the two worlds no longer existed. The education of their interconnection would facilitate a change in society’s mentality away from excess consumption towards conservation, thus preserving nature.

His use of non-fiction in Walden, or Life in the Woods gives creditability to his claims. Non-fiction limited Thoreau to only recount events he witnessed and felt. The limitations that are imposed validated his claims because they are true, which enables society to feel that they could re-immerse themselves into nature and encounter the same experiences. This allows society to grasp the concept that they are intertwined with nature; they are one. Society’s awareness produces an understanding that the need to control their consumption in order to preserve nature, thus implementing a new normative belief in the next generation. The intention to control society’s consumption would preserve nature and its natural resources. However, non-fiction inhibits Thoreau because he is unable to allude or predict the future since he has not witnessed it. It is this limitation, I believe, enables society to fail in heeding his warning and continue their destructive path of consumption. However, modern nature writer’s use of fiction proves to be the superior literary tool in educating society about their involvement in their demise.

Nature writer Rick Bass still addresses Thoreau’s concern of managing society’s wise use. Bass utilizes the literary medium fiction since it is a literary tool that permits him to construct an environment that is shaped by societal intentions and interventions (Rendell 1). The cultural artifact aids the next generation in determining the previous generations’ socially normative behavior (1). Bass’ use of fiction exposes the destruction of the materialistic world on nature and the self; therefore, allowing him, like Thoreau, to propose a way to expose, and manage, the concept of wise use. This exposure will induce a reaction that produces the momentum to conserve society’s consumption, in order to preserve the natural world and its resources. Therefore, altering the instilled mentality will ensure the managing of wise use.

Fictions ability to grant the linear progression of beginning, middle, and end to address past and relevant concerns is more effective in changing society’s normative belief about their interaction with nature. Fictions ability to create an alternative world Bass is able to create a realistic future that displays the damage of excess consumption. As a result of educating society on their habit to consume consumerism, the reality of Bass’ depicted future occurring would create a desire in society to change their habits, by conserving their behavior in an effort to preserve nature. Building off of Thoreau’s idea of education, Bass’ use of fiction proves to be the superior literary tool in educating society about their involvement in their own demise or destruction.

III: Background Information on Rick Bass

Rick Bass was born March 7, 1958 and raised by geologists (Bass Mississippi Writers Page). It was evident that the presence of nature would largely impact the way Bass views his interactions in the world. Graduating from Utah State University with a degree in petroleum geology he moved to Jackson, Mississippi. There he worked as a petroleum geologist for several years (Bass MWP). Yet, he is best known for his nature writing. His work is influenced by his environment, and he resides in the Yaak Valley near Troy, Montana with his wife Elizabeth Hughes. The Yaak Valley in the northwestern part of Montana that doesn’t have a single acre of protected wilderness, and its “being disassembled, piece—by—piece by the people who should be protecting it (Bass, “The Land the Wilderness Act Forgot” 215). The Yaak Valley’s forests are constantly being stripped for timber. In order to educate society on their destructive needs to build up land, that they should be protecting, led Bass to be one of the founders of the Yaak Valley Forest Council (YVFC). The YVFC’s objectives are to “Permanently protect the last remaining roadless cores in the Yaak Valley, maintain and restore the valley’s ecological integrity by conserving and improving habitat for populations of native species, encourage and support the development of local economies, and empower local residents through education and solidarity toward the above mission”( YVFC mission statement). However, in an effort to enable the access of education more readily available, Bass relies on the accessibility of his written works to produce societal awareness, knowledge, education, and a change in mentality.

Rick Bass’ nature writing is reminiscent of Henry David Thoreau’s because they’re both using literature to compose a social critique. Like Thoreau, Bass is responding to a culture that consumes commodities in excess. However, with the development of technology rate of society’s consumption is faster and on a larger scale. In order to maintain this rate, society facilitates the need to erect factories to manufacture commodities. This facilitates the similar mentality Thoreau attempted to prevent generations inheritance of the mentality society wishes the their land will permit their children the chance to earn a living off, also “a chance to express and develop a rich and varied assortment of inherent capabilities, both wild and tame that better utilizes the land better than the original plants that grew on it (Leopold 203). As a society, they are justifying their depletion of natural resources. The notion that these resources are infinite enables society to encourage consumption for the betterment of children. However, the building up of nature manufactures an artificial nature that does not express the land better way than the original wildlife.

