Charlene, whom they call Charlie, is six. This morning she scrutinized Lou, wrinkling her sunburned nose, and asked, Where are you going?
Short trip north, he said. Some fishing, a little duck hunting, maybe.
You dont have a gun, Charlie said. She watched him evenly, her long tangled hair raking the light.
Lou found himself avoiding her eyes. The others do, he said.
His little boy, Rolph, clung to him at the door. Pale and dark-hairedChristines coloring, her iridescent eyes. Its the strangest thing when Lou holds his son, as if their flesh were starting to fuse, so that letting go of him feels like tearing. He has a guilty awareness of loving Rolph more than Charlie. Is that wrong? Dont all men feel that way about their sonsor, at least, those lucky enough to have sons? Poor Tim Breezely!
There will be no fishing, no hunting. What Quinn divulged, that afternoon on Montgomery Street, as they drank and smoked their Parliaments and roared with laughter before driving their big cars home to their wives and kids, was that he knew of some bohemians who grew grass in the middle of a forest near Eureka. They welcomed visitors. We can go overnight on a weekend sometime, if you like, Quinn said.
They did.
How can I possibly know all this? I was only six, and stuck at home, despite my fervent wish to come alongI always wanted to go with my father, sensing early (or so it seems, looking back) that the only way to hold his attention was to stay in his presence. How can I presume to describe events that occurred in my absence in a forest that is now charred and exudes an odor like seared meat? How dare I invent across chasms of gender, age, and cultural context? Trust me, I would not dare. Every thought and twinge I record arises from concrete observation, although getting hold of that information was arguably more presumptuous than inventing it would have been. Pick your poisonif imagining isnt allowed, then we have to resort to gray grabs.
I got lucky; all four mens memories are stored in the Collective Consciousness, at least in partsurprising, given their ages, and downright miraculous in my fathers case. He died in 2006, ten years before Mandalas Own Your Unconscious was released. So how could my father have used it? Well, remember: the genius of Mandalas founder, Bix Bouton, lay in refining, compressing, and mass-producing, as a luscious, irresistible product, technology that already existed in crude form. Memory externalization had been whispered about in psychology departments since the early two-thousands, with faculty speculating about its potential to revolutionize trauma therapy. Wouldnt it help you to know what really happened ? What youve repressed ? Why does my mind (for example) wander persistently to a family party my parents took me to in San Francisco around the time this story takes place? I remember scrambling with a bunch of kids around the roots of an old tree, then being alone in someones attic beside a white wicker chair. Again and again: scrambling with those children, then alone in an unfamiliar attic. Or not alone, because who took me there, and why? What was happening while I looked at that chair? Ive wondered many times whether knowing the answers to those questions would have allowed me to live my life with less pain and more joy. But by the time one of my fathers caregivers told us about a psychology professor at Pomona College who was uploading peoples consciousnesses for an experimental project, I was too wary to participate. A gain is also a loss when it comes to technologymy fathers imploding recording empire had taught me that much. But my father had little to lose; hed had five strokes and was expiring before our eyes. He wanted in.
Rolph had been dead for years, and my other siblings were elsewhere. So it fell to me to greet the young professor, who wore red high-top sneakers, along with his two graduate students and a U-Haul full of equipment, early one morning at my fathers house. I parted the sparse remnants of my fathers surfer shag and fastened twelve electrodes to his head. Then he had to lie stillasleep, awake, it didnt matter and there wasnt much of a difference at that pointfor eleven hours. Id moved his hospital bed beside the pool so that he could hear his artificial waterfall. It seemed too intimate a process to let him undergo with strangers. I sat next to him for most of the time, holding his floppy hand while a wardrobe-size machine rumbled beside us. After eleven hours, the wardrobe contained a copy of my fathers consciousness in its entirety: every perception and sensation he had experienced, starting at the moment of his birth.
Its a lot bigger than a skull, I remarked as one of the graduate students wheeled over a hand truck to take it away. My father still wore the electrodes.
The brain is a miracle of compression, the professor said.
