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rockermike
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 20, 2011 - 11:50am PT
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I'm not much into the "I'm the man" adolescent egoism of most of Twight's writing (at least most of what I've read - which isn't much), but I ran into this bit on some other website. I thought it was pretty good - or painfully amusing at least....
What’s your problem? I think I know. You see it in the mirror every morning: temptation and doubt hip to hip inside your head. You know it’s not supposed to be like this. But you drank the Kool-Aid and dressed yourself up in someone else’s life.
You’re haunted because you remember having something more. With each drag of the razor you ask yourself why you piss your blood into another man’s cup. Working at the job he offered, your future is between his thumb and forefinger. And the necessary accessories, the proclamations of success you thought gave you stability provide your boss security. Your debt encourages acquiescence, the heavy mortgage makes you polite.
Aren’t you sick of being tempted by an alternative lifestyle, but bound by chains of your own choosing? Of the gnawing doubt that the college graduate, path of least resistance is the right way for you – for ever? Each weekend you prepare for the two weeks each summer when you wake up each day and really ride, or climb; the only imperative being to go to bed tired. When booming thermals shoot you full of juice and your Vario shrieks 7m/sec, you wonder if the lines will pop. The risk pares away life’s trivia. Up there, sucking down the thin cumulus, the earth looks small, the boss even smaller, and you wish it could go on forever. But a wish is all it will ever be.
Because the ground is hard. Monday morning is harsh. You wear the hangover of your weekend rush under a strict and proper suit and tie. You listen to NPR because it’s inoffensive, PFC: Politically F* * *ing Correct. Where’s the counter-cultural righteousness that had you flirting with Bad Religion and the vintage Pistols tape over the weekend? On Monday you eat frozen food and live the homogenized city experience. But Sunday you thought about cutting your hair very short. You wanted a little more volume and wondered how out of place you looked in the Sub Pop Music Store. Flipping through the import section, you didn’t recognize any of the bands. KMFDM? It stands for Kill Mother F* * *ing Depeche Mode. Didn’t you know? How could you not?
Tuesday you look at the face in the mirror again. It stares back, accusing. How can you get by on that one weekly dose? How can you be satisfied by the artifice of these experiences? Why should your words mean anything? They aren’t learned by heart and written in blood. If you cannot grasp the consciousness-altering experience that real mastery of these disciplines proposes, of what value is your participation? The truth is pointless when it is shallow. Do you have the courage to live with the integrity that stabs deep?
Use the mirror to cut to the heart of things and uncover your true self. Use the razor to cut away what you don’t need. The life you want to live has no recipe. Following the recipe got you here in the first place:
Mix one high school diploma with an undergrad degree and a college sweetheart. With a whisk (or a whip) blend two cars, a poorly built house in a cul de sac, and fifty hours a week working for a board that doesn’t give a damn about you. Reproduce once. Then again. Place all ingredients in a rut, or a grave. One is a bit longer than the other. Bake thoroughly until the resulting life is set. Rigid. With no way out. Serve and enjoy.
”You see your face reflected there in a sweating brow, you hate what you see, but what can be done when there’s no way out, no way out?"
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Spike Flavis
Trad climber
Truckee California
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Oct 20, 2011 - 11:58am PT
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This quote is from "Twitching With Twight" and is in Mark's book "Kiss or Kill." In the author's note Twight states that the article was meant to be way over the top. Maybe it's a little too close to home for some readers to see the humor in it. Enjoy, SF
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:02pm PT
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A similarly dismissive and condescending essay could be written about his lifestyle.
He's like a dominatrix who gets paid to be rude to the people who pay him. Not my cuppa tea.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:08pm PT
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Wow, that is kind of depressing to read. Time to go to work..
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YoungGun
Trad climber
North
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:08pm PT
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I like Twight. So intensely uncompromising, so driven to DO. While we criticize from our couches and cubicles, he's probably out finding a new way to push his limits.
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rockermike
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Topic Author's Reply - Oct 20, 2011 - 12:18pm PT
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A similarly dismissive and condescending essay could be written about his lifestyle.
