Free Solo single work   essay  
Issue Details: First known date: 2022... 2022 Free Solo
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Early in the writing of this book I went to see a film called Free Solo. It is about a remarkable feat of human courage and strength: a man climbing the goo-metre high rock face, El Capitan, without ropes or harness. The film looks at the psychology of Alex Honnold, the man who could do some-thing that would seem, to most people, utterly terrifying. He is single minded to such an extent that he comes across as comic. He starts a relationship with a woman while they are filming: 'I don't mind having her in the van, he says of his new girlfriend. 'She's pretty; she doesn't take up too much space.' His climbing  friends discuss the risks of entering into a relationship when attempting such a difficult goal.  Would his concern for her impact his capacity to carry it out? I tried not to guffaw when he referred to himself as a warrior.  Facing down and ignoring danger. Here I thought is a kind of masculinity that 'gets the job done.' It prides itself on its lack of encumbrance. Solitude. There is no concern for the minutiae of life: he eats his dinner with the spatula he used to cook it. Such embodiment of masculinity enables a focus so intense that a man can balance his body on a tiny foothold  800 metres in the air while he switches his grip between one thumb and the other. And in doing so, he achieves an act of the the most extreme self-reliance and, arguably, pride: doing the most dangerous thing without dying.' 

 (Introduction)

 

 

Notes

  • Epigraph: Often, we don't like him, but he matters. —Morag Fraser, review of Short History of Richard Kline 
    Rick asked her how she felt about the lift her brother had chosen. She shrugged. 'He's very like our father,' she said. 'Single-minded. They're both warrior types, if you know what I mean.' He did. —A Short History of Richard Kline 
     

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Lohrey Julieanne Lamond , Collingwood : Melbourne University Press , 2022 24426524 2022 selected work essay

    'A guide to the world of Amanda Lohrey's fiction, and a meditation on what her writing has to say about contemporary life and how we live it.

    'Amanda Lohrey is a fearless and idiosyncratic writer whose award-winning career spans four decades. Her work is experimental, political, intimate and compelling. Lohrey provides an illuminating series of readings of key preoccupations across Lohrey's body of work. From the relationship of the personal to the political, masculinity and free will, human and non-human worlds and how reading shapes us, Lohrey traces a remarkable career across the contemporary literary landscape, and provides readers with an understanding of Lohrey's bold and singular style.'  (Publication summary)

    Collingwood : Melbourne University Press , 2022
    pg. 60-87
Last amended 18 Oct 2022 09:30:22
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