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Title: Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape by Barry Holstun Lopez ISBN: 0-684-18578-4 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: February, 1986 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.39 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Celebration Of The Arctic Landscape & Man's Dreams!
Comment: "Arctic Dreams" was recommended to me by a friend before I went on an Alaskan adventure a few years ago. This book expanded my vision of nature, and turned me on to the exquisite writing of Barry Lopez, who won the 1986 National Book Award for this classic work on the wild regions of the far north. "Arctic Dreams" is an extraordinary celebration of Arctic life and landscape which takes the reader on a journey to places rarely visited by man. Lopez' narrative does have a dreamlike quality, not only in its descriptions of nature at its most surreal, but in the absolute beauty of the writing itself. He does indeed capture the foreign reality of Arctic life, and death, with the loving care of an artist who places each brushstroke carefully on a canvas, bent on bringing the vision before him to others.
Mr. Lopez made a number of extended trips to Siberia, Greenland, and northern Canada, including Baffin Island, to observe the flora and fauna of the region - polar bears, killer whales, caribou, narwhals - as well as the spectacular Arctic landscape. He experienced eerie encounters with the aurora borealis, massive migrating icebergs, solar and lunar light, halos and coronas. And he experienced both the potential for catastrophic danger and the remarkable beauty that the Arctic land and sea offers. "Spring storms can sweep hundreds of thousands of helpless infant harp seals into the sea" - juxtaposed with, "A tiny flower blooms in a field of snow touched by the sun's benevolent light." Through Mr. Lopez' eyes the breathtaking experience of the Arctic landscape and the people who inhabit it become palpably real. I was particularly moved by his intimate and compassionate descriptions of the indigenous people of this region, who so aptly illustrate how mankind is capable of living in harmony with his surroundings. Lopez' prose and his conclusions make the strongest argument possible to work for the ecological health of our planet, for the sake of life itself, and for the health of our imagination and sense of wonder at the magnificent.
As mankind grows closer to conquering the earth's last frontiers, the issue of exploitation and encroachment becomes greater. For anyone who advocates preserving the few remaining wild areas on our planet, "Arctic Dreams" is a welcome gift and a source of motivation. It also provides an extraordinary read, and, perhaps, an awakening to those who have shown little interest in earth's most mysterious places.
This is a magical book that will enchant and awe the reader. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Bravo, Barry Lopez!
JANA
Rating: 4
Summary: Beyond the Pale; Notes from the Crytal Land
Comment: Lopez' earlier slim volumes, "River Notes" and "Desert Notes" pale in coparison to this book which centers around an excursion into the Arctic, a region vastly unexplored (and, excepting Viking, Russian and Dane enterprises, unattainable beyond the sometimes invisible margins separating terra firma from the then-mythic Ultima Thule) and has only reached prominence until relatively recently in navigational history. The book reads much like a journeyman, the personal experiences mingling with sections outlining the cultural and historic (shamanistic to Cook and Peary), species and subspecie, the flora and fauna cirques, terminal moraines, and frazil of the crystal land. In many ways it also reads like a guidebook to the unknown, a sort of latter day spin-off to the wonderous adventure sagas on travel and exploration which played a critical part in books (and National Geographic) and other series' of the earlier part of the twentieth century. At still another level it presents a narrative which manages to economically convey the historic and environmental aspects which are arranged as if for magazine specials (of note are the lists of Specific Names and Places in the appendices sect.); concise, substantive and memorable. This is an enjoyable and enduring read, especially for long hot summers.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fine writing
Comment: An account of the American Arctic based on the author's own travels and a survey of the biology, ecology and history of the region. There is a tree-hugging, save-the-endangered-species,motif. (Don't get me wrong -I love trees and whales and things). He is rather solemn and philosophical with a lot of fine writing about the wonders of nature lifting us above the mundane. Sometimes he falls into the traps of fine writing, such as impressive long lists of plants, birds and animals, and misuse of words such as "mesic" and "adumbrate". It is a mine of information which I suppose is mostly accurate although I hadn't heard before that Walsingham was a duke or that Vitus Bering was a Dutchman.
I had mixed feelings aout his attiude towards the Eskimos. His account idealizes the nomadic hunting existence and it is sometimes unclear whether he is talking about present-day Inuit or drawing upon older accounts. He only once mentions alcohol as a problem and does not mention disputes with other native Americans, even when desribing Hearne's travels.
The description is largely limited to America and the bibliography has no Russian sources. He often uses Inuit words but his review of Arctic prehistory draws only on archeological evidence and is weak on linguistics and says nothing about the Chukchi language and Asian-American language links. DNA and blood groups are not mentioned.
I wouldn't make all those niggling criticisms about what got left out if the book did not set itself a high standard of comprehensiveness. It's virtually a one volume encyclopedia of the Arctic full of fascinating facts, vivid firsthand accounts, and splendid writing.
By the way, one arctic question's been bugging me since I was ten years old (the teacher didn't know the answer then and Lopez doesn't have it). What time is it at the North Pole?
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Title: A Naturalist's Guide to the Arctic by E.C.. Pielou ISBN: 0226668142 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: November, 1994 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: OF WOLVES AND MEN by Barry Lopez ISBN: 0684163225 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 September, 1979 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: About This Life : Journeys on the Threshold of Memory by Barry Lopez ISBN: 0679754474 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 27 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Crossing Open Ground by Barry Lopez ISBN: 0679721835 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 May, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Rediscovery of North America by Barry Lopez ISBN: 0679740996 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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