05 October 2010

Two-track tales.

Of all the characters Harrison has created, Brown Dog is the one I would most like to hang around with. I would like to experience more of what the author describes in this guy ... the smells of a midnight campfire breakfast and the "flowers" on a woman's breath after toasting the north woods scenery with schnapps; the sudden, forceful weight of thunder crashing 100 feet directly overhead; the immense quiet that only a person with such reverence for stillness can experience.

As far as the whole "rural hero" thing goes, I'm not sure that he wouldn't tell this guy to go ...

He moves like a slow, obnoxious shadow: Off the grid and off the radar, but somehow managing to leave a mark. The institutional pressures he despises are most dominant in large cities, which is why he only moves through them when he feels he must—to retrieve his stolen bearskin rug or study scripture. Big things, as they are too often narrowly defined, happen in the city.

He moves like a slow, obnoxious shadow: Off the grid and off the radar, but somehow managing to leave a mark. The institutional pressures he despises are most dominant in large cities, which is why he only moves through them when he feels he must—to retrieve his stolen bearskin rug or study scripture. Big things, as they are too often narrowly defined, happen in the city.

Read the rest here.


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