Anybody here?  Shame this list ain't a bit more active.  Maybe when we get more
people.  Maybe everybody is outside, and not wasting time on the computer!  Too
bad that is not always possible.

I was introduced to Edward Abbey's works a few
years ago and have been reading them ever since. I was
browsing yahoo clubs and decided to search for my favorite
author, and what'dya know. Looking forward to talking
about the man with you folks. later

My first Abbey book was Desert Solitare, which I
actually did not like at the time. It was part of a
western american literature class, so perhaps we were a
bit rushed. Plus, I've never much cared for the
excessive descriptions found in most nature
writing--including Desert Solitare (although there were some parts I
immediately loved, such as the trip down Glen
Canyon).<br><br>Then a year later I was at the library and happened to
see Confessions of a Barbarian, the collection of
entries in Abbey's journal. I've always liked journals,
so I got it and was hooked. <br>So that is how it
happened.<br><br>On a different note, I just got "The Lonely Are the
Brave" on video from the library and am looking forward
to watching it tonight (I rented it a few years ago
and don't remember it too well). For any that don't
know, this is a film adaptation (with Kirk Douglas . .
.he called this his best work) of Abbey's early novel
The Brave Cowboy. If a small town library in Idaho
has this video, then chances are a decent video
rental place in your town will have it too.

the publishing company named it solitaire....Abbey titled it Desert Solecism.

hello -<br><br>i was first introduced to abbey
when i was 16 - about 5 years ago. i really never read
any of his tuff seriously until this last summer when
i was taking a class. we read 5 different authors
that are considered "nature writers". along with abbey
we read thoreau, leopold, dillard, and some other
guy i cant remember. i found that abbey had the most
exciting book. the prof and i decided to only read books
that followed the progression of the year. in the case
of desert solitaire it was over the course of a
season at arches national monument. I had to write a
paper about each of the books that were read - for
solitaire i wrote about abbeys continuing theme of
seperation. if you have noticed (it is pretty hard not to) he
mentions, on numerous occasions, about his shoes and bare
feet. I could send anyone the paper that wants it. Ill
stop now before i write a book. <br><br>later<br>john

I guess I've been lurking long enough. There
hasn't been a posting here for a while. I've missed
hearing from everyone,so I suppose I'll have to make some
noise. You can address me as marmot or Daniel,whichever
suits you.<br>Monkeywrench was passed down to me by my
roommate just over a year ago. I was instantly hooked. I
went on to read a collection of essays, correct me if
I'm wrong, I think it was called Down The River. I'm
currently reading Desert Solitare. So,I'm pretty new to his
work. I'd be interested to know what everybody's first
Abbey book was and how they heard about him. <br>
Marmot

I did not deify Abbey when I said soliaire and
Vox were my bibles. I meant only that like a
christian reads his bible, I read those to gain perspective
and serenity. I believed what I believed before
Abbey, and so I do after. He merely reinforces my
beliefs, and he fucking makes me laugh. He is by no means
a God, nor do I agree with him on everything. I
don't like his view on ranchers, and I don't like how
we writes about women.

I updated the links page. Thanks to Bast, the
Abbey category editor at dmoz.org (an open-source web
directory). <br><br>Know any other good links? Share
them!<br><br>I'd comment on recent posts, but I can't seem to
understand them that well. Maybe the genius on this board is
just above my head.<br><br>"Do I seem to write only of
the surfaces of things? Yet, it seems to me that only
surfaces are of ultimate importance -- the touch of a
child's hand in yours, the taste of an apple, the embrace
of a friend or lover, sunlight on rock and leaf,
music, the feel of a girl's skin on the inside of her
thigh, the bark of a tree, the plunge of clear water,
the face of wind." --E.A.

The slowest club in yahoo!!!! wahoo!!! watching
the buzzards swirl and waiting for the
rattlesnake...... i began to wonder if the life i imagined will
ever be lived .....then i think well, its your
responsibilty to live it, idiot. then i smile in the direction
of rachel/claire/sissy and i begin to hope that the
life i want can be mine and with
company/love/lust/silliness/and a musty salty odor. i return to my proverbial
bar
stool and lean over shouting at the bartender, "ONE
MORE DRINK, TEX, THEN IM OFF!!! FOR GOOD."<br>off and
on to something good and crazy and scarey and
flowing.......<br><br>plays a raunchy tune----winks at my love------looks out
over the saguaro and smiles.<br><br>pan

While I am an eternally pissed off dude, I will
pause in my rantings to agree with someone for once.
Tip o' the hat to you, pan, well said.<br><br>P.S. I
can't fit under my 'puter desk with a raging hard-on.
How do you do it?

