Gorging on Books
Oh my gosh, for the past few months I've been reading so much that I'm actually running out of books!*
I reread a bunch of Terry Pratchett "Discworld" books and then bought a bunch more. I devoured them, with the exception of anything having to do with Commander Vimes. For some reason I simply can't get into the agonizingly slow, highly introspective nature of his character's monologues. They just go onandonandon...and I get bored with the whole story. I ended up putting down Night Watch and Jingo before finishing them. I just lost interest. Rincewind, on the other hand, is a hilarious character! His scenes are like watching slapstick comedy, and I can see it all in my mind's eye.
Then last week I was reading The NY Times review of Sean Penn's newest movie Into The Wild. Made me want to read the book by Jon Krakauer, and reminded me that I'd had an interest in reading Into Thin Air at least a year ago. DH had it stashed in the basement and brought it up for me.
Oh. My. God.
That has got to be the most gripping true story I've ever read, and I used to read lots of true crime. But this was different. This guy was actually there. He suffered alongside the people who never made it out. And he was there to document the climb, so he took meticulous notes. The book was extremely well-written, a true edge-of-your-seat adventure. As I read it I could recognize when bad decisions were being made; he puts you right there. When I finished it, after only two evenings, I really felt exhausted--almost like I had been through the same ordeal as those on the mountain.
I felt that the author was surprisingly fair to everyone, even though the story is told from his perspective. He did as many interviews as people would give him in order to get his facts straight, make sure the timeline was accurate, and compare impressions of the events. Nevertheless, there was a fair amount of backlash.
Sandy Pittman pretty much got what she deserved by becoming a social pariah. Anatoli Boukreev, the Russian guide from Rob Hall's Mountain Madness team, felt he wasn't treated fairly by Krakauer, in spite of the fact Krakauer makes no bones about 'Toli's heroic effort to help his boss in the middle of the night in the middle of a hurricane-force blizzard. He wrote his own book on the events, The Climb, partly to rebuff the way he was portrayed in Into Thin Air. I want to read that one next. And then there's Beck Weathers, the man who no one expected to make it out alive. Twice he was presumed dead, and once he was left behind. He actually walked through the blizzard in a partly frozen state to get back to camp. His incredible tale is told in Left For Dead, which also chronicles his struggle with depression, reconstructive surgery and recovery. It's also very easy to become disgusted with the Tiawanese and South African teams based on their ignorance and willfulness. The Japanese climbing from the Tibet side weren't much better. But I'm still glad that the author included those incidents from the Northwestern and Western ridges which happened during the same storm. People were being idiots all over the mountain.
It's a bit disconcerting to read about conditions at some of the camps on the way to the mountain and on the mountain proper. He speaks of filth and squalor and such unhealthy conditions that many of the climbers became very ill before ever setting foot on Everest. I'm convinced that had something to do with the deaths of Scott Fischer and Doug Hansen. He also describes the thousands of oxygen tanks left behind and the trash generated at the camps. But it was rewarding to hear of efforts to clean up the mountain and incentive programs for packing out the trash climbers bring in. Unfortunately, it's pretty much left to the Sherpas to bring trash down off the mountain.
At the same time that Jon Krakauer was on Everest there was also an IMAX team filming a movie narrated by Liam Neeson. Everest is a film I'd like to see, not because it depicts the actual deaths on the mountain (which is doesn't; the film crew was nowhere near the unfortunate teams at the summit) but because it's supposed to be an outstanding film of Mt. Everest. My interest has been peaked by reading Into Thin Air, and I want to know a little more. I've heard there are scenes of all the trash, as well as the "corpse-strewn landscape" in this film. One can only hope that the mountain is cleaner now that ten years have passed. Incidentally, the IMAX team stopped filming and donated many of their supplies (previously stashed higher on the mountain by Sherpas) to the stranded climbers on the summit.
I've decided not to watch the made-for-TV movie based on the book, however. After reading a bit about it at the IMDb it just sounded too "diaster-movie-of-the-week" for me.
* I don't use our local library. Yes, it's within walking distance. Yes, it's a cute historical building. But it stinks. As in, "what's that rank mildewey smell?!" stinks. I won't go inside.
