Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest American nature classics
Review: In my opinion, the three greatest nature classics of the last half of the twentieth century were A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC by Aldo Leopold, DESERT SOLITAIRE by Edward Abbey, and this remarkable book by Annie Dillard, PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK. The three authors make a fine study in contrast: a chain-smoking scientist, professor, and forester in Leopold; a shoot-from-the-hip anarchist, pagan, and provocateur in Abbey; and the poetical, contemplative, and religious Dillard. Leopold looks at nature and sees a self-contained ethical entity; Abbey looks at a mountain and sees merely a mountain; Dillard looks at a goldfish's fin and sees god.

I have to confess that in my own reading, I lean heavily towards dead people. It is not that I do not want to support living writers; I just am not always certain which writers are fads. The great virtue of dead authors is that they have withstood the test of time. I have made an exception over the years of Annie Dillard. She has a wonderful eye, a vivid imagination, a wonderful prose style, and can tease insight out of the most unlikely of sources. Although she has authored many wonderful books--TEACHING A STONE TO TALK, THE WRITING LIFE, LIVING BY FICTION, AN AMERICAN CHILDHOOD--this early book remains in many ways my favorite. In it Dillard looks intently at nature, and wherever she looks she finds God.

The book on one level is a modern reiteration of the existence of God, the resurrection of the cosmological argument for his existence. I admit its power. Of the traditional arguments for the existence of god, I have never felt the power of the more celebrated ontological and teleological arguments. The latter I never felt especially compelling, while the former always seems to be a mental trick, hard for a newcomer to philosophy to refute, but an argument one instinctively feels to be bogus. But I admit that I have felt the power of moral arguments for God's existence (a two edged sword, since one can easily concoct argument's for God's nonexistence based on pain and suffering, as Ivan does so memorably in the "Rebellion" chapter in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV). But even atheistic thinkers have confessed the power of the cosmological argument, though it isn't an argument so much as a sensation created in us as we contemplate nature. Atheistic David Hume confessed it difficult not to imagine a Creator when observing the heavens, and the somewhat more religious Immanuel Kant proclaimed that two things filled his heart with wonder: the moral law within and the starry heavens above (and in both places he found a necessity for a deistical god).

Dillard, as she gazes about her in the Shenandoah Valley, finds many wondrous things to contemplate. She writes beautifully about all she looks at, and if she is sometimes mildly guilty of the anthropomorphizing that Edward Abbey railed so passionately against (a mountain doesn't "feel" anything, he argued; a mountain simpley "is"), she also writes about everything she looks at with a nontrivial prose that never takes anything for granted, and which is intent on giving every entity its due. Ultimately, she writes about God.

Although the book as a whole is remarkable, the highpoint for me are two extraordinary chapters, chapters that express the cosmological sentiment better than anything else I have ever read. The first of these is "Intricacy," in which she delves into the amazing complexity and diversity of the designs of nature. Her discovery is that nature doesn't tend towards simplicity, but to its opposite. As she gazes about, she concludes "Look, in short, at practically anything--the coot's feet, the mantis's face, a banana, the human ear--and see that not only did the creator create everything, but that he is apt to create ANYTHING. He'll stop at nothing." The other chapter I want to mention is "Fecundity," which ends up as a sort of Sheer Quantity Argument for the Existence of God. We think of evolution (a theory she wishes to embellish rather than deny) as being economical, tending towards simplicity. But Dillard is astonished at the sheer fecundity of nature, that "In a single cubic inch of soil, the length of the root hairs [of the rye plant] totaled 6000 miles." She is also cognizant of the maximal implications of cosmological arguments for believing in god: they point to a creator, but not to what kind of creator. As she puts it, "We have not yet encountered any god who is as merciful as a man who flicks a beetle over on its feet." I delight in many of her conclusions as she regards nature. "Although it is true that we are moral creatures in an amoral world, the world's amorality does not make it a monster." Or, "Nature love the idea of an individual, if not the individual himself." The book is stuffed to overflowing with reflections like this.

Rating:
Summary: Like Reading a Dream
Review: When I picked up the book, I became completely immersed within another person's mind and thoughts. Through the writing, I saw new things. I was inspired and horrified. I was challenged.

I read the book in small chunks, because I needed to leave it for some thought before returning to it. This written art is very easy to read and as intriguing as good journalism, but it is dense with emotion and provocative ideas. Don't be detterred by the first chapter or two, as it takes a bit to become enraptured with it (at least, for me). Now, I consider it one of my favorite books.

Rating:
Summary: A worthy winner of the Pulitzer, 1975
Review: It took me a long time to get around to reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and I'm actually glad I waited; I feel better able to appreciate all its nuances at my present age. Annie Dillard's lovely book focuses on her experiences living at the edge of Tinker Creek in Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains. It's a lyrical ode to nature and also a meditation on our ability - or inability - to appreciate the natural world that surrounds us. For a book this thoughtful and thought-provoking, it's interesting that it's at times both very funny and very violent.
This is a good book to keep on your bedside table and read in 50-page spurts between reading other books. It lends itself to thoughtful musing and shouldn't be raced through at one long reading. Colorful anecdotes (about such things as the sexual habits of the praying mantis) are interspersed with questioning our ability to stay truly within the moment, to achieve ultimate awareness of our surroundings.
Dillard, a consummate writer's writer, can be both romantic and irreverent. She rhapsodizes at one moment, then at the next writes, 'Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly; insects, it seems, gotta do one horrible thing after another.'
You gotta love it. And if you do, you gotta go right out and buy An American Childhood, an absolutely wonderful memoir of her youth in ' get this! ' Pittsburg. It's living proof that a really good writer can make a stunning memoir out of a pretty mundane childhood.

