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<br />The Practice of the Wild
<br />
<br />by Gary Snyder
<br />North Point Press, Berkeley, CA, 1990
<br />224 pages, $10.95 paper
<br />
<br />Reviewed by Jake Vail
<br />
<br />This August, riding back from visiting John
<br />and Joe Vogelsberg's farm, I read to my car-mates an
<br />essay from Gary Snyder's new book, The Practice of
<br />the Wild. I had read the book earlier, and so knew
<br />which essays delighted me most. The experience
<br />reminded me of two things: reading aloud among
<br />friends is always enriching beyond any expectation,
<br />and Gary Snyder's writings should never be read only
<br />once.
<br />Go read your Gary Snyder books again, then'
<br />get to The Practice of the Wild. Its nine chapters
<br />roam off the trail over lands good, wild, and sacred,
<br />past ancient forests and blue mountains, quietly but
<br />enthusiastically telling stories and teaching of sur-
<br />vival and sacrament.
<br />"Old men ought to be explorers," said T.S. Eliot,
<br />but Gary Snyder has been exploring since before he
<br />slept in secret camps in the woods at age nine. He
<br />grew up on a dairy farm on the edge oflogging
<br />country in northwest Washington. By eighteen he
<br />was working aboard ships out of New York; by twenty
<br />had published poetr:Y8s a student at Reed College in
<br />Oregon, and in following years worked on an archaeo-
<br />logical dig for the Park Service, as a fue lookout on
<br />Sourdough Mountain, as a logger in the northwest, on
<br />a trail crew in Yosemite, and as a wiper in the engine
<br />room of a Pacific freighter. During the same period
<br />he earned a degree in anthropology-literature, stud-
<br />ied Oriental langtlllges asa graduate student at the
<br />UniversityofCalifomia at Berkeley, wrote book
<br />reviews and more poetry, shared a cabin with Jack
<br />Kerouac, and studied Zen and Japanese language at a
<br />monastery in Japan.
<br />California governor Jerry Brown once accused
<br />Mr. Snyder of always going against the grain. "It's
<br />only a temporary turbulence I'm setting myself
<br />against," replied the poet. "I'm in line with the big
<br />flow." Believing our present experiences stand so far
<br />out of the historical mainstream that we can't act
<br />wisely from generalizations based on them, Gary
<br />Snyder snggests we instead study the old ways-
<br />human and non-human-and learn the practice of the
<br />wild. .
<br />
<br />We must try to live without causing
<br />harm, not just to fellow humans, but to all
<br />beings. We must try not to be stingy, or
<br />to exploit others... Such are the lessons of
<br />the wild.
<br />
<br />Think of the ancient forests of the Pacific
<br />northwest, where battles are raging between loggers
<br />and environmental advocates. But think like 8
<br />redwood, one which has been dead for 200 years yet
<br />still stands, 1m active member of its community
<br />providing shelter and nourishing its neighbors.
<br />Muses Mr. Snyder:
<br />
<br />How curious it would be to die and
<br />then remain standing for another century
<br />or two. To enjoy "dead verticality." If
<br />humans could do it we would hear news
<br />like "Henry Thoreau f"Inally toppled over."
<br />
<br />From his f"Irst published poetry Mr. Snyder has
<br />been trying to view our place -in the world from
<br />Raven's eyes or contrast it with the world of a Chi-
<br />nese hermit of 1,400 years ago. In his writing one
<br />always finds an intrigning blend of poet, anthropolo-
<br />gist, ecologist, and craftsman. And, as though he
<br />were an Inupiaq elder teaching tradition to a grand-
<br />daughter growing up in a schizoid world of trapping
<br />and television, he shares his thoughts with humor,
<br />humility, and spirituality.
<br />"Books are our grandparents!" he exclaims, re-
<br />flecting both his "excited and deep study of antiquity"
<br />and the decline of the old waysoffamily/tribe. The
<br />introductory essay of The Practice of the Wild, "The
<br />Etiquette of Freedom," is nature's contribution to
<br />what Mr. Snyder calls "grandmother wisdom," which
<br />he takes to include most of the Ten Commandments
<br />and the first f"Ive of the Ten Great Buddhist Precepts.
<br />
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<br />The etiquette of the wild world
<br />requires not only generosity but a good-
<br />humored toughness that cheerfully
<br />tolerates discomfort, an appreciation of
<br />everyone's fragility, and a certain mod-
<br />esty.
<br />
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<br />Etiquette is honoring the other, and under-
<br />standing that responsibility is a part of freedom. The
<br />etiquette of freedom requires that "we learn the
<br />terrain, nod to all the plants and animals and birds,
<br />ford the streams and cross the ridges, and tell a good
<br />story when we get back home."
<br />Home? But what of the "tens of millions of
<br />people in North America who were physically born
<br />here but who are not actually living here intellectu-
<br />ally, imaginatively, or morally"?..."The Place, the
<br />Region, and the Commons" points us toward home.
<br />Mr. Snyder here contributes an important addition to
<br />Garrett Hardin's theory of the tragedy of the com-
<br />mons, by redef"Ining the commons as a level of organi-
<br />zation of human society that includes the non-human.
<br />If we look back a few hundred years we see a good
<br />example of this: "The culture areas of the major
<br />
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<br />
<br />30
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