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deagaric 's review for:
Arctic Dreams
by Barry Lopez
“Fatal shipwreck after shipwreck, bankruptcy after bankruptcy, the expeditions continued, strung out on the thinnest hopes, with the most sanguine expectations… Men of character continued to sail to their death for men of greed.”
This book is beautifully written. Lopez did such a great job with immersive imagery that reading this book truly feels like an escape. I found it thought-provoking and insightful, particularly in the sections that discuss differences in language and perspective between the western explorers and the native communities in the Arctic.
The book is definitely lengthy and, in some parts, exhaustingly detailed. The entire 500-page book is only comprised of 9 long chapters (chapters 3, 8, and 9 were my personal favorites), so it's definitely not a light beach read but certainly worth the time. Overall, I found this book surprisingly enjoyable. Lopez did an excellent job describing not only the natural landscape but how it shapes the people in it.
Never before have I highlighted and written down so many quotes in a book before, but here are some personal favorites;
“We name everything. Then we fold the charts and the catalogs, as if… we were done with a competent description. But the land is not a painting; the image cannot be completed this way.”
“A fundamental difference between our culture and Eskimo culture is that we have irrevocably separated ourselves from the world that animals occupy. We have turned all animals and elements of the natural world into objects. For Eskimos, to make this separation is analogous to cutting oneself off from light and water.”
“It is a convention of Western thought to believe all cultures are compelled to explore, that human beings seek new land because their economies drive them onward. Lost in this valid but nevertheless impersonal observation is the notion of a simpler longing, of a human desire for a less complicated life, for fresh intimacy and renewal. These, too, draw us into new landscapes.”
“We sometimes mistake a rude life for a rude mind; raw meat for barbarism; lack of conversation for lack of imagination.”
“The geographical knowledge we enjoy today cost some men dearly. It is presumptions to think they all died believing they’d given their lives for something greater.”
“The darker side of the human spirit is not refined away by civilization. It is not something we are done with.”
This book is beautifully written. Lopez did such a great job with immersive imagery that reading this book truly feels like an escape. I found it thought-provoking and insightful, particularly in the sections that discuss differences in language and perspective between the western explorers and the native communities in the Arctic.
The book is definitely lengthy and, in some parts, exhaustingly detailed. The entire 500-page book is only comprised of 9 long chapters (chapters 3, 8, and 9 were my personal favorites), so it's definitely not a light beach read but certainly worth the time. Overall, I found this book surprisingly enjoyable. Lopez did an excellent job describing not only the natural landscape but how it shapes the people in it.
Never before have I highlighted and written down so many quotes in a book before, but here are some personal favorites;
“We name everything. Then we fold the charts and the catalogs, as if… we were done with a competent description. But the land is not a painting; the image cannot be completed this way.”
“A fundamental difference between our culture and Eskimo culture is that we have irrevocably separated ourselves from the world that animals occupy. We have turned all animals and elements of the natural world into objects. For Eskimos, to make this separation is analogous to cutting oneself off from light and water.”
“It is a convention of Western thought to believe all cultures are compelled to explore, that human beings seek new land because their economies drive them onward. Lost in this valid but nevertheless impersonal observation is the notion of a simpler longing, of a human desire for a less complicated life, for fresh intimacy and renewal. These, too, draw us into new landscapes.”
“We sometimes mistake a rude life for a rude mind; raw meat for barbarism; lack of conversation for lack of imagination.”
“The geographical knowledge we enjoy today cost some men dearly. It is presumptions to think they all died believing they’d given their lives for something greater.”
“The darker side of the human spirit is not refined away by civilization. It is not something we are done with.”