In Words- Quotes
I have previously looked at poems that in some way help me to describe mountains, at times the way I feel about them. The poems I looked at give a sense of how I feel but describe more the mountains themselves. They have helped me depict in my mind ways that I can portray them but have there seems to be something missing in their descriptions in rapport to the way they make me feel.
I found an article by Ben Myers on The Guardian website. Although I came here to find works he had found based around mountains, I enjoyed a paragraph he wrote himself:
"There is something about the natural landscape that inspires writing quite unlike that of any other genre. Perhaps it is because when people are removed from the equation, the writer is left with a subject matter that is less fleeting than the short lives of humans - and completely ego-free. Or perhaps it is the placing of these egos in nature that creates great literature."
At first I was taken by the idea that the mountains are "ego-free". I have been giving mountains a character and on one side it had encompassed ego, the mountain being regal, malevolent, imposing, etc. Yet Myers goes on to say that it if perhaps giving these elements in nature, like my mountain, the base that forms great literature, and perhaps art.
Some words of interest used in his text:
Solitary
Ancient
Vast
God-like
Nature's awesome violence
Friend or killer
Imprisonment
Place of solace
Myers points out that mountains in literature can be multifarious- symbolic or metaphorical. I have thought about this idea of a mountains as symbols but hadn't gone further into it. Without meaning to however I have begun to explore this through my research into words. I have in my head more of a physical symbolism of mountains, for example, Paramount Pictures uses a mountain as it's logo. This is something I may look into further a little later as it combines with language and words, especially with this example, Paramount meaning "more important than anything else".
I have been researching the suggested books etc. in Myers article but haven't found much of what I was looking for. However I found some descriptions in one of the suggested books. Seven Years in Tibet.
“The country through which we had been travelling for days has an original beauty. Wide plains were diversified by stretches of hilly country with low passes. We often had to wade through swift running ice-cold brooks. It has long since we had seen a glacier, but as we were approaching the tasam at Barka, a chain of glaciers gleaming in the sunshine came into view. The landscape was dominated by the 25,000-foot peak of Gurla Mandhata; less striking, but far more famous, was the sacred Mount Kailash, 3,000 feet lower, which stands in majestic isolation apart from the Himalayan range.”
― Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet
"I shall always remember the next day for one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had. As we marched forward we caught sight, after a while, of the gleaming golden towers of a monastery in the far distance. Above them, shining superbly in the morning sun, were tremendous walls of ice, and we gradually realised that we were looking at the giant trio Dhaulagiri, Annapurna and Manaslu.”
- Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet
Myers provided some good insight but the search continues. The quotes bellow where found on Brainy Quote.
"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books."
- John Lubbock
"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
In most of the quote I have been reading, the mountain is a symbol as seen in the quote above my Martin Luther King. It is a lot easier to find quotes such as this rather than actual descriptions. However, I am enjoying this side of thinking, looking at the mountain in symbolic terms, as something that can be climbed, a metaphor for facing adversity, conquering goals etc. You could say that this project is my own personal mountain that I have to climb.
I might look further into metaphors and symbols at another time. For the rest of this post I am going to focus on descriptions. Here are some quoted descriptions from goodreads.com:
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”
- John Muir, The Mountains of California
“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.”
- John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity”
- John Muir, Our National Parks
Muir does a very good job of summing up what I feel when I'm in the mountains in the first and second quotes. The third goes on to explain how I feel about people Vs nature. I feel like wider Western Society is so far removed from nature that people don't realise that it is even a thing and especially not that we rely on it. I'm not sure that this is exactly what this quote was saying but I think that similarly, people don't realise that "wilderness is a necessity" until they are in it. It isn't quite on the same line but it reminded me of lyrics in 'Big Yellow Taxi' by Joni Mitchell, "they paved paradise to put up a parking lot".
