Desert Solitaire was a missed opportunity for a great novel about the Moab desert and the national parks of southeastern Utah. It's staged as an autobiography of several months of the author's life when he was a park ranger. From what I read, Abbey had two objectives for this book. One was to create a pulpit from which he could drone on interminably about his existential musings and personal philosophy of life. (He is, by the way, the kind of atheist who likes to bluster about how religion is full of foolish ideas, as opposed to the kind of atheist who thinks everyone is allowed their own opinion.) But the other and most important objective was to inform the reader that the national parks in Utah have been ruined by the expansion of tourism, and nothing you see there will ever be as good as when he was there. Go if you want, but it will never be as beautiful as it was in the '60s, and he was one of the last and only people who got to appreciate it
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Yes, I concluded Abbey was kind of an asshole too. His love of the wilds was real, and his concerns valid, but he was also quite an elitist. He mocks the idea of wheelchair accessibility - only able-bodied people should be able to enjoy nature. And he recommends mandatory population control, especially for poor people. He comes off as a crank who writes well but probably wouldn't be very pleasant in person.
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Desert Solitaire was a missed opportunity for a great novel about the Moab desert and the national parks of southeastern Utah. It's staged as an autobiography of several months of the author's life when he was a park ranger. From what I read, Abbey had two objectives for this book. One was to create a pulpit from which he could drone on interminably about his existential musings and personal philosophy of life. (He is, by the way, the kind of atheist who likes to bluster about how religion is full of foolish ideas, as opposed to the kind of atheist who thinks everyone is allowed their own opinion.) But the other and most important objective was to inform the reader that the national parks in Utah have been ruined by the expansion of tourism, and nothing you see there will ever be as good as when he was there. Go if you want, but it will never be as beautiful as it was in the '60s, and he was one of the last and only people who got to appreciate it ( ... )
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