Mountain Connection

“The truth, especially when presented in advance, can be too much for some people to accept graciously.” (5) In Norgay’s account of the Everest disaster in Touching My Father's Soul, Norgay reveals in the first few pages how he sought a divination from a lama regarding how the coming season on the mountain would pan out. He received less than heartening news, yet this did not stop him from climbing and continuing on the journey. He was angry that this prediction had been made and, furthermore, was already committed to the expedition. What I found most interesting about this idea raised at the beginning of Norgay's account is, simply put, his pull to climb Everest regardless of the lama’s ominous prediction. Differing from the accounts we have read thus far, Norgay is drawn to the mountain by his father, whom he desperately seeks to have a stronger connection with. His father many years prior had climbed Everest and Norgay reveals early on his account of the journey that this is a major motivation for him to climb – to follow in his father’s footsteps and uphold his family’s legacy.  He climbed to find his father, even though he knew it would be challenging and (nearly) life threatening. Along those lines, however, did the lama’s prediction potentially save Norgay’s life – reminding him to climb with more caution than he may have otherwise?

Norgay's focus on the environmental and cultural impacts of mountaineering expeditions and tourism in Nepal elucidated these issues through a multifaceted, multiracial perspective that is unique to Norgay. Norgay provides an intriguing perspective on the socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental issues that plague many developing countries that encounter the title wave of influence that is the American tourism industry. Norgay describes the cultural norms in his home region with a refreshing sense of pride and respect that cannot be communicated from a westerner's perspective. He provides an illustration of the simultaneous simplicity, humility, and difficulty of subsistence living. I found his comparison of his few personal possessions to the excessive belongings of his college roommates to propose a very important cultural juxtaposition that reflects much larger cultural distinctions that characterize the dynamic that exists between subsistence cultures, such as sherpas, and western expeditions that extend a problematic influence on these regions.

The Effect of the Commercialization of Mountaineering on Socioeconomic Shifts

Following up on our conversation in class about how the region around Mount Everest is changing due to the tourism generated by mountaineering and the commercialization of mountaineering, it was really interesting to read about Jamling Tenzing Norgay’s opinion of how the socioeconomic situation has changed in Nepal. On page 74, according to Norgay, “in [his] father’s day all the loads were carried by Sherpas (and a handful of yaks), but within a generation [his] ethnic group has climbed a whole rung higher on the socioeconomic ladder.” In today’s Nepal, as seen in all of the Himalayan mountaineering texts we have read, porters carry most of the loads while the Sherpas carry some of the loads and are instead mostly focused on the actual mountaineering. In this way, tourism and the commercialization of mountaineering have drastically changed Nepalese society because they caused the Sherpa class to move up in society and the lower classes to fill their previously occupied niche. Norgay doesn’t expound to a great deal on these changes, but it would be really interesting to learn more about the effects of the shift in the lower economic classes as they would probably have felt the brunt of the shift. Some of the lower classes, such as the porters, would have moved up in society from their previous societal roles, which would only have benefitted the entire economy of Nepal as there would have been greater influxes of wealth at all socioeconomic levels. However, considering the magnitude of the shift, it is also possible that the shift may have created gaps in the Nepalese economy that no classes wanted to fill because they were not as lucrative as the jobs created by tourism and the commercialization of mountaineering. Consequently, although it is impossible to entirely predict how a change such as tourism will affect the society and economy of a country, the various possibilities of the impacts of bringing in a tourist industry as aggressive as commercial mountaineering should be taken very seriously as these industries could irreversibly change a country and its culture and, possibly, for the worst.

Explanations

This book is geared towards the even more uninformed armchair reader.  Everything seems spelled out and explained.  I first noticed this when he was continuously explaining events/actions/thoughts that were connected to his religion and his people.  Every time he goes to a lama or puts up prayer flags he mentions the particulars of what is happening and why it happens that particular way.  Sitting in a Buddhist/Sherpa ignorant armchair, I am really enjoying all this detail.  The purpose of this book seems more to inform than to simply recount climbing events.  He extends this informing to the climbing tools and areas of Everest.  I find this sometimes annoyingly slow, but that is because I am more knowledgeable in this area.  Krakauer mentions that he wrote "Into Thin Are" to expunge the events from his mind.  In a broad sense, "Touching My Father's Soul," is much less about what the book can do for the author, but what the book can do for the reader.  He wants you to follow his journey so that you can reap benefits from what he learned on the journey.

p.80- "Why were they here?"