Rick Bass also acknowledges the importance of educating society on their interconnection with nature. His connection with nature allows him to craft his fictional short stories organically. The emotion Bass is evoking is false, forced, and does “not even having the human filter but just being the thing itself: the physical essence of joy or sorrow rather than the narrator or writer filtering that emotion into creative nonfiction” (Rick Bass, “A Conversation with Rick Bass” 9). Therefore, the emotion society experience during their reading enables them to embody emotional outcome of society’s interaction in nature. Bass’ organic process of emotional evoking educates society through force; the emotion forces society to embody the damage their destructive influence has had on nature. Thus, ultimately leading a change in society’s mentality that by conserving their behavior in an effort to preserve nature. Bass views education as the source in society’s ability to conserve their behavior, because education will allow society to properly manage the preservation of nature without creating an artificial environment.

III. The Lives of Rocks short story “Pagans”

The formatting of Rick Bass’ collection of fictional short stories in The Lives of Rocks is reminsent of Thoreau’s in Walden, or Life in the Woods. The short story “Pagans” would be the equivalent to Thoreau’s “The Beanfield” essay. In these writings, Thoreau and Bass are stressing the influential importance of the self and nature has on each other. Thoreau reinforces his experience of embracing nature into the self, therefore acknowledging their interconnection, which will promote proper management. Whereas, in “Pagans” Bass reinforces the reality of society’s self contamination in an effort to illustrate proper management. The main characters Kirby, Richard, and Anna are Bass’ representation of society. Their growth in “Pagans” is witness through their individual interactions with each other and nature.

Out of the three, Anna experiences the strongest connection with the natural world. The story centers around a machine crane, and the influences it evokes out of the group and its individuals. Kirby and Richard move the machine and place it into the water. The water is foreign. As the water rusts and erodes the crane, the crane is slowly poisoning the river. A manmade machine, that facilitates further land development, affect on nature initiates its death. In order to redeem the crane Anna’s baptizes the river. It’s her effort to rid the crane and herself of their sins, thus:

‘I want to give the river a blessing,’ she said the first time she saw the river ignite. The snaky, wandering river fires, in various bright petrochemical colors, seemed more like a celebration than a harbinger of death or poison, and they thought they told themselves that through such incineration they were doing the river a favor, helping to rid it of excess toxins. They loaded their green canoe with gallons of [tap] water […] The canoe rode low in the poisoned water on their short trip out to the iron-and-chrome island […] scrubbing with steel wool and pouring the clean bright water over the crusted, rusted, mud-slimed […] oblivious to the sponges of their own pure skin taking in the river’s, and the world’s poison. When they had [the crane] sparkling, Annie read a quote from Jeremiah: ‘And I brought you into the plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; nut when ye entered, ye defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.’ On her climb up to the top, she gashed her foot on the rusted corner [..] a startlingly bright trickle of blood leaking from her pale food. (Bass 9, 10)

The blessing of the river is ability make that object sacred with blood. Therefore, it makes the river inviolable to demons, evils, mankind, and the crane. However, Anna’s blood spills on the crane blessing it, and not the river.

The act of washing the crane with water is their desire to purify the self. Their purification of the crane is their struggle to undo their destruction; it is their struggle to justify their participation in their own demise. Therefore, dissolving their guilt for poisoning the river with the crane would absolve them of their sins. The crane is leaking oil into the river destroying the life of the river and its inhabitants. This murder is expressed in the quote from the book of Jeremiah. The quote is intended to signify a new beginning; however, it reiterates society’s destruction. Jeremiah is known as the broken-hearted prophet, since his prophecies of warning were not heeded by his culture, just like Thoreau had been. Therefore, Bass chose this quote in order to reinforce the Thoreau’s warning that if society fails to heed it again then their fates will be similar to that of the river and cranes.

Fiction allows Bass to create a scene in Kirby, Richard, and Anna’s world that forces them to acknowledge the interconnection of nature and the self. Anna finds a dead egret in the grass. Its death is caused by consuming on poisonous fish in the river. The affect of the cranes presence is seen in all the trophic level

As the egret decomposed, so too was revealed the quarry within—the last meal upon which it had gorged—and they could see within the bone basket of its rib cage all the tiny fish skeletons, with their piles of scale glitter lying around like bright sand. There were bumps and tumors, misshapen bends in the fishes’ skeletons, and as they rotted […] the toxic sludge of their lives melted to leave a bright metallic residue on the island. (Bass 15)

The egret a proper Christian burial is Anna’s effort in be absolved of her sins. The crane murders the egret reinforcing the notion that “as we destroy what is natural we eat ourselves alive” (Rick Bass, “A Conversation with Rick Bass” 8). The burial location emphasizes society’s consumption of their self. The egret finishes its natural cycle of decomposition on top of the crane. Hence, society’s consuming its own destruction.

