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| Messages 1 - 6 of total 6 in this topic |
Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 22, 2011 - 08:19am PT
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i bought this book some years ago and couldn't get past the first couple chapters. something about the dry and seemingly dated british humor.
then i saw a little movie recently called the trip, full of dry, contemporary british humor, and thought maybe i'd give the ascent of rum doodle another chance. it takes some effort, but it's worth it.
rum doodle, in case you've never heard of it, is the highest mountain in the world, at 40,000-1/2 feet above sea level. climbing this peak involved the most elaborate, not to mention expensive, expedition ever mounted.
the talking fish raft expedition--to find the elusive buburup-speaking fish of the western pacific--is in the same vein, with perhaps a slightly darker shade of satire. i actually came to like it a little better.
any other fans out there?
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Dec 22, 2011 - 09:11am PT
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I picked up a copy on a trip to Nepal and I connected right away Tony. It was only worth a single read for me, tried to pick it up back in the states years later and couldn't hang in there LOL. My copy is only Rum Doodle and not the other story.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Dec 22, 2011 - 09:37am PT
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I tried when I was young, and gave up.
I should get a copy and try again.
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Dec 22, 2011 - 11:23am PT
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lit bump
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Dec 22, 2011 - 12:29pm PT
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I've had a copy for ages. Hilarious!
It is, more than anything, a parody of Tilman's "The Ascent of Nanda Devi", from 1936.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 22, 2011 - 02:38pm PT
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terrific tongue-in-cheek about the way mountaineers used to talk--and think. we've changed, yes, but the "spirit" is still there.
talking fish, i'm sure, lampoons the kon-tiki expedition, but it also takes a jab at "heroic" suffering (for recreational purposes--ring any bells there?), "freedom" ("you're defending freedom--well, we're practicing it"), "democracy", the court system (in england, but it might as well be ours), animal rights (way ahead of its time), and the population explosion.
bowman, a lowly civil engineer by trade and no prominent literatus, manages to do all this in the best of high humor and good will. all written in the mid 1950s--i think they're sleepers and due for revival.
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| Messages 1 - 6 of total 6 in this topic |
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