Because I am relating so much to these quotes, I want to briefly look into who John Muir is. I may look into him further on the side as I am becoming intrigued by this man but I found a paragraph that sums him up and also has some great phrases in it (John Muir, 2016):
“I like the mountains because they make me feel small,' Jeff says. 'They help me sort out what's important in life.” - Mark Obmascik, Halfway to Heaven: My White-knuckled--and Knuckleheaded--Quest for the Rocky Mountain High
These are some others of a similar nature:
“The greatest gift of life on the mountain is time. Time to think or not think, read or not read, scribble or not scribble -- to sleep and cook and walk in the woods, to sit and stare at the shapes of the hills. I produce nothing but words; I consumer nothing but food, a little propane, a little firewood. By being utterly useless in the calculations of the culture at large I become useful, at last, to myself.”
― Philip Connors, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009
“There is no such sense of solitude as that which we experience upon the silent and vast elevations of great mountains. Lifted high above the level of human sounds and habitations, among the wild expanses and colossal features of Nature, we are thrilled in our loneliness with a strange fear and elation – an ascent above the reach of life's expectations or companionship, and the tremblings of a wild and undefined misgivings.”
- J. Sheridan Le Fanu, The Haunted Baronet And Others: Ghost Stories 1861-70
“The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not. The mountains have no "meaning," they are meaning; the mountains are. The sun is round. I ring with life, and the mountains ring, and when I can hear it, there is a ringing that we share. I understand all this, not in my mind but in my heart, knowing how meaningless it is to try to capture what cannot be expressed, knowing that mere words will remain when I read it all again, another day.” - Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
Others:
“Although I deeply love oceans, deserts and other wild landscapes, it is only mountains that beckon me with that sort of painful magnetic pull to walk deeper and deeper into their beauty. They keep me continuously wanting to know more, feel more, see more.”
- Victoria Erickson
“For the stone from the top for geologists, the knowledge of the limits of endurance for the doctors, but above all for the spirit of adventure to keep alive the soul of man.”
- George Mallory
These quotes have provided me with a great list of words and descriptions. I will be looking more closely at the work of Robert Macfarlane in 'Mountains of The Mind' but before I get stuck into that I wanted to see what Pinterest had to offer on this. I sort of already knew what I could expect, Polaroid photographs of mountains with quotes about believing in yourself or something. I was not disappointed.
I have in another post the way I feel about these. I feel like they are very empty. I don't find them inspiring, I think that the quote on it's own might have had more impact. I'm not really a fan of inspirational quotes in general but I suppose they are harmless if you want to read them and you think "wow yeh, I am conquering myself!" then that's great but there are a few people on my social media who insist on posting things like this all the time because they are certain that this is why their life is more fulfilled or successful than others. I'm generalising a bit but I think this is one of the reasons I don't like them. They may work or be relevant to you, that doesn't mean that will be the case for everyone else.
This major dislike for "inspirational" quotes on a backdrop of "inspirational" imagery, might be grounds for some interesting work. This has been done to some extent with the help of memes.
Bibliography
Web
Bailey, John W. (2016). John Muir [database record]. Retrieved from Research Starters database
Goodreads In. (2017). Seven Years in Tibet Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1154253-sieben-jahre-in-tibet
Myers, B. (2008). The many peaks of mountains in literature. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/aug/29/themanypeaksofmountainsin
I found an article by Ben Myers on The Guardian website. Although I came here to find works he had found based around mountains, I enjoyed a paragraph he wrote himself:
"There is something about the natural landscape that inspires writing quite unlike that of any other genre. Perhaps it is because when people are removed from the equation, the writer is left with a subject matter that is less fleeting than the short lives of humans - and completely ego-free. Or perhaps it is the placing of these egos in nature that creates great literature."
At first I was taken by the idea that the mountains are "ego-free". I have been giving mountains a character and on one side it had encompassed ego, the mountain being regal, malevolent, imposing, etc. Yet Myers goes on to say that it if perhaps giving these elements in nature, like my mountain, the base that forms great literature, and perhaps art.
