But this is no mere escape -- it's more of a pilgrimage, a quest, a hejira -- only not of a religious kind, and not with any particular grail in mind. When told that she can have her artistic residency in Upernavik either in the summer or the endless night of winter, Campbell immediately chooses winter -- for the challenge, yes, but also for the beauty and strangeness of it all.
Some of which is unexpected -- the museum seems to be half-empty, and there's no sign of the director who encouraged Nancy to spend a winter there -- when she asks the locals, they just smile and change the subject. What is it she's supposed to do here? The people who came before have left curious traces: a jar of apple spread, a book of Andersen's fairy tales, and a packet of herbal tea. Campbell finds herself at once explorer and searcher, finder and loser -- with ice as her one recurring companion and theme.
As my friend P.J. Capelotti remarked in his review of this book, "No detail is lost or forgotten. It is, one could argue, the first great literature of the Anthropocene. If you don’t believe this, go to page 33, where a sentence concludes: “if humans are lucky, there may be more decades ahead.” Decades. If we are lucky. Thus chastened, we embark on a journey around the Radcliffe Camera to the Bodleian to uncover Robert Boyle’s History of Cold. One imagines John Thaw’s Inspector Morse drinking at The White Horse across the street—a crazy thought until, sure enough, Morse code makes an appearance later in the book. One searches for the many prophecies in this book just as when listening to the music in Morse, where the composer of the soundtrack, Barrington Pheloung, would telegraph the name of the murderer in code in each episode."
In the shadow of the failed Glasgow climate conference, we perhaps should tremble -- but Campbell, I think, would want us still to stand in wonder. We can tremble later.
“The Library of Ice” by Nancy Campbell has been a divisive book for me so far. I can commend the novel for being so different compared to the other accounts that we have read. All the books read prior were primary or secondary sources of various explorer’s accounts through the Arctic. Those books mostly dealt with figuring out survival methods in barren environments, the technical and logistical aspects of exploration, or social interactions with native peoples. Campbell’s book has some of those aspects, but “The Library of Ice” reads more like a textbook than an adventurers account. There are long passages about Boyle’s scientific exploits with cold, the infamous Franklin expedition, and the Levick exploration party. These are all interesting stories and are tied together by themes of “ice” and exploration, but I was hoping for more firsthand accounts from Campbell.
ReplyDeleteCampbell began the book with a strong hook about the rough weather she encountered while flying in a plane and how she chose to enter the Arctic during the intensely dark winter months. But soon after the reader is treated to these long summaries of seemingly disparate elements, as if plucked from library shelves at random. The book is very well written, but it’s not what I expected it to be at all. Maybe it gets better later on.
This book has honestly not been one of my favorites from our class; however, I do find slight fascination in the sections that discuss Campbell’s journey and experiences in the Arctic. Even though I’m not fond of this text I do find it different from the others in that it is realistic when describing her access to the Arctic in terms of funds and transportation. She has to find a way herself to get there for research and even when she wants to go to Greenland she has to wait until she has raised enough funds. She did not, like Hall, talk people into paying for her way, but instead saved over years and even took out loans I believe. On one of her journeys, she” …saved enough for the flight to Greenland but [she] had nothing to spare for accommodations…” when she got there (Campbell 131). She actually had to talk around to even get a job to survive there. It reminded me slightly of Chris McCandless as he traveled around to find jobs and work to survive, but not to travel for research like she did. It seems that she had a greater purpose and her way to get there just seemed more realistic to me than other stories of exploration in the Arctic that we have read.
ReplyDeleteI also found the clash of old and new ways of living in the Arctic interesting when she stayed with Malik to help him with his tour guide business. Malik believed that his freedom was being taken away by the economic systems. He “emphasize[d] how his own life differs from that of his ancestors,” in that he can no longer make a living from the trades of traditions, so he is forced to give that up to become a tour guide (Campbell 142). This is happening all over the world as the traditional ways of life are no longer a mean to surviving, but are now just becoming a hobby to people, such as hunting. Hunting use to be a way for people to make a living, but now people in the Western world do it for fun on the weekends. Traditional ways of life are being forced to fade away because of the economy, and therefore people like Malik are losing their family history and their freedom to live as they choose.
First, I am always intrigued by people who can just get up and travel to a whole different world than what they are used to. Never mind a female character doing this on her own. I have to say I think this reading is different from what we have read in our class thus far because I feel like the readings we have done the characters sort of just get up and leave to achieve some type of goal to prove a point in a way. But with this book I find it a little different because she wants to research something that she is fascinated by. It is also a different read because I feel like we learn more from the physical things she is learning and seeing as she goes on this adventure for example learning about the geographic compared to other books we kind of talk about that one character and their ups and downs and their mistakes along the way.