I have no memory of that exchange, by the way. I saw and heard it only when I reviewed that day from my fathers point of view. Looking out through his eyes, I noticedor, rather, he noticedmy short, uninteresting haircut and the middle-aged gut I was already starting to acquire, and I heard him wonder (but hear isnt the right word; we dont hear our thoughts aloud, exactly), How did that pretty little girl end up looking so ordinary ?
When Own Your Unconscious came out, in 2016, I was able to have the wardrobes contents copied into a luminous one-foot-square yellow Mandala Consciousness Cube. I chose yellow because it made me think of the sun, of my father swimming. Once his memories were in the Cube, I was finally able to view them. At first, the possibility of sharing them never crossed my mind; I didnt know it was possible. The Collective Consciousness wasnt a focus of early marketing for Mandala, whose slogans were Recover Your Memories and Know Your Knowledge. My fathers consciousness seemed like more than enoughoverwhelming, in factwhich may be why I began, with time, to crave other points of view. Sharing his was the price. As the legal custodian of my fathers consciousness, I authorized its anonymous release, in full, to the Collective. In exchange, Im able to use date and time, latitude and longitude, to search the anonymous memories of others who were present in those woods, on that day in 1965, without having to invent a thing.
Let us return to the men scrambling behind or (in my fathers case) alongside Quinn Davies, their guide. The introduction to grass took place at the trailhead, where Quinn passed around a small pipe, refilling it several times. Most people didnt get high on their first exposure. (This was good old-fashioned pot, mind you, full of stems and seeds, long before the days of hydroponic sinsemilla.) Quinn wanted to get this first smoke out of the way, to prime his palsBen Hobart in particularfor getting well and truly wasted later on.
A river flashes in and out of view far below, like a snake sliding among leaves. As the men climb, their stumbling and guffawing yield to huffing, wheezing, and struggle. All four smoke cigarettes, and none exercise the way we think of it now. Even Ben Hobart, one of those preternaturally fit guys who can eat anything, is breathing too hard for speech by the time they crest the hill and glimpse A-Frame, as the house is known. Tucked in a redwood clearing and built from the cleared redwood, A-Frame is the sort of whimsical structure that will become a clich of seventies California architecture. But, to these men, it looks like an apparition from a fairy tale: Is it real ? What kind of people live here ? Compounding the eeriness is Simon and Garfunkels Sound of Silence eking from hi-fi speakers facing outward on the redwood deck. A-Frames mastermind, Tor, has somehow managed to get electricity to a house in the middle of a forest, that is accessible only on foot.
Hello, darkness, my old friend...
A hush of awe engulfs the men as they approach. Lou falls back, letting Quinn lead the way into a soaring cathedral of space whose vast triangular windows reach all the way to its pointed ceiling. The scent of redwood is overpowering. Quinn introduces Tor, an austere eminence in his forties with long prematurely white hair. Tors old lady, Bari, is a warmer zaftig presence. An assortment of young people mill about the main room and deck, showing no interest in the new arrivals.
This odd setup leaves our three newcomers unsure what to do with themselves. Lou, who cant tolerate feeling like a hanger-on, is abruptly angry with Quinn, who speaks quietly and privately with Tor. What the hell kind of greeting is this ? Nowadays, a man ill at ease in his surroundings will pull out his phone, request the Wi-Fi password, and rejoin a virtual sphere where his identity is instantly reaffirmed. Let us all take a moment to consider the isolation that was customary before these times arrived! The only possible escape for Lou and his friends involves retracing their steps through the forest without bread crumbs to guide them. So Lou paces around A-Frame in a way he cannot seem to help (though he feels its disruption), barking occasional questions at Tor, who sits aloft on a tall wooden chair that looks irritatingly thronelike: Nice place, Tor. What sort of work do you do? Mustve been hell getting pipes laid this far out.