Some words of interest used in his text:
Solitary
Ancient
Vast
God-like
Nature's awesome violence
Friend or killer
Imprisonment
Place of solace
Myers points out that mountains in literature can be multifarious- symbolic or metaphorical. I have thought about this idea of a mountains as symbols but hadn't gone further into it. Without meaning to however I have begun to explore this through my research into words. I have in my head more of a physical symbolism of mountains, for example, Paramount Pictures uses a mountain as it's logo. This is something I may look into further a little later as it combines with language and words, especially with this example, Paramount meaning "more important than anything else".
I have been researching the suggested books etc. in Myers article but haven't found much of what I was looking for. However I found some descriptions in one of the suggested books. Seven Years in Tibet.
“The country through which we had been travelling for days has an original beauty. Wide plains were diversified by stretches of hilly country with low passes. We often had to wade through swift running ice-cold brooks. It has long since we had seen a glacier, but as we were approaching the tasam at Barka, a chain of glaciers gleaming in the sunshine came into view. The landscape was dominated by the 25,000-foot peak of Gurla Mandhata; less striking, but far more famous, was the sacred Mount Kailash, 3,000 feet lower, which stands in majestic isolation apart from the Himalayan range.”
― Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet
- Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet
Myers provided some good insight but the search continues. The quotes bellow where found on Brainy Quote.
"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books."
- John Lubbock
"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
In most of the quote I have been reading, the mountain is a symbol as seen in the quote above my Martin Luther King. It is a lot easier to find quotes such as this rather than actual descriptions. However, I am enjoying this side of thinking, looking at the mountain in symbolic terms, as something that can be climbed, a metaphor for facing adversity, conquering goals etc. You could say that this project is my own personal mountain that I have to climb.
I might look further into metaphors and symbols at another time. For the rest of this post I am going to focus on descriptions. Here are some quoted descriptions from goodreads.com:
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”
- John Muir, The Mountains of California
“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.”
- John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
Sketches exploring the above quote.
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity”
- John Muir, Our National Parks
Muir does a very good job of summing up what I feel when I'm in the mountains in the first and second quotes. The third goes on to explain how I feel about people Vs nature. I feel like wider Western Society is so far removed from nature that people don't realise that it is even a thing and especially not that we rely on it. I'm not sure that this is exactly what this quote was saying but I think that similarly, people don't realise that "wilderness is a necessity" until they are in it. It isn't quite on the same line but it reminded me of lyrics in 'Big Yellow Taxi' by Joni Mitchell, "they paved paradise to put up a parking lot".
Because I am relating so much to these quotes, I want to briefly look into who John Muir is. I may look into him further on the side as I am becoming intrigued by this man but I found a paragraph that sums him up and also has some great phrases in it (John Muir, 2016):
"For John Muir, it had been a full life. Forced to make a decision at an early age between machines and inventions on one hand and nature and conservation on the other, he chose the path of mountains, flowers, and preservation. In nature, he found his cathedral, and there he preached the gospel of conservation, preservation, and ecology. He walked the wilderness paths with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Roosevelt; in the end, he convinced many of his contemporaries of the rightness of his ideas.
Muir lived at a time when the United States was becoming a great industrial leader in the world. Nevertheless, he was able to point to the wisdom of preserving many natural wonders of the American West. Although an earlier generation had plundered the East, his efforts and those of others helped to save significant portions of the West, to create large national parks and forest preserves, and to protect the ecological systems so necessary for the survival of nature."
Going back to what I was saying about Muir's quote about wilderness being a necessity, I have found a quote on Good Reads that explains it brilliantly:
“Mountains seem to answer an increasing imaginative need in the West. More and more people are discovering a desire for them, and a powerful solace in them. At bottom, mountains, like all wildernesses, challenge our complacent conviction - so easy to lapse into - that the world has been made for humans by humans. Most of us exist for most of the time in worlds which are humanly arranged, themed and controlled. One forgets that there are environments which do not respond to the flick of a switch or the twist of a dial, and which have their own rhythms and orders of existence. Mountains correct this amnesia. By speaking of greater forces than we can possibly invoke, and by confronting us with greater spans of time than we can possibly envisage, mountains refute our excessive trust in the man-made. They pose profound questions about our durability and the importance of our schemes. They induce, I suppose, a modesty in us.”
