A review by foggy_rosamund
Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
4.0
This book gets four-stars from me for the quality of its prose and the scope and depth of the research. No one can write exhaustively about a continent, but Lopez writes in great depth about the Arctic and the Northern Polar regions, and this is a book of great ambition and thought. At times, I found my attention wandered, but this was because, due to the scope of the book, Lopez tackles subject that do not interest me, as well as ones that do, and so I can't criticize him too harshly for the times when he failed to engage me.
Though it's over 400 pages in length, this book is only divided into nine chapters. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of the Arctic: its ecology, the science of light and ice, the history of Polar exploration, the history of peoples indigenous to the Arctic, the stories and myths surrounding different animals. At the time of writing, 1986, Lopez was still optimistic about the future of the Arctic, and did not conceive of the scale of the current destruction of landscape and climate. Reading it now, the book at times feels elegiac in tone, as it captures the scale of what we have lost, and what we continue to lose.
My edition includes an introduction by Robert MacFarlane, as well as Lopez's maps and extensive glossary. The first three chapters discuss totemic animals of the North: the musk ox, the polar bear, and narwhal, going deep into their biology, the history of their movements, our understanding of them in myth, how they fit into the landscape, and the relationship the indigenous people of the area have with them. (Lopez uses the word "Eskimo" throughout this book, as he says that only Canadian Indigenous people wish to be called Inuits. I've read this in various sources, but nowhere have I found it said that anyone is happy to be called an "Eskimo".) I really enjoyed these chapters, and found them informative and moving, as well as containing beautiful observations of nature. Pinning the information to specific animals worked to keep the chapters focused and informative. I also enjoyed later chapters on the history of the Indigenous people in the Arctic, which includes the history of the rise of the Thule culture and their vibrant art works, and its loss during the Little Ice Age, as well as the earlier Devonian culture. Lopez also discusses the ways in which Europeans destroyed and wiped out native cultures. Lopez writes with sympathy and respect about the Indigenous people, and he travelled on the ice with various Indigenous explorers.
Some of the later chapters I found less interesting: Lopez devotes two long chapters to the history of Arctic exploration and the hunt for the Northwest passage, and while his prose style keeps these stories vivid and informative, I am a lot more interested in the ecology of the Arctic and the relationship of Indigenous people to it, rather than the history of many ill-conceived Polar voyages. Some of Lopez's writing about sunlight, ocean currents and the relationship of the Arctic to daylight confused me, but I think that's because I personally need a lot more diagrams to fully understand a scientific concept.
Overall, this is an impressive work. It's described as the classic of Arctic writing, with good reason. It is worth having as a reference book for many different aspects of the Arctic, and well-worth reading as a nature writing, travel writing, and history.
Though it's over 400 pages in length, this book is only divided into nine chapters. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of the Arctic: its ecology, the science of light and ice, the history of Polar exploration, the history of peoples indigenous to the Arctic, the stories and myths surrounding different animals. At the time of writing, 1986, Lopez was still optimistic about the future of the Arctic, and did not conceive of the scale of the current destruction of landscape and climate. Reading it now, the book at times feels elegiac in tone, as it captures the scale of what we have lost, and what we continue to lose.
My edition includes an introduction by Robert MacFarlane, as well as Lopez's maps and extensive glossary. The first three chapters discuss totemic animals of the North: the musk ox, the polar bear, and narwhal, going deep into their biology, the history of their movements, our understanding of them in myth, how they fit into the landscape, and the relationship the indigenous people of the area have with them. (Lopez uses the word "Eskimo" throughout this book, as he says that only Canadian Indigenous people wish to be called Inuits. I've read this in various sources, but nowhere have I found it said that anyone is happy to be called an "Eskimo".) I really enjoyed these chapters, and found them informative and moving, as well as containing beautiful observations of nature. Pinning the information to specific animals worked to keep the chapters focused and informative. I also enjoyed later chapters on the history of the Indigenous people in the Arctic, which includes the history of the rise of the Thule culture and their vibrant art works, and its loss during the Little Ice Age, as well as the earlier Devonian culture. Lopez also discusses the ways in which Europeans destroyed and wiped out native cultures. Lopez writes with sympathy and respect about the Indigenous people, and he travelled on the ice with various Indigenous explorers.
Some of the later chapters I found less interesting: Lopez devotes two long chapters to the history of Arctic exploration and the hunt for the Northwest passage, and while his prose style keeps these stories vivid and informative, I am a lot more interested in the ecology of the Arctic and the relationship of Indigenous people to it, rather than the history of many ill-conceived Polar voyages. Some of Lopez's writing about sunlight, ocean currents and the relationship of the Arctic to daylight confused me, but I think that's because I personally need a lot more diagrams to fully understand a scientific concept.
Overall, this is an impressive work. It's described as the classic of Arctic writing, with good reason. It is worth having as a reference book for many different aspects of the Arctic, and well-worth reading as a nature writing, travel writing, and history.