Thursday, October 28, 2010

"Hi," said Hayduke, grinning. "I'm a hippie."



Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang: An incredibly sad old book, by the end of things. I wanted desperately to believe old Hayduke made it. Filled my heart with hope that he'd outfoxed them again. The book's free-heeled carelessness up until the butch-cassidy-style standoff was what really did me in, I loved those irreverent anarchists scrabbling at each other, trying to do the right thing, whatever that was. When they finally drop off, one by one, in the dusty canyons and against implacable, stupid greedy conservative militarism you really feel hopeless. The saddest thing about it is what an antiquated book it is, too. Abbey's grasp on the unstoppable industry machine was 35 years ahead of its time, and we're too shocked and awed by all the bullshit going on right now to get our heads around how to respond. It's a slippery world of uselessness and manipulated media out there all right, the damming of Glen Canyon seems like a petty trifle in comparison. We need a hundred Haydukes, some proper outrage.

1 comment:

W.L. Emsworth said...

If I may, I would recommend you read White Noise by Don Delillo next.

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