What really stuck out to me while reading Imperial Ascent was the nature of men to prove their masculinity through mountaineering. Bayers uses the examples of climbing Denali in Alaska and Mt. Everest to point to the way in which empire and masculinity were connected, but the point that really stuck out to me was…
Reading Response
Reading Response, Uncategorized, Week 5
Week 5, Mountians and Cultural Identity
by wmg •
For weeks we have been stewing over British Imperialism and national pride, when it came to ascension of Mount Everest. The British felt that it would be a national accomplishment to make it to the top of this great mountain. However, mountains being strongly tied with cultural identity was not solely found within the British…
Reading Response, Week 5
by mel •
Wanting Children and Wanting K2This week I focused more on the online readings over the book and found “‘Wanting the Children and Wanting K2’:The incommensurability of motherhood and mountaineering in Britain and North America in the late twentieth century” very interesting and also a source of debate, for a couple of reasons. To begin my…
Reading Response, Week 5
Week Five Response
by mmd •
Imperial ascent was certainly an interesting book to say the least. I do not know exactly to make of it honestly, some of the ideas I thought were overly aggressive. For instance I doubt that Dr.Cook’s aim of climbing Denali was to assert his masculinity, no doubt it in all probability was a subconscious factor…
Reading Response, Week 5
Imperial Ascent
by Matt •
Imperial Ascent shows the development of mountaineering – where in the mind of climbers it has come from and where modern mountaineering is going. And this is how Bayers sets up his book. I found it hard in the beginning of the book to make the connection of imperialism and masculinity, until the section on…
Reading Response, Week 4
The Mountain of Dancing Lamas
by The Crooked Spoke •
While I enjoyed the history and nostalgia of Fallen Legends, I want to focus on the two accessory readings. These pieces complemented the theme of exploration that spoke to me in the opening chapters of Weaver’s and Isserman’s work and shed interesting non-climbing historical lights on the mountain realm. ‘The Mountain: A Political History…
Reading Response, Week 4
Fallen Giants
by th •
At first, Fallen Giants proved to be a very dry and mundane read, with the first couple chapters introducing the readers to geographical data of the Himalayan region, as well as an abundance of uneventful historical details. At times it became quite difficult to keep reading, as Isserman and Weaver did very little to intrigue…
Reading Response, Week 4
Fallen Giants
by mmg •
The reading of Fallen Giants by Weaver and Isserman was an intriguing read to say the least, one which I personally enjoyed more than any other reading. This reading was more substantial in my eyes and really provided a compressive history of mountaineering in the himalayas that I had so desired, which is due to…
Reading Response, Week 4
Week Four
by lcm •
Exploration for the sake of understanding objects, specifically for scientific purposes, fueled the past’s interest in mountains. The Mountain describes how from the Enlightenment period to the present, the desire to make sense of an entity has taken over the minds of not only individuals on their quest for fulfillment but entire scientific communities. All…
Reading Response, Week 4
Fallen Giants – Week 4 Response
by Bryant Lymburn •
Week 4 – Reading Response By: Bryant Lymburn In the first half of the book, Fallen Giants, it describes various journeys of mountain expeditions to the Greater Ranges. The book picks up in the later half of the 18th Century and predominately starts with the British intrigue and push into the mountains. This intrigue began…