Alex Shoumatoff

La seconda parte del titolo originale (... Sojourns in the Greater Southwest) rende molto di piu’ l’idea di cio’ che tratta questo libro; mentre la prima parte (Legends of the American Deserts), utilizzata anche nella traduzione italiana, puo’ attrarre il lettore, ma non completa i temi trattati da Shoumatoff.

Alcuni brani:

A quel punto avevo viaggiato cosi’ tanto che nulla mi sembrava esotico. Avevo capito che nessun modello sociale e’ privo di aspetti venali. Potremmo dire che avevo incontrato l’Altro, e l’Altro ero io. (16)

Cio’ che Lawrence (D.H.) ammirava negli indiani era il fatto che la loro fosse la “religione piu’ antica”, che egli definiva come “l’autentico slancio vitale …, il desiderio … di stabilire un contatto diretto, nudo, senza un mediatore o un intermediario … con la vita elementare del cosmo, la vita della montagna, la vita della nuvola, la vita del tuono, la vita dell’aria, la vita della terra, la vita del sole”. (22)

Per molte tribu’ californiane la Via Lattea e’ formata dalla polvere scagliata in cielo durante una gara di corsa fra Coyote e Lince. (77)

“Noi nativi (Navajo) tentiamo di rimanere in armonia con l’insieme della creazione, - prosegui’. - Se violi le leggi naturali del vento, della pioggia, del fulmine, dei rettili, questo finira’ col ripercuotersi negativamente su di te. …” (118)

“Certa gente non e’ poi cosi’ felice che Colombo abbia scoperto quello che oggi chiamiamo America”, diceva John di Big Mountain. (144)

Shoumatoff distruttore di miti:
Ma per pochi elementi del mito di Alamo sono storicamente accertati. Davy Crockett, per esempio, non indosso’ mai un cappello di pelliccia di procione; inoltre, secondo studi recent, si nascose sotto un letto nel corso della battaglia e, ben lontano dal volersi battere fino alla morte, tento’ di arrendersi. (333)

Il filo spinato segno’ la fine delle forme di vita nomadi: bisonti, antilopi, indiani e guide.Fraziono’ gli spazi illimitati che avevano costituito l’essenza della frontiera. Ora la Madre Terra era divisa in particelle in costante diminuzione, che gli anglos si illudevano di possedere. (348)

… il sombrero a tesa larga per proteggere gli occhi dal sole abbagliante, il bandana per difendere il naso e la bocca dalla polvere, i chaparajos (o chaps, copricalzoni di pelle) contro i rovi, gli stivali a punta adatti a essere infilati nelle staffe, gli speroni con le stelle di cinque centimetri; la realta (o lariat) per prendere gli animali al lazo, la sella col pomo per assicurare la corda (molto diversa da quella usata dagli inglesi), la cavezza (o jaquima) senza morso metallico. (361)

La prima cosa che mi colpi’ ad Albuquerque, dove le case e gli alberi sono bassi e poco invadenti, fu il cielo, la visibilita’ non ostacolata, che ribattezzai Vasta Vista. Come molti prima di me, dopo averci fatto l’abitudine, scoprii che lo spazio aperto, la luce, i colori del cielo e della terra spoglia ed esposta alle intemperie avevano un effetto meravigliosamente tranquillizzante e terapeutico. Attivavano i recessi contemplativi del cervello: erano il dono piu’ speciale del Sudovest. (442)

Gli indiani hanno un senso della natura superiore a quello dei bianchi, … La accettano e la usano, anche se non la possono spiegare. Salgono sulle montagne e si siedono a guardare gli dei che camminano fra gli alberi. (476)

… (mer)

Alex Shoumatoff's book is a bargain. Even if I had paid the listed hardcover price for The Wasting of Borneo it would still have been a steal. Here is a wealth of information and insight about how the environment is being destroyed. There is no reason to doubt Shoumatoff's contention that few people know anything about eradication of Borneo's rain forestry. It is happening just so trees can be grown for their palm oil.

This book details facts about nature which you probably did not know. You probably never knew elephants will instinctively move to higher ground if a tsunami is headed their way. What about the fact that an elephant's trunk contains over 50-thousand different muscles? It was fascinating to learn of the acacia tree emitting a putrid odor when giraffes eat too much vegetation. The giraffe in turn moves upwind to eat from the tree that is not producing the odor.

We are so caught up in everyday conveniences that most of us pay scant notice to stories as important as what's happening in Borneo. The author, who subtitles his book Dispatches from a Vanishing World, went to that part of the world with a friend he has known since childhood to capture the story. He points out that the deforestation can ultimately be blamed on our consumption of palm oil. His hope is that a palm oil alternative is found.

Full disclosure: I received the book free. I was an early reviewer of The Wasting of Borneo, thanks to Library Thing.… (mer)

This is a striking work, chronicling one man's journey toward connecting to the natural world and his attempts to not just understand vanishing cultures and worlds, but help to document and save them. From the stories of his first connecting to animals and the forests around his childhood home, on to experiences in Borneo, Shoumatoff paints the natural world and its inhabitants with careful and elegant strokes, offering attention to details that few people might have noticed. As a whole, the book is a call to arms for cultural and biological diversity, and a lovesong to Borneo that echoes provocatively, if sadly, from its pages.

If the book has a downfall, it's that the title and the jacket suggest that the whole of the work is focused on Borneo, whereas only the last two thirds of the book is really centered there. As a reader, I found myself anxious to get to that portion of the book, having not expected the slow and more personal build-up; by the time I was really enjoying the beginning, in fact, the book was moving on to Borneo. As a result, I almost wish this had been a few separate works, or that I'd better known what I was walking into. Perhaps even that the second portion of the book had been quite a bit longer, and more lingering. Now that I've finished, this last impulse may be the strongest--moments were given such depth, and I think I might have liked more depth to the larger picture, or a more sustained idea of his journey in Borneo, instead of the narrative given here which so often felt fragmented, and outside of time or linear progression.

Still, for readers interested in vanishing cultures or in careful memoirs and narratives that focus on appreciation for the natural world, I'd certainly recommend Shoumatoff's work. It had moments where it was slow, but on the whole, it was a gorgeous glimpse into places I've never visited and given too little thought to. I look forward to reading more of Shoumatoff's work, and to looking up some of those works he mentioned in the writing of this one.… (mer)