Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
Can someone that has read this book help me answer ONE of these questions or more if you can:
1) How does Abbey define "industrial tourism" and what would be the opposite in his opinion? How does Abbey relate the automobile to his concept of "industrial tourism"? What is his proposal for the future of the parks as it relates to cars? Who are the victim's of this type of tourism? Relate Abbey's ideas to our current notions of 'eco-tourism." Provide at least three specific examples form the book to support your answer to this question.
2) Describe the role and presence of women in this book. What is significant about the male gaze in encounters between men and women in his book? What might this tell the reader about women in the Southwest in 1968?
3) How does Edward Abbey feel about the National Park System and why? Provide at least three different examples from the book to support your points. How much of what he predicted about our park system has come true?
4) What is Abbey's general opinion of government and politics and how does that relate to the environment of the Southwest? What does he say about the link between powerful, large corporations and government? Does this discussion still seem relevant today or not? Why? Provide at least three different quotes - not in the same chapter - to illustrate your answer. What solutions does Abbey propose?
5) Why does Abbey equate the Bureau of Land Management with the Chamber of Commerce? What is Abbey's general estimation of such organizations? Provide at least three different quotes - not in the same chapter - to illustrate your answer.
6) What is the author's opinion about logging, mining and ranching? How does he feel about the actual workers - the real proletariat of ranch hands, cowboys, miners and lumberjacks? How does Abbey reconcile these feelings?
7) According to this book federal agencies interfere too much with wildlife. What example does the author provide to support this argument? Why does Abbey kill the rabbit and what does that "experiement" represent? How well did the author predict the reaction this would have on the reader? What is the natural "J- curve" of animal populations and how does Abbey support allowing that natural process and why?
8) How are Native Americans portrayed and discussed in this book? What does the role or presence of Indigenous groups in this book demonstrate about the author's attitudes? What is problematic about the assumption that the "first man down Cataract Canyon" was the man who wrote the July 1869 account of his trip?
9) Desert Solitaire has been criticized as being a biased perspective on the land and nature of the Southwest. How does the book or its messages suffer from any particular bias? An ability/disability bias? A white male bias? A non-Native or ethnocentric bias? A leisure class bias? Gender bias? Are there redeeming qualities in a book that suffers from any bias?