Read more from the original source:
What the Forest Remembers, by Jennifer Egan - The New Yorker
- Why was that large land parcel cleared along southbound I-5 near Olympia? Heres the answer - The Olympian - September 29th, 2024 [September 29th, 2024]
- 13 Outdoor Upgrades That Will Instantly Increase Home Value - AOL - September 7th, 2024 [September 7th, 2024]
- Thousands of hectares of koala habitat are cleared every year, including for renewable energy projects - ABC News - September 7th, 2024 [September 7th, 2024]
- Opinion: Lets get the real story on vegetation management - Beef Central - September 7th, 2024 [September 7th, 2024]
- An average 100 million native animals killed or injured each year from land clearing, mostly for beef farms - RenewEconomy - August 4th, 2024 [August 4th, 2024]
- Resident faces colossal fine after clearing national park land for illegal building construction: 'This sends a strong and ... - The Cool Down - May 27th, 2024 [May 27th, 2024]
- EPA and NOAA identify problems with Port of Albany wind energy site - Riverkeeper - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Police look into alleged land-clearing smoke in crash - The Star Online - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Jacksonville to Benefit from ARPA Funds Sent to Two Rivers Land Bank - WLDS-WEAI News - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Wu announces forestry division to preserve and expand tree canopy in Boston - The Boston Globe - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Rising homelessness is tearing California cities apart - POLITICO - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- In bid to win trust of project proponents, Maharashtra govt to lift stay on 183 industrial plots allotted - Free Press Journal - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- 'Dreadful' tip being cleared after business complains of rats and flytipping - Liverpool Echo - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Genshin Impact A Prayer for Rain on the Fecund Land quest guide - Gamepur - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Clearing sale to stop temptation to work - Otago Daily Times - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Environmental Assessment Bulletin - News Releases - Government of Newfoundland and Labrador - September 22nd, 2022 [September 22nd, 2022]
- Preserve the island | Letters to the Editor | stateportpilot.com - State Port Pilot - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Tree That Outlasted the Dinosaurs 145 Million Years Now Endangered - Nature World News - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Reps panel probes Ministry of Agriculture over N18.6bn allegedly spent on bush clearing, land preparation, others - Premium Times - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- City of Vicksburg places liens on 17 properties - The Vicksburg Post - Vicksburg Post - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Land Grab: Why Baltimore kept desperately cutting deals with a developer who didn't deliver - The Real News Network - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Protesters have close call with heavy machinery at Dartmouth work site - CBC.ca - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- 'There are going to be a lot of unhappy people:' Louisville subdivision pushes against concrete plant - WHAS11.com - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Elgin chapter of the Izaak Walton League 'adopts' city's Central Park for national group's 100th anniversary - Chicago Tribune - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- What the Historic U.S. Climate Bill Gets Right and Gets Wrong - Council on Foreign Relations - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Selangor govt looking to acquire land at Bukit Tabur foothills to protect world's largest pure quartz dyke - The Star Online - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- SCRD issuing bylaw infraction tickets daily - Coast Reporter - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Don't let your diversification ambitions be thwarted by an agricultural land restriction - Gazette & Herald - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Dangerous 'fake' land on Doncaster river won't be cleared due to cost issues - Doncaster Free Press - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- From fire to floods to fire: London Fire Brigade warning as more dry weather due - Evening Standard - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Wetland area coming to FDR Park - South Philly Review - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Big banks CBA, NAB, Westpac, ANZ and Macquarie in push to disclose the impact of lending on nature - The Australian Financial Review - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Coast Guard helping to clean up oil spill in Tabbs Bay near Baytown - KTRK-TV - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Tahoe Summit explores highs, lows of progress on the lake - Tahoe Daily Tribune - August 20th, 2022 [August 20th, 2022]
- Alaska wildland fire crews ready for action, with state funding to reduce hazardous fuels - Alaska Public Media News - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Clearing landmines from Ukraine may take decades; Work to find, map, and remove them has already begun - Ukraine - ReliefWeb - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area - Mongabay.com - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Sunday sees rain with the return of drier conditions to start the work week. - FOX 13 Seattle - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Minister backs Western Port woodland clearance to expand sand mine - Sydney Morning Herald - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- The Alarmist Vireo - Bay Weekly - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Save Nambucca River Groups Meets For May News Of The Area - News Of The Area - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Swapping 20% of Beef with Meat Substitute Could Halve Deforestation: Study - EARTH.ORG - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- 'Incredibly historic': Winners of 2022 Archibald Prizes announced - Honi Soit - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Disconnect: Climate change and the Australian election - Pursuit - May 15th, 2022 [May 15th, 2022]
