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sunn_bleach 's review for:
Mountains of the Mind: Adventures in Reaching the Summit
by Robert Macfarlane
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This nonfiction book by one of the UK's premier modern nature writers was also one of his first, and boy I wish I were writing like this when I was 27. Macfarlane does not want to tell you about mountaineering so much as why mountains are interesting; why they are iconic pieces in our brains and how they enrapture our attention. But also how that view changed, both in context of early colonialist European history and in more modern times, culminating with a 50-page account of Mallory & Irvine's failed 1924 attempt on Mt. Everest. Did they make it? It doesn't matter. What matters more is that we *want* to believe that Mallory and Irvine stood atop the world, even for a short time.
My only complaint: while Macfarlane is more aware than other members of his class about the truth of British colonialism, lots of this book is still steeped in the European mountain myth. This isn't too much of a problem for someone like me with a lot of knowledge about mountaineering's history, but a little bit more upfront recognition would have been nice. That kind of thing might be a vorpal flaw for readers who are more sensitive to colonialist histories; Macfarlane does well in knocking down some of the myths that Europeans tell themselves, but in a book about myths, that could have been more of a focus.
My only complaint: while Macfarlane is more aware than other members of his class about the truth of British colonialism, lots of this book is still steeped in the European mountain myth. This isn't too much of a problem for someone like me with a lot of knowledge about mountaineering's history, but a little bit more upfront recognition would have been nice. That kind of thing might be a vorpal flaw for readers who are more sensitive to colonialist histories; Macfarlane does well in knocking down some of the myths that Europeans tell themselves, but in a book about myths, that could have been more of a focus.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail