Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

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Summary: DONT READ!! HORRIBLE!!!!
Review: I WAS TOLD TO READ THIS BOOK FOR SUMMER READING BY A TEACHER WHO WAS TRANSFERED TO ANOTHER SCHOOL AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHOLASTIC YEAR!!! THIS BOOK IS RIDICULOUSLY BORING! SO PEOPLE SAY IT IS "a book for brainy people" BUT MOST OF MY CLASS(WHICH IS FULL OF EXTREMELY SMART HONORS, GIFTED PEOPLE) THINKS (and so do I)IT IS TERRIBLE AND MAKES NO SENSE! IT RAMBLES ON ABOUT NATURE AND HOW SHE THINKS LIFE IS LIKE IN HER REALM OF THE WORLD!! IF SHE WOULD HAVE STAYED MORE ON TRACK AND NOT HAVE RAMBELED ON AND ON ABOUT NOTHING THEN IT WOULD AT LEAST BEEN READABLE! I AM A OD BELIEVING MAN AND HAVE STUDIED EVERY INCH OF THE BIBLE AND WHAT IT MEANS IN REALATION TO THE WORLD WE LIVE IN, BUT IF THE AUTHOR WANTED TO EXPLAIN GOD'S BEAUTY THEN SHE SHOULD HAVE STAYED MORE ON TRACK! In short, DONT READ THIS BOOK! IT IS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY!

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Summary: Experiencing the Intimacy of the Writer's Prose
Review: Annie Dillard does not "experience" nature so much as fall into it the way you might fall into a cold pond. Her walks in the outdoors refract language, light, and thought. The spiritual reflections are no more less phenomenal than her observations of a spider doing its work. The prose itself, rather than any "message," is the book and I encourage you to jump into it the way Annie jumps into her walks in the outdoors.

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Summary: Seeing and feeling; an inward pilgrimage.
Review: "Last year I had an unusual experience. I was awake, with my eyes closed, when I had a dream. It was a small dream about time. I was dead, I guess, in deep black space high up among many white stars. My own consciousness had been disclosed to me, and I was happy." Dillard, in this passage, proceeds to briefly explore the human abstraction of time and concludes "we all ought to be able to conjure up sights like these at will, so that we can keep in mind the scope of texture's motion in time. It's a pity we can't watch it on a screen." The language here is typical of the book, however the author's expression of happiness and of a state of intellectual or emotional resolution is decidedly less typical.
After about 25 pages I had decided that this Pulitzer winner was too quirky to be readable. I can enjoy reading Einstein or Kant, but Annie Dillard wears me out. The book's strengths are, in large part, Ms. Dillard's artistic manipulation of the English language and emotional manipulation of the reader. She drops an eclectic selection of factoid nuggets into the discourse, many of them interesting. To what end is sometimes not clear.
If the standard of the reader (or reviewer) is one of abstract aesthetics, Pilgrim At Tinker Creek might be seen as a rare and outstanding literary work. If, however, the standard is one of lucidity, clarity, or logical persuasiveness, well -- by these criteria the book stumbles. Thus we have both rave reviews and grumbling ones.
Some have called this volume a twentieth-century Walden. It is not. And that's okay. Walden can't be redone. The author is a gifted, studied, and troubled mind. A fine receptor of information, she analyzes the world in language that is at once strangely beautiful and morose. One reviewer says that Ms. Dillard stalks her reader, I'd say it's frequently more like an assault. More than any other author I have read, I immediately find myself wondering "what kind of a mind writes stuff like this?" I have read that when she was young, her mother would find entertainment in approaching strange men in public venues and greeting them as a past lover, inferring that Annie was their love child. If this is true, we see that perhaps Ms. Dillard's penchant for emotional invasion is a genetic proclivity.
Is "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" a great book, or is it an effusive blather, which has been overly hyped? Because the writing is emotionally inward, its value must be highly subjective, more so than most books. I suggest that it be read in small bites, allowing the reader to savor (if so inclined) and to contemplate the abstractions and storytelling.
The author seems to demand visceral reactions, [and, in case it is not apparent] my initial and my most visceral reaction was strongly negative. Dillard waking to bloody paw prints on her bare chest; gulls frozen in ice, brained and bodies cut from red legs left standing -- imagery set in words purely for emotional effect. It seemed I was being patronized and manipulated.
There are treasures here however. Dillard's considerations of fundamental aspects of time, seeing, and the divine mystery of the unknowable, are worthy of any seeker's attention. Her influences are manifold, from Old Testament patriarchs to Blaise Pascal to Farley Mowat.
I arrived at a possible answer to my question "what kind of a mind writes stuff like this?" Perhaps a mind in some ways like Augustine's (with apologies to Augustine). A searching mind. 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek' is not so much a work of philosophy, science, or theology, although these are its psychologically tortured substance, as it is a work of unique American literature.

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Summary: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek analysis.
Review: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a book written by Annie Dillard. Dillard used a conversational tone that was reader-friendly. Dillard also used rhetoric stratagies such as simalies, metaphors, telegraphic sentences, poetic conclusions, one sentence paragraphs, and illiterations.
Let's start out talking about paragraphs. Dillars used one sentence paragraphs. She also used telegraphic sentences. Dillard's naming of chapters goes from optamistic to pessamistic, and there is two sides of the book symbolic to the two routes to God using the light side and the dark side. The creator is the main focus of her book. In Dillard's book she also seemed to come full circle just like William Least Heat-Moon in his book Blue Highways.
Also in Dillard's book she explored her thoughts and questions about life and it's meaning. Dillard expressed a love for nature. She also makes many religous illusions to God that makes life seem holy and sainctified. Dillard's questions and religous illusions make the reader ask and answer their own questions about their life.
My favorite parts of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is where a giant water bug grabs a frog and sucks it's insides out. All Dillard sees is the frog crumpling up and sinking to the bottom of the creek. Dillard also describes the mating of a pair of praying mantisis. The female eats the male starting with the head while they are mating. These are the places where Dillard really seems to show her best writing skills.

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Summary: Sara Bennett
Review: I read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek as part of an English assignment for AP English 3. We had already read Walden by Henry Throeau. I had already prepared myself for another not-quite-so-interesting book. As it turned out I enjoyed Annie Dillard much more than that. My favorite part of her writing is the wonderful desctiptions and diction. She kept her writing much more fresh and entertaining than Thhroeau did. She started each section with a capturing narrative and followed with her view. She was also not afraid to show the not as pretty side of nature. I would reccomend it to anyone with a decent vocabularly and a love of nature.

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Summary: Biology At Tinker Creek
Review: Pilgrim At Tinker Creek, was assigned to me as an AP reading assignment. Something I rarely look forward to, yet when it was compared to Thoreau's WALDEN, I had high hopes. Dillard has the wonderful talent of selecting detail. Details which lend themselves well to producing visual imagery in the eye of the reader. The only problem was that often enough she gives to many details regarding the minutiae of ecological life. This abundance often makes passages of the book seem windy and unending, more like a biological text book than the philosophical tour de force most people consider it.
I did however enjoy the way she poetically ends her chapters, and how she seems to view the world with an uncanny freshness and vitality. If one feels as if the are living only in the future and that they need to slow down, this book leads people back to the present. If your looking for philosophy then turn to WALDEN, if your looking for an easily read, eye-opening, biology book, then PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK is the book for you.

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Summary: A Turnabout
Review: I recently was assigned the reading of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. After hearing it compared to Walden I had doubts about the enjoyment of reading it. After starting it though, it was a tremendous turn from Walden. Dillard adds more of a personal touch. She displays her thoughts and philosophies as did Walden but not to the point where it is all that the book is. She gives personal stories of her childhood and her strolls through nature.
Some of what she wrote reminded me of my own childhood and how I am starting to become an adult and miss parts of nature. Ever since reading this, I have become more aware of my surroundings as a child would. This book is an enlightenment and joy to read. If you have gotten out of touch with nature, reading this book would most definitely make you want to get back in touch. Sending you out exploring the nature in your own back door, looking for praying mantis eggs, and preserving the spiders in your bathroom may be the side effects of reading PATC. Even so if you are looking for an informative yet entertaining book to read, Pilgrim At Tinker Creek would be an excellent selection.

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Summary: Dillard~Expert Writer
Review: Annie Dillard is a writer of many talents. She employs each of her skillfull talents when she writes Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Not only is Dillard skilled at describing the things that she observes through nature, but she is also able to create an encompassing environment around the reader through her ideas and questions. Dillard has a problem with not being abe to understand everything that is going on around her. To tell how she deals with this predicament would be to give away an important element of her writing. However, let it be known that Dillard does not lead her readers on a wild goose chase through the mazes of Mother Nature without keeping them satisfied. I would recommend this book to any person who has ever had questions about the world around us. And better yet, I would definately recommend this book to someone who has never quetioned nature. She will do all the questioning, all you need to do is think about what she has to say.

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Summary: My Feelings on PATC
Review: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a wonderful book if you are a fan of nonfiction. Even if you are just a fan of fiction, it is still an excellent read. Dillard includes not only delightful excerpts from her natural surroundings, but also includes philosophical details about life and spirituality that make you think as well. These details could be intended just for the reader or could be added as help for the author's self discovery.
The best part of the book is near the end of the story when Dillard describes the habits and migrations of monarch butterflies. She uses beautiful imagery to portray the magnificence of these insects. Dillard also seems to be incredibly quirky. She keeps spiders around her house and refuses to kill them, goes muskrat stalking, and sits right next to a copperhead to observe its interactions with nature, especially that with a mosquito. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a good book, whether you like nature or not, because it is a refreshing change from the typical run of the mill novel.

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Summary: A Journey Worth Taking
Review: Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker creek is a delightfully enjoyable book that transforms the way one views not only nature, but himself. She brings forth the many lessons nature has to teach us regarding philosophy, society, and theology. Boldness is a quality that shone brightly throughout the book. Dillard is not afraid to ask questions that challenge the beliefs of herself and others, and comes to terms with what cannot be explained. She is a seeker of the truth.
Dillard's often humorously detailed descriptions of her encounters with nature are both entertaining and enlightening. She frequently uses telegraphic sentences, which give the book a playful tone, and she approaches nature with that attitude. Laced with scientific detail, her prose often reveals more than the reader wants to know about her subject. Dillard obviously finds every aspect of nature fascinating and draws the reader in with her boundless knowledge.
I read Pilgrim At Tinker Creek as a required reading for Advanced Placement Language and Composition for a high school course. Earlier this year, I was assigned Walden by Henry David Thoreau, which is similar to Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. After struggling through nineteen pages of Walden, I put down the book and settled for Cliff's Notes. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek managed to capture my attention for the entire book. I have found it to be, by far, the most enjoyable book I have read as a requirement for any class. I highly recommend spending some time with this book.