Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard (August 2018)
Teaching a Stone to Talk is a series of reflective essays about Annie Dillard’s experiences in nature. Among many excellent pieces, I reread ‘On A Hill Far Away’, ‘The Deer At Providencia’, and the first part of ‘An Expedition to the Pole’.
I sometimes struggle to identify a common thread in an essay collection but in this work I recognized the major theme as having to live within the contradiction of two extremes. This concept was like a wild animal, appearing fleetingly in some pieces while standing defiantly out in the open in others. My first note rather whimsically points out the challenge mind and body pose for each other – the mind wishes only to live forever whereas the body requires only news regarding the next meal – and I felt this thought helped Dillard establish the right tone for her subsequent musings.
Perhaps the most significant internal contradiction for any person is the balance of the younger self with the present self. At some point, the child who could hardly stand the long hours between lunch and dinner looks back and realizes that months and years have gone by in an indistinguishable blur. This is a certain kind of loss, a first death in a way, and only through an act of will can a person retain loyalty to a past self throughout the natural process of aging.
It is all in some way like seeing the stars – the wanderer must sacrifice all versions of artificial illumination before the full light from above reveals itself. Life is in many ways a series of compromises between ideals and realities and this leaves us pondering false dualities. It’s the power of the soul that guides us in the shrinking space between such extremes. The soul reconciles our desire for immortality with our self-destructive behavior and bridges the gap between our youthful dreams and our present-day limitations. It’s the soul that recognizes the true nature of existence so that we can let go and endure the darkness, knowing all the while that sometimes this is the only way to see the true light.
One up: I noted that anyone who reads ‘Total Eclipse’ would make plans to go see the next one because the way Dillard describes the phenomenon of night suddenly appearing in midday is so compelling it made me wish to see it for myself. Fortunately, the next one isn’t too far away – according to this link, the next North American one is in 2024. If I'm around, I'll probably go check it out.
One down: Dillard points out in one essay that there is no such thing as a solitary polar explorer. Modern technology (or perhaps global warming) may one day recast this insight as a failure of imagination. However, broadly applied I believe the analogy holds – a person who wishes to explore the extreme end of a balanced duality should do so with help to guard against the danger of inadvertently exploring beyond the point of no return.
Just saying: I actually forgot to write about this book when I initially read it (this is why I am posting today about a book I read a year ago). How did this happen? All will be revealed when I take you behind the fourth wall in a leftover post later this week.
Footnotes / endnote / podnote
0. After I read this...
One of my favorite podcasts, Book Fight, reviewed and discussed 'Total Eclipse' on this episode. Spoiler alert: they didn't seem as impressed as me.
