Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire
In his memoir, Desert Solitaire: a Season in the Wilderness, Edward Abbey explores what nature is truly about. He has a high respect and understanding for the intricate workings of life outside the urban city. When commenting on the nature of the west, Timothy Egan, author of Lasso the Wind, said, “[mankind] has tried to tame it, shave it, fence it, cut it, dam it, nuke it, poison it, pave it, and subdivide it… still, this region’s hold on the American character has never seemed stronger” (Egan 6). Abbey recognizes that people, too impatient to develop everything in sight, do not realize that nature is a critical part of what makes human beings who they are. Abbey shows readers that the beauty of nature is in its randomness and uniqueness. Abbey often comments on the ridiculous ideas of the watch and schedule that humans chain to themselves. Nature is “a suspension of time, a continuous present” (Abbey 13). Every day is fresh with new possibilities without a nine-to-five attitude that humans have imposed upon themselves. To return to nature, Abbey says, “I want to be able to look at and into a juniper tree, a piece of quartz, a vulture, a spider, and see it as it is in itself, devoid of all humanity ascribed qualities… even if it means risking everything human in myself” (Abbey 7).