Back on the Fire Essays

by Snyder, Gary

• ISBN13: 9781593761370
• ISBN10: 1593761376
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-01-02
• Publisher: Counterpoint

Summary

"Following The Practice of the Wild and A Place in Space, this new collection of essays by Gary Snyder blazes with insight. In his most autobiographical writing to date, these essays employ fire as a metaphor for the crucial moment when deeply held viewpoints yield to new experiences, and our spirits and minds broaden and mature. Snyder here writes and riffs on a wide range of topics, from our sense of place and a need to review forestry practices, to the writing life and Eastern thought. Surveying the current wisdom that fires are in some cases necessary for ecosystems of the wild, he contemplates the evolution of his view on the practice, while exploring its larger repercussions on our perceptions of nature and the great landscapes of the West.These pieces include recollections of his boyhood, his involvement with the literary community of the Bay Area, his travels to Japan, as well as his thoughts on American culture today. All maintain Snyder's reputation as an intellect to be reckoned with, while often revealing him at his most emotionally vulnerable. The final impression is holistic: We perceive not a collection of essays, but a cohesive presentation of Snyder's life and work expressed in his characteristically straightforward prose."

Table of Contents

Fires, Floods, and Following the Dao	p. 3
The Ark of the Sierra	p. 9
Migration/Immigration: Wandering South and North, Erasing Borders, Coming to Live on Turtle Island	p. 17
Ecology, Literature, and the New World Disorder: Gathered on Okinawa	p. 21
Thinking Toward the Thousand-Year Forest Plan	p. 37
The Mountain Spirit's True [No] Nature	p. 43
The Path to Matsuyama	p. 51
Writers and the War Against Nature	p. 61
Entering the Fiftieth Millennium	p. 73
Lifetimes with Fire	p. 81
With Wild Surmise	p. 95
Sustainability Means Winning Hearts and Minds	p. 97
"Can Poetry Change the World?"	p. 99
Three Way Tavern	p. 103
The Will of Wild Wild Women	p. 107
Coyote Makes Things Hard	p. 111
Shell Game	p. 117
"The Way of Poisons"	p. 121
Regarding "Smokey the Bear Sutra"	p. 123
On the Problems Lurking in the Phrase "Before the Wilderness"	p. 129
Allen Ginsberg Crosses Over	p. 133
Highest and Driest	p. 137
Afterword to a New Edition of Riprap	p. 141
The Cottonwoods	p. 145
Harriet Callicotte's Stone in Kansas	p. 149
Empty Shells	p. 155
Grown in America	p. 159
Acknowledgments	p. 163
Publications Record	p. 165
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