{"id":3592,"date":"2018-12-20T10:48:41","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T15:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/?p=3592"},"modified":"2018-12-20T10:49:14","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T15:49:14","slug":"barry-lopez-writes-about-ansmet-1998-99-in-harpers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/2018\/12\/20\/barry-lopez-writes-about-ansmet-1998-99-in-harpers\/","title":{"rendered":"Barry Lopez writes about ANSMET 1998-99 in Harper’s"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Old USARP air photo of the Graves Nunataks icefield, looking NE. \u00a0Note the clouds creeping up from the Ross Ice Shelf to the left, a constant irritant in our attempts to return to the area.<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Our field work takes place under conditions that can inspire your soul and test its limits. \u00a0Because this work touches us so deeply, \u00a0every individual experiences it differently, and quite a few of our veterans feel compelled to write about their ANSMET experiences. Even when you’re standing side-by-side on the ice, facing the wind, the feelings are unique to each of us. \u00a0It makes for inspiring and sometimes emotional writing.<\/p>\n

Twice we’ve been fortunate enough to host professional authors of significant reknown. \u00a0More recently it was Chris Cokinos, \u00a0whose ANSMET experiences are beautifully and candidly chronicled in his 2009 book The Fallen Sky<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0But Chris wasn’t the first- a decade earlier we hosted Barry Lopez, \u00a0whose book Polar Dreams<\/em> is a key part of the canon for those drawn toward the ends of the Earth.<\/p>\n

Barry joined ANSMET because he was interested, the time was right, and the support was there. \u00a0He joined us for our first systematic season at Graves Nunatak. It proved to be a challenging season with long delays getting into the field followed by marginal-to-bad weather. \u00a0In the end we got only one week of searching out of the 6 weeks planned.<\/p>\n

Barry stayed in touch with us for a few years afterwards (longer, I think, with John). We were expectant, \u00a0of course, and hints of his ANSMET experiences showed up in some subsequent works. But no opus arrived and after a while we understood (properly) \u00a0that the desires of the reader are disconnected from the desires of the writer. \u00a0 As someone without a strong compulsion to write, \u00a0I understand that some experiences can be harmed by efforts to force them into words.<\/p>\n

Thus I was very pleasantly surprised when representatives from Harper’s Magazine contacted us in October for help adding context to an essay by Barry describing his ANSMET experience 20 years ago. \u00a0We (John Schutt, Nancy Chabot and myself) gave them\u00a0images, fact-checking, and background. \u00a0It made me happy that the article was about Barry’s experiences in 1998, not about ANSMET or NASA or NSF or climate change or….. \u00a0 we were going to feel what he felt. The same experience, \u00a0but experienced differently.<\/p>\n

That’s all the preamble you’ll get from me. \u00a0Read it, \u00a0it’s very good.<\/p>\n

Barry Lopez’ Polar Light<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Note you get only one free read from Harper’s per month… use it wisely. \u00a0I’ve asked Harper’s if we can post a PDF, so check back if that’s important to you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

-Ralph from Cleveland, the land of Veiled Sunshine.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our field work takes place under conditions that can inspire your soul and test its limits. \u00a0Because this work touches us so deeply, \u00a0every individual experiences it differently, and quite a few of our veterans feel compelled to write about their ANSMET experiences. Even when you’re standing side-by-side on the ice, facing the wind, the feelings are unique to each of us. \u00a0It makes for inspiring and sometimes emotional writing.<\/p>\n

Twice we’ve been fortunate enough to host professional authors of significant reknown. \u00a0More recently it was Chris Cokinos, \u00a0whose ANSMET experiences are beautifully and candidly chronicled in his 2009 book The Fallen Sky<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Continue reading… Barry Lopez writes about ANSMET 1998-99 in Harper’s<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":3594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[21,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2018\/12\/20092035\/graves-airphoto.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3592"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3609,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3592\/revisions\/3609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}