Rating:
Summary: Not a children's book
Review: I can only hope that some of these negatively-posting high school students will return to Pilgrim at Tinker Creek when they have grown beyond their callow days. This book is a narrative that expresses a state of mind that I long to experience more often. I return to read it when I begin to see only concrete and politics. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a sparkling gem.

Rating:
Summary: Opens your eyes
Review: This unique book is a series of musings by a remarkable, intelligent woman, living alone near a creek in Virginia. Often compared to Thoreau's Walden, it focuses on the natural world of the creek and the forest. This isn't just a book for nature-lovers, though. Reading this was like walking through a desert and finding an oasis. I randomly chose this book from a list to read for my Environmental Literature class. I also had to write a ten-page paper on it--it was certainly the most fun I've ever had writing a paper, simply because Dillard gives the read so very much to think about.

Her language is quite wonderful--she has a beautiful way of describing things that make them crystal-clear. So many times I wanted to mark passages, but it was a library book so I could not--instead I copied them down as I read. Later I bought a copy of the book for myself to own.

The musings themselves are about a multitude of things, but they all seem interrelated, just as nature is. Dillard deals with seeing, with perspective, with memory--all with this amazing clarity. Her knowledge is considerable; besides being incredibly well-read, she has turned observing into an art--which allows her see things most of us would miss. And that's why reading her perspective is so valuable.

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Summary: I do wish I could write like that...
Review: I read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (along with Island by Aldous Huxley) a few months ago when I was really searching through my soul. At the time I was really confused about life, this book didn't help much, but it was still amazing. I spend time in a cemetary near my house, and numerous times, I have tried to write about it in the style that Annie Dillard does, with sensitivity, grace, and subtle humor. As of now, I am reading my second book by Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk, and it is wonderful. Read it slowly, chew it, digest it, let it soak in a while. It's great how she compares human nature to the lives of animals. I sometimes wish I could see Tinker Creek, I mean really SEE it.

Rating:
Summary: Truly enlightening
Review: This book started as an assignment, but after a while it was more for enjoyment rather than necessity. Not only is Annie Dillard's skill with writing top notch, but her sense of observation is very keen. There were some chapters, ones such as "Seeing" that even changed my outlook on life and the things that I take for granted everyday.
It was not all seriousness, either. I liked the fact that Annie Dillard actually had a sense of humor, which unfortunately, is something that most authors lack. Her writing style was educated and yet showed that she still had the basic human instincts and feelings that all people have, whether they use them or not.
Her plot was something that I think we can all relate to: the struggle and balance between all that is beautiful and all that is ugly. Some are unwilling to admit it, but we all notice the brutalities that exist within the beauties and I think Dillard described them best in this book. I recommend it to anyone who treasures wisdom, for this is a truly enlightening book.

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Summary: It's no Walden.....
Review: After reading Walden for my AP English class, I personally never wanted to look at nature again, so I was not looking forward to Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, especially since it was about nature. Ew. However, I was suprised to find it somewhat enjoyable. Compared to the 30 pages I read in Walden, I read just about all of Pilgrim, minus one and a half chapters (sorry, Mrs. Lane!). Dillard uses delicate, but edgy diction, many anecdotes, and so much imagery it was practically leaking onto my nice, dress code compliant shirt. I even came upon some humor in the book, which I always find to be a plus. But the best part of the book, I'd have to say, is that it is NOT Walden. Sure, that can be said of any book (other than Walden, I suppose), but I think that after reading Thoreau's take on nature, reading PaTC was like eating chocolate cake after eating a shoe. Or a woodchuck.

Rating:
Summary: Ponder while "patting the puppy"
Review: Annie Dillard's novel, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, was not my top choice in books to read at first. We were assigned to read it in my AP English class. She seemed like another wannabe Thoreau, but my view changed after finishing her novel. She has a distinct style unlike Thoreau in his novel Walden. She has many philosophies about life and encorporates them by comparing her philosophies to nature and instinct. Her imagery is sharp and grasping. You can see what she sees, feel what she feels, and hear what she hears. She always wraps up her ideas in a full circle referring back to her previous comments on the subject so it all fits like a puzzle. Her style and diction create a great book for nature lovers and anyone with questions about things we overlook in life, like living in the present (patting the puppy). I highly reccommend this book to anyone with time on their hands and open-minded to think and ponder the possibilities.

Rating:
Summary: A Breath of Fresh Air <But not Waldeny Fresh>
Review: For those of you in Mrs. Lane's AP English class who have survived Walden, don't panic; Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is nowhere near as terrible. It was like a new battle each night for me to go home and devote two hours every night to reading Thoreau. I actually enjoyed Annie Dillard. But that doesn't mean that every book you ever read in your entire life is going to be the best book you've ever read just because it's not Walden. Dillard had a few of those dull moments, although she never got so preachy as Thoreau. She loves to make her opening statement, throw in a lot of random stuff in between <like there's something like 317 muscles in a catapillar's head. Who'd have thought?>, and then end the chapter by coming full-circle to her original thought. Overall, it was a very pleasant reading experience, and very refreshing to find such an honest and original author. I would encourage anyone looking for completely honest insight <and we're definitely not talking "the romantic twirling of a buttercup" as it states on the back cover of the book> , to read this book.