post by chuck

I actually cant read. but you should. here are some suggestions.

“If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people -- including me -- would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism. ”

I watched the documentary Gonzo this weekend. Twice in a row actually. As I watched I consumed the contents of six Indian Pale Ale beers from Anderson Valley Brewing Company. On my fifth I realized they were 7% alcohol. Feeling good it reminded me of the first time I read Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. I paused periodically while reading, thumbing the books pages to see how far I had progressed. Feeling the spine…damn, I love reading a good book. I happened to be drinking on that occasion as well and finished the book in a single sitting which is impressive for me as I am usually a painfully slow reader.

At the end of the film his last wife poses the question, “Imagine in a twisted World, in a finite World, he took his work with him?” She answers, “That would be horrible.”

Though I have to admit I did not know he was still alive (I am certain of which he would have preferred), the author of one of my all-time favorite books, The Catcher in the Rye, passed away this Wednesday at 91 years of age. The big topic of discussion now: what will happen to his unpublished writings?

Mr. Salinger, who last had a book published in 1963, was said to have wrote regularly every morning with rumors of anywhere from 2 to 15 finished manuscripts in existence. Famously reclusive, he said of his unpublished writings, “I love to write and I assure you I write regularly. But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it.” Only time will tell what, if any, of his writings will surface.

“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them – if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”

Mr. Antolini to Holden Caulfield, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
— Chris McCandless

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I have always enjoyed reading, but have picked up the pace as of late. I’m sure that has more to do with the content of my readings than anything else. I went from a true story of a logger-turned-environmentalist who disappeared into Canada’s remote wilderness (The Golden Spruce), to a true story of a young man that gave away $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all of the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself…on the road, and ultimately Into the Wild.

“No longer would he answer to Chris McCandless; he was now ALEXANDER SUPERTRAMP, master of his own destiny.”

The movie is great as well.

“According to the Coast Guard report, Hadwin had been living on mussels and clams for “many days”…Hadwin had no sleeping bag and so had been living in the open ever since abandoning his campsite ten days earlier. Despite the storm and nighttime temperatures that dipped into the thirties, he was warm, dry, and in fine health. All he had besides the clothes on his back was a plastic bag of matches and some coffee.”

I just finished reading The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant. A true story about super-human logger turned environmentalist Grant Hadwin who felled a beautiful one-of-a-kind-tree in a misguided act of eco-vandalism. Intertwined with the dual tragedy of the fall of Grant and the Golden Spruce is a history of the Pacific Northwest as well as an overview of the logging industry, from Europe’s early exploitation to current day reality.

Though in the end popular thought may have been that Grant was losing his mind, the clarity of his purpose and the heavy burden he carried was clearly evident. “How would you convince, people, that material temptations, social status, and education institutions, are used, to preserve and perpetuate, the status quo, with very little real, consideration, for the future, of life, on Earth?”

“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them – if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”

Mr. Antolini to Holden Caulfield, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’