The Monkey Wrench Gang: A Vulture's-Eye View

I do apologize if it seems like awhile since I last posted. My project is still going strong, but it's taken me awhile to finsh this last book just because it's a little longer than some of the others. Also, some interferences, like losing the book, getting into a car accident, deciding my entire future by selecting a law school, you know, minor things like that. But--on to the book!

So, "The Monkey Wrench Gang" was written by the environmental radicalist Edward Abbey, who is still revered by many as a hero, a legend, and a folk figure. Many call this book anarchistic and dangerous, as it has inspired acts of "eco-terrorism". Perhaps most notably it is held as a direct source of inspiration for the 1981 act by the group Earth First! , which emulated the opening scene from the novel where the Glen Canyon dam is destroyed. Yes, it is true that there are lots of "violent" acts in this book performed in the name of saving the earth. However I could not help but side with the radicalist protagonists and their mission of saving the earth by destroying representations of industrialism and modernism. It truly made me contemplate some questions: How much is "too much" when defending what you love? Is it morally justifiable to harm in the name of good? Have today's groups such as PETA taken too much of a radicalist stance, thus ostracizing "moderates" from joining their cause? Or is this beyond the point altogether?

The novel takes place in the American Southwest, a place I know little about despite my geographical proximity to these vast lands. It lacks the prosaic language of the novels I read by Abani, yet it makes up for it with humor and dry wit, as well as a lot of action. "The Monkey Wrench Gang" starts out with an introduction to the four main characters who come together and form the "gang". First off there are Dr. A.K. Sarvis and his younger "girlfriend" and assistant, Bonnie Abbzug. Sarvis is an Armenian doctor who has a penchant for destroying capitalistic ventures such as billboards. He is much like a cariacture, always puffing on a wet cigar, fat, balding, aging. Bonnie is described as beautiful, a Jew from Brooklyn, who helps Sarvis both with his medicine and his billboard menacing. The doctor constantly proposes to her, but she always refuses, bent on maintaining her feminist and single lifestyle. In a moment typical of the humor of the book, the two are on a mission to torch down some billboards one night and Sarvis cannot decide which one irks him the most. Suddenly he comes across one that reads: Wonder Enriched Bread Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways. Sarvis thinks to himself: LIARS! This has definetely irritated his doctorly knowledge, ahd he has found his final victim of the night. Down with the billboard that dispenses incorrect medical advice. Another main character is George W. Hayduke, a former Green Beret and POW in the Vietnam War. He is a rude, crude, beer-guzzling bear of a man, definetely the most radical of the bunch in his environmentalist ways. He is also the most knowledgable in terms of being an outdoorsman, the man who always seems to save the day, but who is such a risk-taker that he also runs into the most trouble. A daredevil and almost "superhuman" power in terms of his ability to escape the most questionable circumstances, he is the one who the story seems to truly revolve around, the true hero of the novel. An incarnation of Edward Abbey himself? More on that later. The fourth member of the gang is Seldom Seen Smith, a "jack" Mormon with three wives who has a wandering way and who works as a wilderness guide for a living.

In fact, it is on one of the wilderness tours that Seldom Seen leads that all the characters meet, and soon discover their common penchant for destroying billboards and tractors and other obstacles to wilderness. On the tour they begin talking about their ultimate goal: to blow up the Glen Canyon Dam. At first it is just talk, but the gang soon forms, and they each contribute their expertise as they plan the dam's destrution. Doctor Sarvis is the money behind the operation, Abbzug the practical reason. Seldom Smith knows the terrain like it's his own backyard, and Hayduke brings his survival skills and sense of risk-taking from his army days.

From this point on there is a lot of destruction. The derailment of a train carrying supplies to builders, the disabling of expensive tractors, the trashing of construction sites. The government begins to catch on to the foul play, and sends out Search teams, headed by a man named Bishop Love who is bent on catching the criminals. Yet many times the gang is able to elude the authorities, despite many close calls.