Hmmmmmm,<br><br> Not much posted here lately?
Abbey would be proud. I think he would have found this
place annoying. He would have told us all to stop
wasting time indoors and get out and take a walk. but
since its 4 degrees and midnight i think ill muse.<br>
abbey wrote "the chinese say 'a river, like the truth
flows on and has no end'." he was always pushing and
raging the truth to us, his readers. Sure, it was his
truth, but he made it somehow ours. He saw the
destruction of the wilderness and said it was evil and should
be stopped. Not worrying about jobs, not worrying
about ranchers and their cattle (damned slow-elk)and
rightly so. wilderness can not be made or replaced once
gone. no amount of jobs and crappy plastic toys will
make up for the loss of an ecosystem----hmmmm i may be
preaching to the converted or rambling. Ill stop. <br>but i
tip my hat to miss rachel and leer at her and think
of tax days to come.<br><br>as to the rest of you
sorry sons-of-bitches, well keep pushing the truth and
carry spikes and a good hammer on your forest
walks.<br><br>pan

Good to see some of you have something to say.
<br><br>There was a reference to using Abbey as a Bible, etc. I
sometimes use that phrase, but you should not misunderstand
it. For Christians, the Bible can be a source of
inspiration. For me, writings by Abbey are inspriring. I
certainly think for myself.<br><br>I hope to get into this
converstation more in the next week or so. I have been
traveling in Mexico for the last five weeks, and I finally
made it to the USA (thank god) but am not quite home
yet.<br><br>Ken

Hmmmmmmmmmm<br><br> Sweet rachel----your
indignance so pure and penetrating. A wind of fresh air from
heights unseen. The desert strips clean the pretense of
words (ironic since it was abbey's power with said
words that makes the paradox clear) and (ironic that
words are my method of making a point that does not
need to be made if you have ever seen the vultures
soar above the Kapirowitz). Abeey was no god ----hell,
god was no god. to paraphrase his edwardness "a
mountain beautiful is proof that we do not need a god". if
crusty misogynistic hillbillies that lived on beans and
slow-elk and beer can see the truth that nature sends to
us then there is hope that our post-modern (yuk)
minds can read the signs of doom and power that she/he
sends to us. The signs that scream the pain of an earth
defiled and an earth resiliant to the worst. And i too
offer to carry your books sweet rachel and read to you
a passage that says------"what is the difference
between the lone ranger and god? There really is a lone
ranger."

Well, good god giggly damn! Let's hear a round of
applause for you Rachel! Down with "enviro-fashion," up
with martriarchy! I see Tom Robbins is also one of
your favorites. Mine too. If I weren't married, I ask
to carry your books home from school. Let's drink
while the Empire burns!

In this post-modern age(god, what a stupid idea,
post modernism,anyway) Who thinks for themselves
anymore, when you can watch CNN, pick up a Time, be-deck
your home in the stylings of Martha"it's a good thing"
Stewart, pick your favorite canditate with the gusto of a
football team( I envision shirtless Bush supporters
screaming drunken obscenties), eat the test marketed grub
suggested by endless ad agencies.....Think for yourself,
the safety of pie charts, the comfort of Gallup
polls...we have become a nation of weak minded mediocore
pissants......how does Abbey fit in here...in this world, this one,
right here that entered the next milliniuim with a
whimper of cheap electronic thrills, that has become the
iridesicent rainbow of 10W40 on the surface of Pyramid
Lake...Abbey does not belong here, with us, the people who can
lie to our selves, can't think a damn thought
anymore, and has made Abbey a name to drop. Darlins, the
proof is in the puddin', actions speak louder than
words..etc....Right now, at this late second, this second on the edge
of time, I am more angry with the ones who claim to
care, but use the movements to make themselves appear
more interesting....Enviro_fashion...it gets the more
sensitive chicks....I suppose....oh, and women too..not
just men, I am not a crazed man hater (even
though...you guys HAVE been in charge for a couple of thousand
years..and things look sort of bad from my angle...) This is
no time for blame, it is time to move....Abbey
should be a match under your ass.....and Jackalope is
right, Abbey is not a god....

If I hurt your feelings, good! Feel free to
express dissenting opinions here or in my club, because
you are invited to join for spirited debate. Go to:
<a href=http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/bumblebeebowels
target=new>http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/bumblebeebowels</a><br><br>Enjoy!

If you want to make this club interesting, quit
deifying Abbey. I, for one, won't read his work like a
Bible. That is one of the lamest takes ever posted
anywhere. If he were alive today he'd scorn such crap. Yes,
I admire him and his work. He wanted us to think
for ourselves. Stop letting a dead guy do it for you.
While a great many of my beliefs coincide with his, and
yours probably, I had them before I encountered his
work and Abbey just reinforced them. The best of Abbey
was not what he said, it was how he said it. Think
for yourselves!<br><br>Late!

