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SOUL OF NOWHERE

 
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Abe





Joined: 11 Jul 2004
Posts: 436
Location: Prescott Valley

PostPosted: 9/4/2004, 4:34 am    Post subject: SOUL OF NOWHERE Reply to topic Reply with quote

Another fantastic book by Craig Childs and often; I wonder why I had never heard of this gentleman in the past. Perhaps, it is because I was focused on reading every Edward Abbey book I could put my hands on before branching out.

Nevertheless, Craig is such a down to earth, mellow writer relating his experiences of doing some serious hiking in rough country of Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. His book is such a breath of fresh air.

JW63 is right dcornelius, and I hope you have your copy. And it is a must read for everyone.

On the abe's scale of 1-5, 5 being best, I give it a 4.5.
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Hnak





Joined: 06 Jan 2003
Posts: 1766
Location: Prescott, AZ

PostPosted: 9/4/2004, 10:04 am    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book, and I do enjoy it... I recently say a video done by some friends of mine at the Canyon, where they did the 'Wormhole' route that Childs describes. I was so jealous.... But I do agree, he is an excellent writer..
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JW
I'll make rain with my spaceman powers!




Joined: 20 Sep 2003
Posts: 1296

PostPosted: 9/4/2004, 10:25 am    Post subject: Re: SOUL OF NOWHERE Reply to topic Reply with quote

Abe wrote:
Another fantastic book by Craig Childs and often; I wonder why I had never heard of this gentleman in the past. Perhaps, it is because I was focused on reading every Edward Abbey book I could put my hands on before branching out.


Craig is an occasional commentator on NPR.
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Abe





Joined: 11 Jul 2004
Posts: 436
Location: Prescott Valley

PostPosted: 9/4/2004, 5:43 pm    Post subject: Re: SOUL OF NOWHERE Reply to topic Reply with quote

JW63 wrote:
Craig is an occasional commentator on NPR.


I read that on the book cover and I listen to either KNAU or KJZZ about 90% of the time, but I just can't for the life of me remember hearing him talk.
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Hikngrl
Canyoneering is my 'Happy Place'




Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 5578
Location: Peoria, AZ

PostPosted: 9/4/2004, 6:55 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

Got my copy, started reading it today.
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BoyNhisDog
The dangerous place where the winds meet




Joined: 05 Jan 2003
Posts: 1375
Location: Tucson

PostPosted: 9/6/2004, 4:00 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

This is on my must read list.
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Shihiyea





Joined: 20 Oct 2003
Posts: 1135

PostPosted: 9/6/2004, 4:47 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

I think anything written by Craig Childs is a "must read". He's very elequent in this descriptions of the wilderness. Mary
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Hikngrl
Canyoneering is my 'Happy Place'




Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 5578
Location: Peoria, AZ

PostPosted: 9/27/2004, 5:54 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

In the book Soul of Nowhere by Craig Childs I came across a passage in the chapter called Crags. I would like to share this passage with you as my friends whom I know appreciate our world as much as I do. Childs put this into words so well.

I preface by telling you that Childs had been hunting a jackrabbit with sling shots earlier in the day and his companion, unbeknownst to Childs had been watching him. This conversation started as a conversation about Childs companion’s observations. I pick it up mid conversation to share this thought with you.

“ “I didn’t kill it.”
“No,” he sai,. thinking. “No but I like not having the meat. It makes me hungry. There’s something more powerful about following these jackrabbits than killing them. It’s like a ceremony we’re going through, learning how the rabbit fakes and dodges, and learning how to follow it across this godforsaken place. We’re being taken somewhere.”
“Down the rabbit hole,” I said…..

….“Do you think civilization has any use for this rabbit hole?” he asked, gesturing agint th some where out there, his cigarette swishing toward San Diego and back to Phoenix.
I thought about this , looking in the direction of the cities, seeing nothing but heights of stone and great, mountainous acropolis made rhyolite, perhaps two thousand feet tall. “Maybe no,” I said.
“You think we could bulldoze and dynamite this whole place and cap it with concrete?”
“I don’t think we could even get out here with a bulldozer ,” I said. “But I’m sure if we could, we’d take this whole pace apart. We’d die off, though. We’d turn into some pale, ignorant species.”
I believed even worse would happen to us if we abandoned this wilderness, and I stared out across the night desert imagining what worse could be. We would become nothing without deep and pressing country, places we can never name or possess. Our insides would weaken if we did not have such things. Our minds would become bitter and self-absorbed. I had many times tried to invent a valid argument for the preservation of wilderness and could never find it with in the bounds of my language. But I knew that without these far places we were risking ourselves as a species. We need these anchors in the land. We might someday cut ourselves loose and find that there are not longer veins feeding us blood, no longer a throat to take in air. We might find that we are wek-limbed creatures unable to stand on our own.

I drew my fingers over the ground, feeling sharp little pebbles, the same kind as I had used in trying to kill the rabbit. “If we didn’t nave a place like this, we’d die with out ever knowing we were dead,” I told him. “We’d just keep building things that make out lives better, letting us live longer, but dead the whole while.”
“Like ghosts,” he said.
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~~~Diane~~~

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Shihiyea





Joined: 20 Oct 2003
Posts: 1135

PostPosted: 9/27/2004, 5:57 pm    Post subject: Reply to topic Reply with quote

Oh, my, now I have an other book of his that I have to read....that gives me chills! Thanks for sharing! Mary
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