[FRIAM] John Steinbeck in the 21st century

Sat Oct 26 11:54:24 EDT 2019

Steinbeckers –

Does anybody else remember that one-page chapter about the tortoise on 66 in Grapes of Wrath? 

It is such a metaphor for everything. 

Nick 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

 <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Steven A Smith
Sent: Friday, October 25, 2019 7:00 PM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] John Steinbeck in the 21st century

On 10/25/19 1:21 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:

I've read Cannery Row and liked it. I like the books from Steinbeck in general. What is the name of the biography from the Doc? "Beyond the Outer Shores" ? Is it recommendable? 

Very... 

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/401670.Beyond_the_Outer_Shores

-Jochen

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Steven A Smith  <mailto:sasmyth at swcp.com> <sasmyth at swcp.com> 

Date: 10/25/19 16:53 (GMT+01:00) 

To: friam at redfish.com <mailto:friam at redfish.com>  

Subject: Re: [FRIAM] John Steinbeck in the 21st century 

...On a recent pleasure/work trip I *re*visited Monterrey CA and Cannery Row which lead me to *re*read Steinbeck's Cannery Row which lead me to read something of a biography of the Doc character in his novel (and the movie) for whom the prototype was Ed Ricketts...

Beyond the Outer Shores was written roughly 15 years ago, recounting Ricketts' life and career.  I knew that Steinbeck was a good friend of Ricketts but I was not aware of how much work they did together, including a summer of kayaking in the Sea of Cortez which yielded the data for the book they co-authored by the name "Sea of Cortez".   I was also unaware that Joseph Campbell spent his formative (adult) years in the company of both of these mens (and more to the point, Ricketts).   The author of this biography credits Ricketts as being highly influential in the work of both Steinbeck (beyond Cannery Row) and Campbell, and credits him with leading the transition from traditional biology focused on taxonomic approaches to identification of collected specimens.  Ricketts approached collecting and identifying (mostly marine) species as well as writing them up in his famous trilogy on the topic in the context of a newly emergent field of "ecology".   He was simultaneously under-appreciated due to his lack of formal education, his lack of academic affiliation whilst also being a highly prolific commercial collector/supplier of specimens to the same community while identifying a huge number of new species (perhaps only recognizing the subtle differences based on habitat and foodweb relations) within his purview (the range of the Pacific coast along the North American coast from Bering Sea to Panama).

On 10/23/19 3:39 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:

I recently stumbled upon John Steinbeck's classic novel "The Grapes of Wrath" and wonder if it is similar to the situation today. You will all know it since it is often read in High Schools, right? (I had to read Goethe in School. And "Animal Farm" plus "To kill a Mocking Bird" in the English class).

As you know Steinbeck describes how migrants from Oklahoma called Okies look for a better life in California. They travel along the Route 66, which Steinbeck helped to make popular, passed Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and drove to the West until they arrived in California where the locals disliked and rejected them.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/news/grapes-wrath

Today we have migrants from Cuba and Mexico looking for a better life in the US and refugees from Syria and Afghanistan who cause a lot of trouble in the EU. Many of these refugees and migrants live in camps, just like the ones Steinbeck visited. 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/feb/02/johnsteinbeck.socialsciences

Steinbeck's novel takes place during the "Dust Bowl". Today the dry regions in the South suffer from droughts and wild fires caused by Climate Change worldwide. Everything sounds similar, as if history is repeating itself. 

https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-dust-bowl

-J.

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