So, there is a ton of action in this book, full of exciting chases, and escapes, and near-death experiences. This is all very interesting, but what I thought perhaps more interesting were the moments in-between, the moments of internal dialogue, when we get to know the characters beyond their tough exteriors, and see them not just a members of this gang but also as human beings. The novel is written from the point of an omniscient narrator, and that truly gives us a bird's-eye view of their internal thoughts and struggles, or shall I say, in this book, a vulture's eye view. The book both begins and ends with a vulture flying high above, but more about that in a minute.

Here are some of my favorite moments when we get to see the character's feelings:

Doc: What's a meniscus to come between lovers?
She was silent.
Doc: We are still overs, aren't we?
At the moment she wasn't sure. A vague oppression filled her mind, a sense of things absent, lost, yet to be found.
Doc: We were lovers last night, he reminded her gently.
Bonnie: Yes, Doc, she finally said.

Here you can sense the desperation of the aging Doc Sarvis, and the desire of Bonnie to be free, yet feeling bound out of loyalty and habit.

Another showcase of Doc's loneliness after he gives Hayduke permission to sleep with Bonnie:

He ordered a second martini, following with his gazethe movement of the girl's structurally perfect thighs as she withdrew in sinuous meander among the tables back to the chrome-plated rails of the service bar. He thought as she walked of those inner surfaces caressing one another in frictionless intimacy, how they led and where and why. He thought, with a pang as poignant as morning dreams, of Bonnie.

And:

Doc thought of his friends out there somewhere, far way to the north and west, among the rocks, under that simple light, doing their necessary work while he idled away his middle age. The devil finds work for idle hands. Dr. Sarvis reached for the newspaper. Saw the full-page adon the back. Boat Show, Duke City Ice Arena. He thought he might go have a look at the new houseboats. Tomorrow, or the next day. Soon.

Here is a moment of Hayduke's inner reflection, near the end of the novel;

He breaks a small branch from the cliff-rose, its lovely orangelike perfumed blossom now going to seed. He scrapes the shit out of his pants. Why? Under the circumstances, why bother? Well, thinks George Hayduke, it's a question of dignity.

I like these moments of peeling away and revealing the human sides of these radicalists, and there are many more both subtle and pronounced throughout the novel.

Now, back to the concept of the vulture, and the idea of death in this novel. As I mentioned, the vulture appears at the starts of the novel, reappears throughout, and shows up at the end. We know the vulture is a symbol of death and decay and so this must be foreshadowing of death to come. However, what death is it referring to? At the end of the novel, Bonnie and Doc surrender to the authorities, and Seldom Seen gets caught. This leaves Hayduke as the lone man left. He has always been the most vigilant of the group, so this is no surprise, and throughout the course of the novel you come to love him for his passion, however misguided it may seem. However at the end he is cornered by the authorities at the Maze and they shoot him: he appears to die. His body is never found, but witnesses say they saw it fall into the river below. Yet in the Epilogue, Hayduke himself comes to visit the other three gang members who have been let out of jail on parole and bail, charged with misdemeanors and one felony. Hayduke is actually alive...or is he? Is this a ghost? A figment of the imagination? It seems as if this is how the novel MUST end: Hayduke can never surrender, and so the only options are for him to die, or to escape. To me it seems like Hayduke is the true radicalist, the incarnation of Abbey himself. Just as environmental radicalists continue to write things like "Abbey lives!" on bathroom stalls, Hayduke himself lives on as a hero, a legend, and a folk figure. The gang never did get around to blowing up the Glen Canyon Dam, and Hayduke mentions that he now has a new identity, and a new job...as night watchman at the dam. He will never give up his mission, and he will never actually die, even if he does so physically. Perhaps the vulture refers to the death of wilderness, and the American Southwest, due to industrialism? Or does it refer to the death of modernism and industrialism instead?

This was an interesting book, one I would never pick up and read on my own volition, but one I'm so glad I had a chance to read. It brought me to a whole new world of the wilderness in America, and living in Los Angeles I am very far removed from such experiences. Beyond all the action and destruction, it also brought up issues of passion, personal dignity, desire, and drive, which is missing from a lot of our lives. I know it showed me a lot about what true dedication and committment to an idea is, something that I can definetely think about, something I definetrly could use more of.

Next up: a new author, Steve Abee, and his book "The Bus: Cosmic Ejaculations of the Daily Mind in Transit". Should be interesting. Until then--