According to Edward Abbey's Introduction to
Desert Solitaire, the stories, which is a term loosely used in this
work, are drawn from the journals he kept during his months as a park ranger in Utah. He
specifies that he believes that "simple fact" provides truth and "a kind of poetry," so
Abbey's descriptions aren't literary descriptions built from
literary style to create a point, theme, metaphor, mood etc., they
are descriptions of "simple fact" that have literary merit and
qualities. As a consequence, when Abbey writes "lavender clouds," he means clouds that
are lavender--in fact.
This is not to say that Abbey's
creative mind hadn't seen below the surface and found metaphor and meaning and theme
within the experience of "simple fact" that he is telling, but it is to say that he
intends for his words--his descriptions, his experiences, his characterizations of
people then around him--to be taken as fact and truth and, moreover, as the poetry of
fact and truth.
On the topic of author intention, many
theories of literary criticism ignore, or even reject, author intention, but Abbey made
his intention in writing Desert Solitaire quite clear in his
Introduction. He says: "Do not jump into your automobile next June and rush out ... to
see some of that which I have attempted to evoke ...[M]ost of what I write about in this
book is already gone or going under fast, This is not a travel guide but an elegy. A
memorial. You're holding a tombstone in your hands. A bloody rock." Abbey makes it clear
that his large point, theme, objective is to eulogize that which was--that which
preceded tourism-attracting improvements--so that it may be remembered in its untrampled
state. The significance of the above discussion is that while examining Desert
Solitaire for the display of standard stylistic devices, structures and
forms, it is important to realize they are constructed of "simple fact" for the purpose
of creating a memorial of what--in fact--once was.
Having
said this, a brief analysis of the opening story "The First Morning," which tells the
"story"--or the facts--of Abbey's arrival at his ranger station twenty miles from
anywhere, anyone, and anything civilized, introduces the theme of home, an idea or
vision that Abbey says every human carries within their heart. Structurally, Abbey
builds from this thematic opening to describe his new home in contrasting terms of
frozen boots, improbably inadequate heating, and mice scurrying or watching from safe
places, versus "Lavender clouds" that "sail like a fleet of ships across the pale green
dawn," "the peaks of the Sierra La Sal, ... all covered with snow and rosy in the
morning sunlight," and "fogbanks ... scudding away like ghosts, fading into nothing
before the wind and sunshine." Thus, as support for his theme, he introduces early on
the idea of the poetry of "simple facts."
As to style,
Abbey's descriptions are replete with simile: "clouds sail like a fleet of ships." Some
phrases may sound like metaphor at first until one recalls that Abbey is writing a
memorial of fact, so when fogbanks "fade into nothing before the wind and sunlight,"
they literally dissipate under the joint physical influence of wind and sunlight. Which
leads to his stylistic use of imagery, illustrated by trading "dissipate" for "fade."
Part of the "poetry" of "simple fact" is embedded in strong sensory language, which also
contributes to an atmosphere of splendor and the authorial tone of awe-struck
pleasure.
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