This makes me wonder if most people would survive without man-made commodities. I suppose this is nothing new but something that isn't generally thought about in day to day life. I like the second to last line of this "They pose profound questions about our durability and the importance of our schemes." Humanity, when you take it away from the world made for humans by humans, is really very fragile, especially in comparison to a mountain. When it think about it, it is very grounding. Why do I worry so much about everything? Why do I put so much importance into everything? I had this same sort of feeling when I did some research into space with particular focus on astrophysics. It gives me a sense of scale. There are bigger things out there and in the end what I do isn't as important as what I have built up in my head. This is pretty much spelled out in this next quote by Mark Obmascik:“I like the mountains because they make me feel small,' Jeff says. 'They help me sort out what's important in life.” - Mark Obmascik, Halfway to Heaven: My White-knuckled--and Knuckleheaded--Quest for the Rocky Mountain High
These are some others of a similar nature:
“The greatest gift of life on the mountain is time. Time to think or not think, read or not read, scribble or not scribble -- to sleep and cook and walk in the woods, to sit and stare at the shapes of the hills. I produce nothing but words; I consumer nothing but food, a little propane, a little firewood. By being utterly useless in the calculations of the culture at large I become useful, at last, to myself.”
― Philip Connors, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009
“There is no such sense of solitude as that which we experience upon the silent and vast elevations of great mountains. Lifted high above the level of human sounds and habitations, among the wild expanses and colossal features of Nature, we are thrilled in our loneliness with a strange fear and elation – an ascent above the reach of life's expectations or companionship, and the tremblings of a wild and undefined misgivings.”
- J. Sheridan Le Fanu, The Haunted Baronet And Others: Ghost Stories 1861-70
“The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not. The mountains have no "meaning," they are meaning; the mountains are. The sun is round. I ring with life, and the mountains ring, and when I can hear it, there is a ringing that we share. I understand all this, not in my mind but in my heart, knowing how meaningless it is to try to capture what cannot be expressed, knowing that mere words will remain when I read it all again, another day.” - Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
Others:
“Although I deeply love oceans, deserts and other wild landscapes, it is only mountains that beckon me with that sort of painful magnetic pull to walk deeper and deeper into their beauty. They keep me continuously wanting to know more, feel more, see more.”
- Victoria Erickson
“For the stone from the top for geologists, the knowledge of the limits of endurance for the doctors, but above all for the spirit of adventure to keep alive the soul of man.”
- George Mallory
These quotes have provided me with a great list of words and descriptions. I will be looking more closely at the work of Robert Macfarlane in 'Mountains of The Mind' but before I get stuck into that I wanted to see what Pinterest had to offer on this. I sort of already knew what I could expect, Polaroid photographs of mountains with quotes about believing in yourself or something. I was not disappointed.
This major dislike for "inspirational" quotes on a backdrop of "inspirational" imagery, might be grounds for some interesting work. This has been done to some extent with the help of memes.
However, there where some results on Pinterest that turned out to be well worded quotes. I found one by Victoria Erickson that I have already referenced above. However it isn't quite the same, perhaps mistakenly typed up wrong (first image).
This crosses over into the illustration realm. I like the play on words couples with the simplicity of the image. although the lettering in "your" works well as creating space within the image, it reminds me too much of the type used in the type of inspirational quote images.
This doesn't bother me as much as other inspirational quotes. I think this is because of the tree/WiFi symbol at the top. I enjoy the combination of these two extremes into one symbol.
Bibliography
Web
Bailey, John W. (2016). John Muir [database record]. Retrieved from Research Starters database
Goodreads In. (2017). Seven Years in Tibet Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1154253-sieben-jahre-in-tibet
Myers, B. (2008). The many peaks of mountains in literature. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/aug/29/themanypeaksofmountainsin
Comments
Post a Comment