ReplyDeleteMadeleine Frost
ReplyDeleteThe first half of Campbell’s “The Library of Ice,” in my opinion, does a great job of tackling the question of why people like to explore, especially in the colder regions of the planet. From the start, people’s curiosity of the colder regions is emphasized. She states, “The ice, always mutable, is now dangerously unpredictable” (11). This particular quote emphasizes how the cold regions and icy regions of the world pose a challenge. She also states, “The members of the Northern Party formed a strong bond with each other and with the polar landscape, learning its characteristics and how to survive it” (76). The unpredictability of these areas requires those who explore it to consistently be aware of their surroundings — essentially they must always be in fight or flight mode, which is appealing to some people. Perhaps it connects them with their primal attributes. Further, she articulates how the colder regions provide one with a strong sense of curiosity. For instance, she says, “The ice was beginning to disappear — and before it vanished I wanted to learn what words it would teach me” (17) as well as “I have no desire to go to Antarctica, but I’m curious” (51). These particular quotes show how the unknown and consistently-changing cold areas provide a sense of wonder/curiosity for those who attempt to explore them. In the first quote especially, the malleability of the ice is emphasized, which suggests that one might have to pay very close attention, as they are pressed for time, to learn what they can about the area they are exploring. Not only does Campbell explain the challenging aspects of the colder regions, but she also explains the lure of the unknown of these icy areas.
I really liked reading the section on Greenlandic language. Campbell writes about Kleinschmidt and his reluctance to support rote learning because the books in Greenlandic were "riddled with errors" (Campbell 95). He instead preached what he knew in order to allow better understanding. She goes on to talk about the importance of oral tradition. Language changes overtime, and if we are reading from a text published long ago, the message may be confused. I like that she then talks about fire and ice being a danger to books. While she does not directly relate the two ideas, having these thoughts come one after the other makes the reader think. Books are fragile and may not last forever; the meaning of words change overtime. Oral tradition, evolves, stores, and transmits knowledge, art, and ideas. Holding ideas in the mind, in a way, is more powerful than in a book.
ReplyDeleteTo go off of what you say here, I was also struck by the discussions of language and the symbolic value of language throughout the book. In the introduction section of the book, Campbell writes that “it is so different to the symbolic power that books have in my own culture” when she learns that the museum likes to save images and paintings instead of books, stories, and other written documents (Campbell 10). I found it interesting because it speaks to cultural differences, as she suggests, because some cultures place so much value on the written word and written texts, while others highly value the oral tradition and storytelling that way. I like how you put it with the oral tradition allowing not only for preservation of stories but for their evolution, too.
DeleteCampbell's forays into the arctic are much unlike the explorers of the past that we have read about, as while I am reminded of how Kpomassie's worked his way to his destination, Campbell's exploration feels different to his reasoning. Unlike his experiences which had what felt like more spirit to them, Campbell's had extensive knowledge and background to why she was there in the first place. There was a textbook nature to her writing, as one of classmates put in the comments above.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I can agree that it is well written, however if I am to be honest, it does fail to catch my attention as much as the previous works, simply due to the fact that it while it chooses to be about them exploring the Arctic, it also tries to reference past events instead of staying true to their own perspective; it feels jumbled at places in simipler terms. I feel that more Campbell and less about things about past explorers or events might be prudent, in my opinion.
After reading P.J. Capelotti's review on Campbell's piece, I think he was 100% correct in saying that the “polar ice is the first archive”. This concept is somethin that I think was extremely relevant in Campbell's piece especially compared to all of the other work we have read on this topic. The Artic is an extremely dense topic and I think it is so interesting to people, specifically Campbell, is due to the fact that it truly is a time capsule of information. The ice lays silent and still for thousands and thousands and thousands of years holding on to history with in it's ice. I just find it to be fascinating as well seeing as it was the worlds first unknown/ unexplored area. It has held tools, knives, swords , and other belongings of different people of different cultures that have walked the land. The Artic is ancient and has served as a central key to unlock information about different people and animals that once roamed across it's land. Its forbidden ways, murderous abilities, and historical value will hold true for anyone that visits or in this case writes about it, so it makes sense why Campbell was so inspired to use it as her muse. The fact that she valued books so much and educated herself before anything else also made her stand out amongst the other authors we have read from. She took this topic and journey seriously and I respect her drive and curiosity. She probably was the most prepared explorer compared to the bunch we have explored this semester and I also think that's why her story stands out. I personally found the piece hard to follow at times, but found it to be very informative.
ReplyDeleteWhat I liked about “Library of Ice” was that it was different from what we have read in class so far. In this situation we have a female character who wants to go to the Artic to do some research. She is genuinely interested in the topic and wants to go for herself. What is different about her is that she has to come up with the money to get herself there. Unlike Hall, who went around trying to get others to fund his expedition, she comes up with the money on her own and doesn’t ask others for it. Another thing I liked was how Campbell explains the challenge of being in the Artic. She also mentions how when she got to the Artic, she had to search for a job because she did not have the funds to support herself while there.
ReplyDeleteThis work is quite interesting as it creates a break in the theme of exploration for glory. Here the arctic is more of a personal challenge and an unconventional teacher. Knowledge is sought after in a pure form compared to the explorers of previous books we have read. Not only is the intention of the voyage different than the others, but the fact that Campbell does so alone is notable. This fact creates a different narrative than the rest, one of not only external, but internal exploration as well.
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