Has tinged many a winter evening ...

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TGT

Social climber

So Cal

Apr 12, 2014 - 09:41pm PT

Just finished chapter three.

Written by Mrs. Mummery.

Ghost

climber

A long way from where I started

Apr 12, 2014 - 11:04pm PT

While I can appreciate the occasional visit, personally I'm glad people no longer write in such oblique idiom.

And in Mummery's day, people no doubt thought that the writing of a century earlier was pretty silly.

To read everything in comparison to "now" is to misunderstand everything that has been written more than ten years ago.

I mentioned W.H. Murray's "Mountaineering in Scotland" earlier in this thread. In my view, it is pretty much the best writing about climbing there has ever been. But if you read it with your 2014 blinkers on, you'll think it's silly.

Which says more about your reading habits than about Bill Murray's writing. Or Mummery's.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Apr 12, 2014 - 11:32pm PT

Thank you all for your thoughts!

A big thank you to Mr. Haan for that great Nanga Parbat photo!

rgold

Trad climber

Poughkeepsie, NY

Apr 13, 2014 - 12:23am PT

He seems to hit upon some wisdom about the satisfaction of climbing once climbing days are over:

Indeed, but I don't think that's quite what he was aiming at. The book was published in 1895, the same year Mummery perished, at 39, on Nanga Parbat. It was written at a time when he was still actively climbing, and could not have represented, for him, the view from the rocking chair that some of us have been lucky enough to achieve. Even if the memories he conjured brought with them nostalgia for more youthful days, it is evident that Mummery must still have been enjoying the thrill of anticipation as well as the quieter joy of remembrance.

Todd Eastman

climber

Bellingham, WA

Apr 13, 2014 - 12:37am PT

The original post was less dense than most regulatory writing and clear in meaning...

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Apr 13, 2014 - 12:41am PT

The art of troubling finds all eventually:

Try not to rehearse your troubles of late.

But the triumphs of youth one should mitigate.

It wasn't all that hard then;

It isn't all that hard now.

But it makes for good campfire stoies.119 years ain't shiyit.

Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber

moving thru

Apr 13, 2014 - 12:56am PT

What exquisite writing. Each word and phrase manages to evoke so much more than the single word or sentence.

I hear Mummery saying later in his short life he was driven to writing and it yielded a great reward for him. Living the adventure(s)was an incredible delight that nothing could surpass or rival, yet the memories now gave beauty to his life and depth and appreciation to his friendships. Writing down his experiences brought him closer to his own (past) young self.

But this is what grabbed me as I read tonight.....
"when the grass slopes and the stones and the other ills of life, had not found the art of troubling." This phrase is both biting and rings out loud.

We are young, we live, and suck every drop of life out of life. Then the slippery slopes and stones and ills of "after youth" sometimes appear.

I wonder if Mommery ever had time to address it or write about it?

Edit: Thanks LongAgo

Todd Eastman

climber

Bellingham, WA

Apr 13, 2014 - 02:03am PT

Much is lost with the push for writing in the active voice...

LongAgo

Trad climber

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 21, 2014 - 08:11pm PT

Peter: A toast to all our naked summits

Rich: My armchair revealed; his, sadly never attained

Lynn: Yes, about troubling as much or more than ending

Warbler: Something of old styles may return when we tire of the new

Ed: A second toast to the wealth of unfading treasure

Even Longer Ago

klk

Trad climber

cali

Apr 21, 2014 - 08:23pm PT

so tom, does this mean you're going to be writing more?

welcome to the furor.

klk

Trad climber

cali

Apr 21, 2014 - 08:45pm PT

yeah, it was a joke aimed at his cohort-- these essays were generally delivered first as papers read aloud at the ac (or other club) as if they were academic papers. the ones that weren't were frequently written as if they were. that's part of the tone.

mummery wasn't the prose stylist that stephen was, but he had his moments.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Apr 21, 2014 - 08:53pm PT

[Click to View YouTube Video]This is the modern way to express one's visit to the mountains.

It is only ONE WAY we express memories. The fact that the words are other-than-English only heighten the exotic aspect of being on the heights, away from the chattering masses.

Admit that film makes us lazy in our mental capacity. If nothing else, the older writing styles cause us to use our minds, actually USE them, not just run things by the eyes.

When I sit and read and nod, then wake again
and reflect on what was I thinking to have nodded off,
it is a price I pay to catch those ideas and impressions
so laboriously penned in some cold room or stuffy den
by some aging man with nothing better to do
than to entertain future seekers of nature's peace.

His legacy then becomes ours as well once we have muddled through.

NutAgain!

Trad climber

South Pasadena, CA

Apr 21, 2014 - 09:14pm PT

Active or passive: the voice is but a tool, a choice. A safe space is created by a passive voice and third person, a space between emotion and expression, for both author and reader. The author's craft can be displayed in this space, leaving emotions safely under lock and key or on a chain of whatever length the author's courage permits. When I want you in my face, to feel my hot breath and taste the tangy vinegar from the fish sandwich I just burped up, to wipe the spittle off your lip because I was too excited to swallow my drool before finishing my sentence, then I use active voice. It is good to have more than one tool in the chest. And I fricken love verbal tools.