Hey, just wanted to let you guys know that there
is a great site on abbey. My favorite feature is a
database of quotes that is searchable. I just added a few
quotes myself. The database has almost 600 quotes, but
there are many good ones still missing. <br><br>I have
nothing to do with the site, but it would be cool to see
more added. And if you do add some, share them with
this club too!<br><br>Here are the ones I added.
Controversial, just as we like them!<br><br>"The tragic fallacy
of "Joy of Sex" and all other such training manuals
is that what a man really desires is not 144
different positions, but 144 different women" --Confessions
of a Barbarian, June 7, 1975.<br><br>"One definite
advantage of being a conservative is that you never have to
trouble your conscience about selling out; a conservative
is a sell-out from the beginning, and ass-kisser and
power-sycophant by definition." --Confessions of a Barbarain,
November 29, 1976.

So, It doesnt appear that much happens with this
club. Lets get busy and discuss, discuss, discuss.
Edward Abbey is one of the most brilliant minds of the
century - we must pay heed. I myself just finished a
class on nature writers and writing. My professor has a
specialty in Abbey and we paid special attention to Desert
Solitaire. I hope that this thing will pick up and we can
have a few good conversations.<br>Later

I am up too late, as usual, I was working, got
stuck, and wondered into my kitchen, where I keep the
old devil box....and I started looking and then I
started thinking, ummmm, who do I love, who do I
love...yes, I love Ed...I ask all prospective mates to read
The Fool's Progress...for love lessons....and I have
the disconcerning habit of asking men, if they have
ever felt the desire to become a forest ranger...So I
bid you all, a ribald hello..ohh, and yes, I do love
the lyrical words on nature, umm umm umm I adore me
some Abbey...as I giggle with my woman/girl
laughter..and now I really should go to bed..and sleep
perchance to dream of a magical moment i had while camping
at arches...thinking of Ed, as I bought a meal of
avacadoes, planning a seduction, hating Moab, but on the
muzak, came Bobby Dylan..muzak style...and tangled up in
blue......right on...and remind me to post in the club...I tend
to forget things....hasta

Anybody have any ideas how we could make the club
more interesting? I'm not one to support growth for
the sake of growth, but maybe we need some new
members. Tell your friends who like Abbey. There must be
more of us on the net.<br><br>"This is what you shall
do: be loyal to what you love, be true to the earth,
fight your enemies with passion and laughter." --EA

Wondering if there are any fans of Abbey out
there who are not big into nature, or who are not
terribly concerned about the cause of preservation of the
wild, etc. Would this be possible, or is preservation
of the wild so important to his writings that only
preservationists (or conservationists, environmentalists, etc.)
really appreciate his writings and his life?

When confronted with the alphabetical list of
authors with clubs, E.A. was my first choice. I love this
guy. My brother, a big nature freak, introduced me to
him with THe MOnkey Wrench Gang and I immediately
devoured everything else he's ever written (okay, that's a
lie, but I read a bunch of other stuff, including some
of his great essays from towards the end of his life
that were RANTS!). He's amazing. I wish I was more
like him, in life. Hopefully I am in spirit.

Glad to see you all here. I knew some Abbey fans
would work themselves out of the woodwork sooner or
later.<br><br>I just had final tests, and then a nice backpacking
trip in the Idaho desert. I'll try to check in more
often from now on.<br><br>If you use other Abbey books
as a Bible, I'd suggest you look at Confessions of a
Barbarian, the book with excerpts from Abbey's journals. I
really do read that like a Bible. Probably my favorite.

amen to that!  Good name, by the way, I love that mountain.  I had a great climb
there, lots of fine memories...

that and vox deserto are my bibles....<br>not
just because there is a whole chapter dedicated to my
namesake......how egocentric is that? he echoes my thoughts and
musings in his books. nice to know there is/was others
out there who held the same vision, gives me hope
that some humans realize that they are no more
important than the rest of life.

I'm just getting started with Ed Abbey myself,
but I'm a long time backpacker, river-runner,
mountain-climber, desert-hiker, day-dreamer, monkey-wrencher. I'm
stuck in Chicago for the time being, missing my lovely
Durango, and looking for other cats to share the words
with. <br>Peace, gonzo.

Wow, there are only 2 of us Abbey fans in the
world!He is my favorite author. I have a blue jeep named
Hayduke which looks like the one on the cover of
'MonkeyWrench'. are you his friend,Doug?<br>Anyway,wanted to let
you know that you aren't alone in your admiration of
this great guy!<br>Too bad he couldn't have hung
around awhile longer!Linda

I realize that there is not yet much action in
this club. If you are looking for more information on
Edward abbey, I'd suggest you go to Abbey's Web. It is a
great
site.<br><br><a href=http://www.utsidan.se/abbey/
target=new>http://www.utsidan.se/abbey/</a><br><br>Meanwhile, if you're an Abbey
fan, please join and tell
others to join.

Welcome, This is the Yahoo! Message Board for The Edward Abbey Rendezvous
community.