Thursday, December 01, 2005
Book Recommendation
Young Men and Fire, by Norman Maclean
The fire had gained on the crew at every stage of the race, until even the fastest had to fall. For a moment, only the four horsemen were higher up the hill and still alive and for only a part of that moment would they see tragedy was among them. You can see tragedy coming from a considerable distance when you are older, but when you are young tragedy does not pertain to you and certainly never catches up to you. There are pieces of premonitions of tragedy floating around, but they do not yet add up to your tragedy. There are separate stabs of fear, of pity, of self-pity, but to a degree in separate parts of the body. Then suddenly they all merge into one sense, the encompassing sense of inevitablity. It is everywhere on you as it becomes the essential whole of all that is going to be your tragedy. It becomes the cause of your mounting fear, your pity and your self-pity, telling you that, no matter what, it does no good to be proud and good and young. Then almost at the end, it makes possible the triumph that can come at the end of tragedy for the young who are select and elite -- the triumph of retaining your pride when you know you have lost for good before you have had a chance in life to make good, except for this.
The fire had gained on the crew at every stage of the race, until even the fastest had to fall. For a moment, only the four horsemen were higher up the hill and still alive and for only a part of that moment would they see tragedy was among them. You can see tragedy coming from a considerable distance when you are older, but when you are young tragedy does not pertain to you and certainly never catches up to you. There are pieces of premonitions of tragedy floating around, but they do not yet add up to your tragedy. There are separate stabs of fear, of pity, of self-pity, but to a degree in separate parts of the body. Then suddenly they all merge into one sense, the encompassing sense of inevitablity. It is everywhere on you as it becomes the essential whole of all that is going to be your tragedy. It becomes the cause of your mounting fear, your pity and your self-pity, telling you that, no matter what, it does no good to be proud and good and young. Then almost at the end, it makes possible the triumph that can come at the end of tragedy for the young who are select and elite -- the triumph of retaining your pride when you know you have lost for good before you have had a chance in life to make good, except for this.
