I've read Cannery Row and liked it. I like the books from Steinbeck in general.
What is the name of the biography from the Doc? "Beyond the Outer Shores" ? Is
it recommendable? -JochenSent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Steven A Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> Date:
10/25/19 16:53 (GMT+01:00) To: friam@redfish.com Subject: Re: [FRIAM] John
Steinbeck in the 21st century ...On a
recent pleasure/work trip I *re*visited Monterrey CA and Cannery
Row which lead me to *re*read Steinbeck's Cannery Row which lead
me to read something of a biography of the Doc character in his
novel (and the movie) for whom the prototype was Ed Ricketts...
Beyond the Outer Shores was written roughly 15 years ago,
recounting Ricketts' life and career. I knew that Steinbeck was
a good friend of Ricketts but I was not aware of how much work
they did together, including a summer of kayaking in the Sea of
Cortez which yielded the data for the book they co-authored by the
name "Sea of Cortez". I was also unaware that Joseph Campbell
spent his formative (adult) years in the company of both of these
mens (and more to the point, Ricketts). The author of this
biography credits Ricketts as being highly influential in the work
of both Steinbeck (beyond Cannery Row) and Campbell, and credits
him with leading the transition from traditional biology focused
on taxonomic approaches to identification of collected specimens.
Ricketts approached collecting and identifying (mostly marine)
species as well as writing them up in his famous trilogy on the
topic in the context of a newly emergent field of "ecology". He
was simultaneously under-appreciated due to his lack of formal
education, his lack of academic affiliation whilst also being a
highly prolific commercial collector/supplier of specimens to the
same community while identifying a huge number of new species
(perhaps only recognizing the subtle differences based on habitat
and foodweb relations) within his purview (the range of the
Pacific coast along the North American coast from Bering Sea to
Panama).
On 10/23/19 3:39 PM, Jochen Fromm
wrote:
I recently stumbled upon John Steinbeck's classic
novel "The Grapes of Wrath" and wonder if it is similar to the
situation today. You will all know it since it is often read in
High Schools, right? (I had to read Goethe in School. And
"Animal Farm" plus "To kill a Mocking Bird" in the English
class).
As you know Steinbeck describes how migrants from
Oklahoma called Okies look for a better life in California. They
travel along the Route 66, which Steinbeck helped to make
popular, passed Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and drove to the West
until they arrived in California where the locals disliked and
rejected them.
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/news/grapes-wrath
Today we have migrants from Cuba and Mexico
looking for a better life in the US and refugees from Syria and
Afghanistan who cause a lot of trouble in the EU. Many of these
refugees and migrants live in camps, just like the ones
Steinbeck visited.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/feb/02/johnsteinbeck.socialsciences
Steinbeck's novel takes place during the "Dust
Bowl". Today the dry regions in the South suffer from droughts
and wild fires caused by Climate Change worldwide. Everything
sounds similar, as if history is repeating itself.
https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-dust-bowl
-J.
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