I reread a bunch of Terry Pratchett "Discworld" books and then bought a bunch more. I devoured them, with the exception of anything having to do with Commander Vimes. For some reason I simply can't get into the agonizingly slow, highly introspective nature of his character's monologues. They just go onandonandon...and I get bored with the whole story. I ended up putting down Night Watch and Jingo before finishing them. I just lost interest. Rincewind, on the other hand, is a hilarious character! His scenes are like watching slapstick comedy, and I can see it all in my mind's eye.
Then last week I was reading The NY Times review of Sean Penn's newest movie Into The Wild. Made me want to read the book by Jon Krakauer, and reminded me that I'd had an interest in reading Into Thin Air at least a year ago. DH had it stashed in the basement and brought it up for me.
Oh. My. God.
That has got to be the most gripping true story I've ever read, and I used to read lots of true crime. But this was different. This guy was actually there. He suffered alongside the people who never made it out. And he was there to document the climb, so he took meticulous notes. The book was extremely well-written, a true edge-of-your-seat adventure. As I read it I could recognize when bad decisions were being made; he puts you right there. When I finished it, after only two evenings, I really felt exhausted--almost like I had been through the same ordeal as those on the mountain.
I felt that the author was surprisingly fair to everyone, even though the story is told from his perspective. He did as many interviews as people would give him in order to get his facts straight, make sure the timeline was accurate, and compare impressions of the events. Nevertheless, there was a fair amount of backlash.
Sandy Pittman pretty much got what she deserved by becoming a social pariah. Anatoli Boukreev, the Russian guide from Rob Hall's Mountain Madness team, felt he wasn't treated fairly by Krakauer, in spite of the fact Krakauer makes no bones about 'Toli's heroic effort to help his boss in the middle of the night in the middle of a hurricane-force blizzard. He wrote his own book on the events, The Climb, partly to rebuff the way he was portrayed in Into Thin Air. I want to read that one next. And then there's Beck Weathers, the man who no one expected to make it out alive. Twice he was presumed dead, and once he was left behind. He actually walked through the blizzard in a partly frozen state to get back to camp. His incredible tale is told in Left For Dead, which also chronicles his struggle with depression, reconstructive surgery and recovery. It's also very easy to become disgusted with the Tiawanese and South African teams based on their ignorance and willfulness. The Japanese climbing from the Tibet side weren't much better. But I'm still glad that the author included those incidents from the Northwestern and Western ridges which happened during the same storm. People were being idiots all over the mountain.
It's a bit disconcerting to read about conditions at some of the camps on the way to the mountain and on the mountain proper. He speaks of filth and squalor and such unhealthy conditions that many of the climbers became very ill before ever setting foot on Everest. I'm convinced that had something to do with the deaths of Scott Fischer and Doug Hansen. He also describes the thousands of oxygen tanks left behind and the trash generated at the camps. But it was rewarding to hear of efforts to clean up the mountain and incentive programs for packing out the trash climbers bring in. Unfortunately, it's pretty much left to the Sherpas to bring trash down off the mountain.
At the same time that Jon Krakauer was on Everest there was also an IMAX team filming a movie narrated by Liam Neeson. Everest is a film I'd like to see, not because it depicts the actual deaths on the mountain (which is doesn't; the film crew was nowhere near the unfortunate teams at the summit) but because it's supposed to be an outstanding film of Mt. Everest. My interest has been peaked by reading Into Thin Air, and I want to know a little more. I've heard there are scenes of all the trash, as well as the "corpse-strewn landscape" in this film. One can only hope that the mountain is cleaner now that ten years have passed. Incidentally, the IMAX team stopped filming and donated many of their supplies (previously stashed higher on the mountain by Sherpas) to the stranded climbers on the summit.
I've decided not to watch the made-for-TV movie based on the book, however. After reading a bit about it at the IMDb it just sounded too "diaster-movie-of-the-week" for me.
* I don't use our local library. Yes, it's within walking distance. Yes, it's a cute historical building. But it stinks. As in, "what's that rank mildewey smell?!" stinks. I won't go inside.