He's like a dominatrix who gets paid to be rude to the people who pay him. Not my cuppa tea.
word^^^^
but I'm not talking about Twight himself (I'm sure he's got his own demons), I'm thinking, feeling for those people who are in that trap. I know some people. Good people too. But civilized life is life-killing. Been there myself, and would still be if not of the econ collapse which has thrown me out into the cold. ha ha
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:22pm PT
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My wife, the inimitable UberBabs, has gone to Gym Jones to train with Maximus and Twight. She came back with a personal best deadlift, and lots of knowledge and motivation. I did not hear anything about rudeness or a dominatrix in the house.
A couple years ago on a cross country flight I read Kiss or Kill. I had seen the chapters as they were published (edited) in Climbing Mag, but it was much better reading them in their entirety as a book. Riveting in fact.
Extreme Alpinism is still pretty cutting edge, yes?
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sandstone conglomerate
climber
sharon conglomerate central
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:24pm PT
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Hilarious, especially the archaic references to Depeche Mode (why so much animosity? I think Dave "the Cat" Gahan pushed the mortality envelope a time or two), Sex Pistols, and what's that? a tape? I especially like Jeff Lowe's reaction to their climb on Nuptse: "it's like we weren't even on the same route.." Sounds like he was having a good time while Twight was shitting his pants in some masochistic misery fest.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:27pm PT
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Mark Twight or Mark Twain..?
A cynic is someone who sees things the way they really are...
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okay,whatever
Trad climber
Charlottesville, VA
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:30pm PT
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Is he even still active? The last time I saw him was in Chamonix in 1985. And he and my wife had Chinese food. Don"t have a clue about his whereabouts/wellbeing since then....
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:32pm PT
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I am NOT a fan. Too much self congratulatory rhetoric and exaggerated claims.
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Gary
climber
Desolation Row, Calif.
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:33pm PT
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Lionel Terray said the same thing, in fewer words and less condescendingly:
On this proud and beautiful mountain we have lived hours of fraternal, warm and exalting nobility. Here for a few days we have ceased to be slaves and have really been men. It is hard to return to servitude.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:36pm PT
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elvis in the vegas years.
glad to hear that folks are getting something out of the gym visits, though.
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Hawkeye
climber
State of Mine
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:37pm PT
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I am NOT a fan. Too much self congratulatory rhetoric and exaggerated claims.
word
edit: i think he does this to create a personna that is self serving and bent on gaining his own niche for popularity.
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:49pm PT
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I had the privilege of meeting Mark and working with him back in the early nineties while he was enjoying profile and notoriety with his bombastic, in your face style.
Given my preference for a more understated and oblique approach to things, I was expecting to be put off and unimpressed.
Mark turned out to be a much quieter and polite person than his literary efforts would suggest and I gained a healthy respect for him.
The contrast between the man and his writing lends a certain comedic quality to the dark offering posted here.
Best wishes to Mark!
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Oct 20, 2011 - 12:52pm PT
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One should not claim to be a modern elite alpinist when rock climbing 5.9 is a challenge. A number of Slovenian alpinists can climb 5.13 off the couch. The most important ingredient in todays elite alpinists is rock climbing ability, not that other factors are not critical.
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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Oct 20, 2011 - 01:15pm PT
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yet he tries to inflict it upon all of us
Uh, what? Inflict? Huh?
Did he show up at your house and forcibly shove a mediocre early punk band's cassette into your stereo and buzz your hair into a mohawk?
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Oct 20, 2011 - 01:17pm PT
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^^^ Truth, though this is worrisome, since we seldom seem to agree.
I can quibble about his seeming self-satisfaction, but I still enjoy his writing, even if I choose to live differently.
John
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new world order-
climber
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Oct 20, 2011 - 01:29pm PT
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Its funny how often I hear he's a nice guy and all.....
Mark Twain - "everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anyone."
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Oct 20, 2011 - 01:31pm PT
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Mark has always been free to live his lifestyle, yet he tries to inflict it upon all of us, as if HIS way of life is truly what LIVING is all about
So, if I understand what you're saying, people who believe their lifestyle to be a good one should not "inflict it on others." Does that go for religion and politics as well?
Should evangelism cease?
Edit:
Contrast him with a guy like Mick Fowler. Who would you rather go up on your next big north wall with?
Since neither one of them is likely to want to drag me up any north walls, I'll give my rhetorical answer. I got to know Mark a little many years ago, and my response was exactly the same as Perry's (Chief, at the top of this page). A really nice guy. I'm sure Mr. Fowler is plenty nice, too.
It's always funny to listen to people slagging the personal characteristics of those whom they've never met.
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