Given that we ended our last class with our continued question of "what do mountains do?" and "why climb?" I was particularly drawn to a quote on p.80. Norgay begins the second paragraph on that page with two questions similar to our own from class: "So what motivates these foreigners to climb? Why were they here?" He claims that "for the commercial guides-like the Sherpas- it is a business," while other climbers (presumably the foreigners he referenced in his first question) come for "personal challenge,” which he suggests may be in actuality them "hurling against their inner demons,” and others in order to "gain recognition." He ends by making the claim that "most of the climbers, myself included, don't know what we will find during our journey, other than a brief glimpse of the impermanence and the frailty of the human condition." This quote reminded me a lot of the epigraph that Blum chose to include at the beginning of Annapurna: A Woman's Place, about how you can never truly conquer a mountain because a human's footprints are quickly and easily blown away from the top right after he summits. After considering both of these passages, I suggest that though Norgay divides these climbers up into different answers for "why climb?" mountains appear to be "doing" the same thing for most of them. By that I mean that the mountains are these impenetrable forces of nature that work to reveal that "frailty of the human condition" that Norgay mentions. And it is the "conquering" of-or at least, surviving in spite of-this frailty that allows a climber to achieve their goal. I see this in the fact that even though he lost most of his fingers and toes, Herzog gained recognition for himself and France because he made it to the top and he made it back down, despite what Annapurna threw his way. I also see this in the climbers both Krakauer and Norgay discuss; those who have made it their goal to not only climb Everest, but to do so without oxygen. Thus, I agree with Norgay that you get this "brief glimpse of the impermanence and the frailty of the human condition" and that that is a kind of certainty in mountaineering- because that, to me, seems to be one of the things which mountains "do.”

Krakauer made me want to climb, Jamling made me want to become a Buddhist.

My first reaction to this book was, why is Krakauer always writing intros for people? His intro follows a foreword by the Dalai Lama—an interesting juxtaposition. Anyways, Kraukauer’s introduction irked me because he starts off recounting all the books that have been written on climbing Mount Everest. He writes, “A half decade after the fact, one would be forgiven for wondering why anybody other than the most obsessive Everest fanatic should bother reading yet another account of that infamous season on the world’s highest mountain” (p. xiii). It’s like Krakauer is saying, why are you people reading this? Wasn’t my story enough for you?

Introduction complaints aside, I enjoyed this book because it turned out to be much more than a personal narrative about Jamling; for me, it’s about something greater than climbing: Buddhism. Buddhism is about being mindful, which is something I am trying to be better at myself. I’m reading a book called “The Buddha Walks into a Bar,” an introduction to Buddhism and living a mindful life with compassion for others. It’s teaching me how to control my thoughts and basically chill out when I feel up to my eyeballs in stress. The practice of Buddhism guides the climb and narrative. Jamling’s wife says, “If my mother and I had known you were going for the summit today, we would have done more rituals and said more prayers.” Jamling and his family have a different—possibly greater—perspective on the climb than anyone we have read thus far. They realize that the mountain is bigger than them. Jamling writes, “My father knew before he ever set foot on the mountain that it had to be approached with respect and love, the way a child climbs into the lap of its mother” (p. 257).

What is Jamling saying about climbing mountains? Jamling says that a goal can never be reached through force. He writes, “But anyone motivated by compassion and a desire to help others will see the fruits of their efforts—though perhaps not in this lifetime.” This makes me think of Herzog’s ascent of Annapurna, which was achieved through force, and if he was satisfied with it. I wonder if a climb in this spiritual sense—in the name of something greater—is more fulfilling. 

“Yaks are not natural actors"

                Norgay’s novel and his description of the IMAX filming present ideas about the different mediums of “true retellings” of events, and how the story can subtly change depending on the retelling. Norgay’s journey with the IMAX film crew not only presents the idea of a constructed visual narrative, but also reflects this on the creation of the novel itself.

                On page 70, Norgay describes “This year, he wanted yaks in the shot. By walkie-talkie, David and I coordinated the timing of a yak train…” He slides this into his narrative as if it is nothing, but it’s an important idea in the creation of a documentary. This shot, while minor, was constructed by the film crew because the director wanted the yaks to be dragged across the bridge.  This documentary, which I assume presents itself a “true retelling,” is described here with a shot that is constructed by the maker of the film.  Many descriptions of the team filming emphasize this idea, because they only film after they have finished parts of the trek and have pitched their camp.  They don’t film while actually climbing the mountain, which (I assume) is what is often presented in the documentary. This certainly isn’t bad, and I’m sure it happens with many other documentaries, but I wonder what other sequences of the footage were images that the director wanted, so he manipulated and constructed them in order to include them in his film?

                Novels present a whole different collection of validity issues. Although Norgay did not have to go out of his way to “construct” a scene that he wanted to include in his book because he could just make it up, he was able to write about things that occurred while he wasn't physically present. Norgay spends many pages describing events that happened while he wasn't there, such as his retelling of the disaster on the top of the mountain, which occurred while he was at base camp. While this true of many novels and is not necessarily a bad thing, when novels or films present themselves as a “true” representation it is interesting to think how much of that work is “truth” and how much is a construction of the creator.