American History
A Season in the Wilderness -- by Edward Abbey
The author, Edward Abbey, explains to the reader in the Author's Introduction, what it was like to work for three summer seasons as a "seasonal park ranger" in the Arches National Monument in Utah. He kept a journal during those seasons, which recorded his feelings and his activities: the desert where he worked, he writes, is a "vast world, an oceanic world, as deep in its way and complex and various as the sea." But his book isn't just about the stunning beauty of the land in southwest Utah, although Abbey says (1) the desert where he worked " ... is the most beautiful place on earth."
In fact, Abbey's book is a reflection of his anger at the way in which the park is managed by the Department of the Interior, and other branches of government. In a very unusual introductory statement, Abbey offers an apology (xii) for the fact that "much of the book will seem coarse, rude, bad-tempered, violently prejudiced, unconstructive -- even frankly antisocial in its point-of-view."
Summary
For a person who loves the outdoors, and is comfortable living in a trailer that shakes in the wind and enjoys working in a wild desert environment, serving as a park ranger in the Arches National Monument is a great job, according to the author. He looks at the 33,000 acres of the park upon his arrival and he wants to know it "intimately, deeply, totally, as a man desires a beautiful woman" (5). He describes his love of nature and of wild things ("I'd rather kill a man than a snake") in a kind of reverence bordering on extremism. (But "extreme" is part and parcel of this book, so readers beware!)
It is clear that Abbey truly enjoys and even cherishes mornings in the park, with the "pinyon jays" that whirl "in garrulous, gregarious flocks from one stunted tree to the next...
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