Desert Solitaire

Desert Philosophy...Or Philosophy in the Desert?

By Mason DeMist

The desert to some may seem to be a wasteland, a majestic oven, or a beautiful paradise, but to Edward Abbey, the desert is all of these. Desert Solitaire is a collection of adventures of a park ranger throughout the west, which all tell their own stories and the relating philosophical views. Through this extremely intelligent view of Abbey’s he paints a picture of Human Nature as it truly is, and his almost hatred of society. With his amazing writing style, the book becomes a near journey in itself, putting it in the ranks of the best books I’ve ever read. Through this journey, he tries to explain the real role of nature, and its contest with modern society, using the beautiful Moab Utah area as a backdrop, by which he draws his philosophical ideas from.

Abbey takes for granted the simplicity of nature, and draws it into the most philosophical terms. For example, “Strange as it might seem, I found that eating my supper out back made a difference. Inside the trailer, surrounded by the artifacture of America, I was reminded insistently of all that I had ... left behind ... . By taking my meal outside ... with more desert and mountains than I could explore in a lifetime open to view, I was invited to contemplate a far larger world, one which extends into a past and into a future without any limits known to the human kind.”(p 121)
By eating dinner outside, Abbey takes this boundless outside and makes it into a replacement for society, the best companion to a man. With many, many passages describing the true place of nature on a human’s life, he presents the active role of nature. While presenting nature, he also shows the modern side of the world that we live in, which may be opinionated, but to this reader, is also the truth.

“My God! I am thinking, what incredible shit we put up with most of our lives – the domestic routine (same old wife every night), the stupid and useless degrading jobs, the insufferable arrogance of elected officials, the crafty cheating and the slimy advertising of the business men, the tedious wars in which we kill our buddies instead of our real enemies back in the capital...” (193)

By explaining what modern society is to him, he can stitch the views of society and nature together, and show their active roles on the world we live in.

“The knowledge that refuge is available, when and if needed, makes the silent inferno of the desert more easily bearable. Mountains complement desert as desert complements city, as wilderness complements and complete civilization” With many quotes like this that state two separate entities (society and nature), he can sum up the overall place that we Americans live in.

The real success of this book, on the other hand, is the level to which the reader is involved with creating this ultimate “world”. Every point that Abbey makes is interpretable, which may come to change the entire philosophical aspect of Desert Solitaire. The book is only a layout, a manual if you will, to express what the reader really finds in the comparison between nature and society.

Most books these days fail to capture the pure essence of what the author is really writing about, but Desert Solitaire is a major exception. Edward Abbey’s amazing writing captures his true feelings about nature and society, and presents them in a way that's understandable to the reader, letting their own feelings come through. This book is a masterpiece on every level in my opinion(minus a couple boring pages talking about water). Although not a fat book, it rewards for the time spent reading it, and capitalizes on the true human inside you; the kind that just wants to rip your clothes off, punch your boss in the face, and walk into the wilderness, with all its beauty and mystery.