- Gallup's Quarry was so polluted the EPA took over. Here's how much it pays Plainfield now. - Norwich Bulletin - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Buffer ordinance in hands of Sussex council - CapeGazette.com - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Sundance Doc The Territory Shines Light On Alarming Deforestation Of Protected Land In Brazils Rainforest: Its A Nightmare - Deadline - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- The FAA says some 777s are cleared to fly to airports with 5G C-band - The Verge - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- The Tallest Known Tree in New York Falls in the Forest - The New Yorker - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Dredgers spotted off Cambodian base where China is funding work -U.S. think tank - Reuters - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Mystery person who cleared Munlochy Clootie Well didn't have permission from land owners - Press and Journal - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Ashtabula County Land Bank Executive Director leaving organization tomorrow - The Star Beacon - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- New businesses making their way to Chattahoochee County - WRBL - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Fog and stagnant air quality continue to drive the forecast through mid-week. - Q13 FOX (Seattle) - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Proposed TBM bylaw to impose restrictions on urban tree removal from private properties - CollingwoodToday.ca - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Calls for clean-up to remove plastic waste piling up on the Wessel Islands, off Arnhem Land - ABC News - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Snow and ice removal from vehicles targeted in five states - Land Line Media - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Efforts to restore a neglected Charlotte cemetery prove it's neither gone nor forgotten - WFAE - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Port Of LA Teams Up With Dairy Industry To Address Supply Chain Disruptions - NBC Southern California - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Rekindling connections in the small flame of a qulliq - High Country News - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Environmentalists angered by management of Rocky Hill - About Regional - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Former Bucs Tony Dungy and Shaun King Lead the Army of Head-Scratchers Over the Bucs' Fatal Blitz - Sportscasting - January 25th, 2022 [January 25th, 2022]
- Wilcox County Students recognized for work in the community - 41 NBC News - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Permits now required in Douglas County for riprapping, clearing and grading projects - Echo Press - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Advocates Want the EPA to Force Portland to Clean Up a Key Stretch of the Willamette River - Willamette Week - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Sidewalks and subdivisions: The final part of our SW Hamilton series - BikePortland.org - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Ghana loses 3% of its total revenue to fire outbreaks - GNFS - GhanaWeb - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Country diary: A tiny island on a loch perfect for a solstice overnight camp - The Guardian - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- When It Comes to Air Assault, Ukraine Could Give Russia a Run for Its Money - The National Interest - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Saints expected to start QB Ian Book vs. Dolphins as Taysom Hill, Trevor Siemian land on reserve/COVID-19 list - The Athletic - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Global maps of cropland extent and change show accelerated cropland expansion in the twenty-first century - Nature.com - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- The moments that defined the Middle East in 2021 - TRT World - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- The Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs Created the Amazon Rain Forest - Scientific American - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- UNIFIL deminers persevere with clearing south Lebanese land of deadly mines | UNIFIL - UNIFIL - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- Landfill size, tipping rate increasing over coming fiscal year - Maryville Daily Times - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- Here's how Bally Sports' takeover of Fox Sports Southwest affects Spurs fans - mySA - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- Nonprofit Harmony Lanes brings inclusive transportation to High Country - The Appalachian Online - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- With the Suez Canal Unblocked, the Worlds Commerce Resumes Its Course - The New York Times - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- New section of SH 249 opens | Navasota Examiner - The Navasota Examiner - April 5th, 2021 [April 5th, 2021]
- Pierce Land Clearing Stresses the Need to Seek Professional Forestry Mulching Services - Press Release - Digital Journal - February 20th, 2021 [February 20th, 2021]