Pilgrim At Tinker Creek - Annie Dillard

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Category: non-fiction Acquired: Gift from Betsy & Todd, Christmas 2007 Read: Feb 2008 Briefly: Articulate meditation on the author's natural surroundings, which consist of the stream, forests and fields around her home. These are not remarkable in themselves, probably not much different from those where you live. What's remarkable is in the author's ability to help you see the beauty, depth and complexity in a single swampy creek bank, and then engage you in ponderings on the deeper questions - why does nature work this way? What did the creator have in mind? What does it all mean?

Comments: First of all, I don't want to hear about how you polished this book off in a couple of evenings, and resonated with the author on every point. I'm just not sure I'd believe you. There's so much here, and so much to think about between the lines that it simply can't be absorbed very quickly. It's one of those books where you get to the end of the page and realize your eyes have been reading the words, but your brain gave up five minutes ago and has been thinking about how the Mariners could really use a good left-handed relief pitcher this year.

I figure I picked up about 25% of the what the author was trying to say. So sue me, and take away my Mensa membership. But of that 25%, there were some truly memorable moments:

-- Dillard (no stranger to biology and other physical sciences), musing about how a "normal" design approach would have been to make organisms complex on the outside, where the complexity can be seen, appreciated and do some good - and then slack off in detail as you get to the inner layers. In reality, she observes that nature's designs exhibit more and more complexity as you look at them more deeply, with each layer peeled back to reveal astounding complexity at the next - right on down to the cellular layer and ultimately the atomic layer. I think the phrase she uses is the "utter extravagance" of detail in the creator's work. (I appreciated her tendency to give credit where credit is due - I perceived that she long ago passed the crossroads where she had to choose between a created nature whose meaning can be sought and known, versus an accidental nature with essentially no meaning at all).

-- Dillard points out the inherent brutality and deadliness of the animal and plant kingdoms. She notes that most organisms produce many times more offspring than needed for survival, because nature's way is for a huge proportion of them to not survive (e.g. become food for someone else, or simply succumb to a hostile, uncaring environment). She struggles with the waste, and notes the remarkable contrast between her own human viewpoint, which tends to value the individual more than the group, versus the creator's apparent viewpoint, which is to value the group more than the individual. Who is right, and who is out of step?

For what it's worth, Dillard has also written some fiction, including a historical novel set in the Pacific NW. I'm going to quit writing here and go add it to my Amazon wish list.