Thursday morning was so beautiful in Seattle. The air was cool and crisp, and the sky clear and blue. I love looking west at the Olympic Mountains knowing the Pacific Ocean is just beyond.
I was in a reflective mood and as I looked at the mountains I was thinking about a couple of my favorite authors, Frank Herbert and Henry Miller.
When Frank Herbert became famous after Dune, he continued writing the series from his home in Port Townsend. He divided his time between here and his home in Hawaii. One of my favorite stories is one of his lesser known smaller works, Soul Catcher.
It takes place on the Olympic Peninsula, over there where those mountains are. The book is a great character study and very personal. It doesn't have chapter's per say, it has sections that follow excerpts from letters. The story is built around an incident between indigenous peoples and some local idiot lumberjacks. From there we follow Charles Hobuhet who kidnaps a 13 year old boy and takes him into the wilderness.
I don't want to spoil the story, so I'll leave it here. Herbert is a master at setting you up and provoking you to see things and compare them in a very unique light. It's a great read, but out of print. I do see it though on trips to Half Price Books and other used book shops.
Click the picture to see full size on my Picasa photo album.
Understanding is not a piercing of the mystery, but an acceptance of it, a living blissfully with it, in it, through and by it.
Henry Miller
Reflections on Writing
The Blackberry Chronicles
© ARFCO MEDIA 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment