A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Posted December 21st, 2007 in [hide]Becoming an old man of 30 forces a person to stop and reflect on the last burning embers of their youth.
Much like Stephen Dedalus who outgrew his Dubliner past, Connecticut proved too confining for your correspondent. Having driven coast to coast across the surface of a continent from one great ocean to the other … America’s own versions of Tierra del Fuego ( literally “Land of Fire,” with a much older meaning “The End of the Earth” ) call out to be seen. Having been born in Denver and straddled the Continental Divide a week into life, wanderlust has since consumed me.
Daedalus, in Greek mythology, was hired by Crete’s king to build a labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur. The story goes that an Athenian hero was able to slay the beast, angering Poseidon who trapped Daedalus and his son, Icarus, in a tower. The cunning artisan built wings from wax and the feathers of birds that flew by … we all know the rest.
James Joyce created his alter ego Stephen Hero, Phoenix-like, from this myth. The artist constructed such great work, he nearly lost himself in it. Creating the gift of flight with his bare hands, his son lost sight and plummeted into the sea. Perhaps the labyrinthine artifice of writing code also relates to this myth? Our hero survived his son not because of his genius, but out of simple balance.
Or, perhaps, could the allure of the open road, the timeless search for meaning, be more of a warning to the New York Times’ dystopian review: even the most frantic of Kerouac’s writings were really the sagas of a solitary seeker: poor, sad Jack, adrift in a world without mercy when he’d rather be ’safe in Heaven dead.’ On the Road detailed the gritty, not always pleasant reality of modern, “western” nomad life; still, life beckons onward.
Steven Bradley “tagged” me with a
blog meme: What I Do When I’m Not Working; the answer is remarkably simple. The map above hasn’t changed significantly in the few years I’ve been living here in Seattle. The one on the left, quite obviously, has seen a remarkable transformation.
I decided to move here based on the spent few hours I’d spent in Seattle, and few weeks in the camping up and down the Cascades. This was in the midst of a two month road trip from San Francisco to New England.
So, how do I spend my free time? I’ll be celebrating the new era in Olympic National Park, woefully underrepresented in my travels. The Columbia River Gorge deserves another visit while the mountains are covered in snow, as does North Cascades Nat’l Park. It seems almost negligent to see that I have yet to see the San Juan islands or Victoria.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther … and one fine morning -
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
I guess it wasn’t to hard to figure what you do when you’re not working. Sometimes I think you’ve visited every place in your area and then realize how many places there are to see.
By the way Portrait of the Artist is one of my favorite books. I love the way the language changes from the baby speak in the opening paragraphs to the highly literate language towards the end to mark the aging of Joyce.
Wow. Love the map. You certainly have seen quite a bit of the states, but I guess there is quite a bit left for you to see. Well while you are young and unencumbered it sounds like an awesome way to spend your free time. I look forward to reading about your travels Forrest.
The Great Gatsby is my favorite book in the universe! Great reference. And for the love of God, 30 isn’t old.
John: Every year I tell myself I’m an old man of XX … I figure by the time it’s true, I’ll be used to hearing it.
Steve: When I first started reading Portrait, the baby-talk was kind of off-putting. I swear I almost put the book down more times than I can count. I’m glad I got past it, though … it’s a very clever device as long as you have the patience to watch it unfold.
I filled in another 380 miles by circling the Olympic Peninsula. This will be the subject of at least two forthcoming posts - breathtaking. Like at the Gorge, I was lucky enough to see a pair of bald eagles fishing; this time, though, I caught a glimpse of it ‘on film.’ There’s something very satisfying about taking the highlighter to the map.
Adam: I’ve been keeping a record of my travels on a map like this for years. I have a few state maps that are equally marked up - I lived in California for years, and have fallen in love with Colorado, Utah, and Montana. The local ones are pretty useful in an OCD sort of way … when I’m planning a road trip, I’ll consult the map to see whether there’s a route I haven’t taken before. I just need to stop having to work for a living so I can fill the national map in enough to head overseas in good conscience.
That’s such a cool way to keep track!
Well maybe 2008 can be the year you break free and do what you want to do.
Nice story Forrest, this is a perfect post to link to across your site as an “About Me” page