Bass has presented the “true world” in “Pagans” in Kirby, Richard, and Anna’s their “wildness” interactions, because “in wildness is the preservation of the world” (Rick Bass “A Conversation with Rick Bass” 8) (Thoreau 8). Their inability to preserve nature is due to the fact that they fail at conserving their “wildness.” Wildness is defined as unruly, lack of moral restraint, uncivilized, or lacking supervision (Oxford English Dictionary online). Their behavior lacked supervision that led to the questioning of their character, “Miss Countee and the students would get the strange feeling that the true wildness was not the catch in the mayonnaise jar but the catchers themselves” (Bass 12). They were unaware impact of their presence in the rivers; “Miss Countee took an eye dropper and drew up a shot of dead Sabine, dripped it onto a slide, slid it under a microscope, and then crooned at all the violent erratica dashing about beneath her[…] the river was dying, but still alive” (Bass 12,13).Until they can conserve their “wildness” they, society is damned to live their life alive, yet the self is dead or dying. Their wildness killed Kirby, Richard, and Anna’s self and nature leaving their friendships broken and their futures filled with questions of what is missing. Thus, the ability to conserve “wildness” in society will lead to their salvation.

“Pagans” displays the future of the path society is on. If they continue to participate in consumerism then their fate is that of the rivers. They will be physically alive but their self will be dying or dead. The reality is intended to strike fear in society in order to propel the momentum for a change in mentality. Bass’ act of writing down the ‘true world’ challenges sameness giving way to the desired ‘real world’” (Rick Bass “A Conversation with Rick Bass” 8). This moment of change, facilitated by fiction challenging sameness, enables society to witness their destruction; therefore, allowing them the education of how to manage and conserve their behavior in effort to preserve nature. Their management and conservation of their behavior would prohibit the ability for a manmade machine to alter the surrounding that enable to poisoning of fish, which kills the egrets that feed off of them.

Rick Bass is taking the ideals of the past and brings them to present to present them in a future environment. Thoreau’s use of non-fiction inhibited him in his presentation of his current environment. Walden, or Life in the Woods presents how the world must have appeared to Thoreau when society was in that consumerism trance (Bass “The Hermit’s Story” 32). Whereas, Bass’ use of fiction elevates Thoreau’s ideals through a fictional world displaying the future impact of society’s consumption. Both stress the importance the interconnection of self and nature, while advocating conserving society’s behavior in order to preserve nature. Thoreau was only able to state why and how society should conserve their behavior. Yet, Bass’ use of fiction permitted him the ability to illustrate why conserving their behavior is necessary, and reinforce it by creating a future emphasizing society’s destruction if they continue to consume material possessions. Thoreau and Bass understand that nature is a reflection of the kinds of people living in society, and the only means to facilitate a change in mentality is by changing society’s habits (Bass “The Hermit’s Story” 32). Society’s consumption of material possession is creating a world that “can support our numbers and our habits, but it will be an artificial world, a space station. Or, just possibly, we could change our habits” (McKibben 144). By educating society’s active participation in their demise creates the hope that it will create a change in their mentality to conserve their behavior in order to preserve nature. Rick Bass exudes this desire in his short stories to educate society its potential to create change, and their power to prevent their demise.

Works Cited

“Rick Bass.” The Mississippi Writers Page. July 2002. 8 May 2009.

http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/bass_rick/

The Yaak Valley Forest Council. 2005. Yaak Valley, Kootenai National Forest. Purcell

Mountains in Northwest Montana. 10 May 2009. < http://www.yaakvalley.org/>

Bass, Rick. Interview with Brian O’Grady and Rob Sumner. A Conversation with Rick Bass.

Willow Springs. October, 2003. Web Accessed, 2 May, 2009.

http://www.ewu.edu/willowsprings/interviews/bass.pdf

Bass, Rick. “The Land the Wilderness Act Forgot.” State of the Wild 2006: A Global Portrait of

Wildlife, Wildlands, and Oceans. Ed. Sharon Guynup. Washington, DC: Island Press,

2005.

Bass, Rick. “The Hermit’s Story.” The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction 50

North American Stories Since 1970. Ed. Lex Williford and Michael Martone.

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Bass, Rick. The Lives of Rocks. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2007

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925.

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac with Essays on Conservation from Round River.

New York: Ballantine Books, 1966.

McKibben, Bill. The End of Nature. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 1989.

Nichols, Ashton. Introduction. Walden, or Life in the Woods Voice for an Optimistic America.

Henry David Thoreau. Beckleysville, MD: G.W. Zouck Publishing, 2008.

Rendell, Jane, Barbara Penner, and Lain Borden. Gender Space Architecture on Interdisciplinary

Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Wildness. “Def. 3 and 4. The Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press. 7 May.

2009. <http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50285498?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=wildn

ess&first=1&max_to_show=10>

Works Referenced

Bass, Rick. Where the Sea Used to Be. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998

Nichols, Ashton. Introduction. Essays of the Young Emerson Voice for an Optimistic America.

Ralph Waldo Emerson. Beckleysville, MD: G.W. Zouck Publishing, 2008.