Review of “Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape” by Barry Lopez

Note: This review is by my husband Jim.

This Non-Fiction National Book Award Winner is not easy to categorize.  It is rhapsodic writing, sometimes impressionistic and sometimes full of jaw-dropping facts:  part geography (of the Arctic), part natural history, part biology (including background on muskoxen, polar bears, seals, walruses, narwhals, caribou, lemmings and numerous sea birds), part Eskimo sociology, part history of polar and Arctic exploration, and part philosophical musings on the relation of man to his environment and the relationship of human hunters to their prey.

I learned a great deal from this book.  Clue to reading the book:  have on hand several large, detailed maps of the region.  Appendix I of the book contains the latitude and longitude of most of the key places mentioned.  The story of the search for the Northwest Passage is greatly enhanced by being able to visualize the obstacles.

Some of the items that stood out to me:

In the search for the Northwest Passage (a sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean), all the early explorers had to overwinter in the Arctic.  An examination of a good map of the region shows how difficult it was to find a clear path through the area. While there are a number of large islands, there are only narrow bodies of water to get around them. Moreover, many of the apparent passages lead to dead ends or become blocked by large chunks of ice. Early attempts often ended in death and disaster.

2004 map from the Canadian Hydrographic Service represents a more modern look at the Arctic. Via Osher Map Library, per National Geographic

Robert Peary, the self-proclaimed first explorer to reach the North Pole (his claims are in doubt), had other personality flaws besides an outsized ego and a tendency to alter facts to suit it. He notoriously mistreated the Inuit, convincing six individuals to come to America with him for “study.” He then deposited them in New York with the American Museum of Natural History as live “specimens” and abandoned them. The Inuit were kept in damp, humid conditions and within a few months, four died of tuberculosis, their remains dissected, and their bones put on display. A fifth managed to gain passage back to Greenland, and only the sixth, a boy of six or seven remained, orphaned and adrift in New York.

Peary was also cruel to his animals.  He fed some of his sled dogs to the others in order to minimize the amount of food the expedition had to carry.

Robert Peary, 1909 via Wikipedia

Lopez lived among the Eskimos while working on this book, and he discovered that few outsiders had much knowledge of the Eskimo language beyond the conversational, and even less understanding of their culture. He averred it was ”nonsense” to consider our culture sophisticated and theirs naive.

A notion of community dominates the Eskimo worldview, as expressed by the Eskimo word “Isumataq.”  It means one person cannot possibly hold all wisdom.   Sharing information, respecting the opinions of others, pooling knowledge, and a respect for nature is the key to their survival.  

Contrary to the popular misconception, lemmings don’t commit suicide.  They migrate in large groups, and those at the front can get pushed over cliffs by the mobs following behind.

The wildlife in the Arctic is hardy.  Polar bears are so well insulated they actually need to get rid of excess heat, which they do by eating snow.

Arctic polar bears, via arctickingdom.com

In the Arctic, one often can’t discern if what is visible is a big distant thing or a close small thing. A Swedish explorer had all but completed a written description of two unusually symmetrical valley glaciers making up a a large island, when he discovered what he was looking at was a walrus.

The light in the Arctic is like a living thing, and was a constant source of awe for Lopez. Although the sun virtually disappears for the entire winter, the Northern Lights, a phenomenon caused by ionic reactions in the upper atmosphere, afford some illumination as well as putting on spectacular dynamic displays. When the sun reappears in spring, one is filled with gratitude and pleasure. Lopez noted that the reflection of the sun on the ice constantly shifts, creating scenes ranging from magnificent skyscapes to staggering cathedral-like structures made out of ice. In spite of the monochromatic landscape, nothing stays the same.

Northern Lights in Arctic Canada

 
Lopez concludes about the Arctic that it is a country of the mind:

“It is easy to underestimate the power of a long-term association with the land, not just with a specific spot but with the span of it in memory and imagination, how it fills, for example, one’s dreams.”

The final line in Mr. Lopez’s book, when he is standing alone on an island in the dark, silent Arctic, reads: “I was full of appreciation for all that I had seen.” And readers are grateful that he shared it.

Rating: 5/5

Published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1986