Mount Analogue

Mount Analogue is full of imagery that paints a picture of mountaineering and mountains that gives the reader analogy after analogy to place an image of mountaineering seen through eyes of various professions in the world, rather than the usual mountaineer, that contributes his/her life to the practice. Beginning with the end of the novel to use as an analogy to mountaineering, we see a sentence that ends in the middle, leaving just a comma to end the book in chapter five Daumal, 99). In comparing this to the journey of a mountaineer, climbing a mountain, a feat for him/herself, we can see how the life can be cut short, leaving just a comma in place, which can lead to a larger or continued story from those that follow. Climbing the mountains of the Greater Ranges, we know that many climbers have died halfway through journeys due to complications, thus leaving their adventure unfinished, much like Mount Analogue. While, a very obvious analogy and one that was unintended, I think it does contribute to the novel of imagery and analogies.

The introduction to the novel brings forth the idea of “suavity” which translates as “liquidity,” and is achieved through “concise, elliptical phraseology, and vocabulary that was nuanced, melodious, and dignified”(Daumal, 18). Throughout reading this, I would think that Daumal reached this suavity throughout his text and his wording as well as descriptions of events/people. One of my favorite images from the novel that Daumal writes on is in the beginning chapter, comparing the Mountain as being a connection between the Earth and the sky, followed by “Its highest summit touches the sphere of eternity, and its base branches out in manifold foothills into the world of mortals. It is the path by which humanity can raise itself to the divine and the divine reveal itself to humanity”(Daumal, 31). This idea of Mountains brought forth by Daumal paints a picture of a very powerful structure on the Earth, that is Earth made and has a natural divinity that connects humans/mortals to the “sphere of eternity.” The use of the word mortals for humans portrays the inability of humans to live like the mountains do, and prosper as long as mountains do, giving the mountains more power on Earth. Daumal views the mountains, in a very metaphysical way, giving abstract substance to physical structures such as mountains. I enjoyed the abstract imagery used throughout the novel, but did grow slightly confused following the storyline mixed with the imagery and the analogies and how everything ties together.

Another form of imagery in this book that was very metaphysical was when Karl compared glaciers to a living body. He starts out his analogy by saying that “there is no place in the high altitudes for the fantastic, because the reality itself is more marvelous than anything man could imagine” (Daumal, 70). This might be one of my favorite lines from the novel and something I would like to look back at throughout the semester in reading other works on mountaineering and use this as a theme throughout the class, to find what each author, or mountaineer, or both, think of the high altitudes as being a marvelous reality that can be compared to a living creature that exhibits all of the same qualities as a living body. Overall, the imagery is what I took away most from Mount Analogue and find it a useful starting point when reading the other novels and watching films on the history of mountaineering, and compare the imagery, as well as use it as a theme throughout the semester.

 

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