Coyote at Large: Humor in American Nature Writing PDF
Preview Coyote at Large: Humor in American Nature Writing
C O Y O T E AT L A R G E C O Y O T E AT L A R G E (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) Humor in American Nature Writing Katrina Schimmoeller Peiffer THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH PRESS SALT LAKE CITY © 2000by Katrina Schimmoeller Peiffer All rights reserved Printed on acid-free paper LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA Peiffer, Katrina Schimmoeller, 1969– Coyote at large : humor in American nature writing / Katrina Schimmoeller Peiffer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87480-664-X 1. American literature—History and criticism. 2. Nature in literature. 3. Natural history—United States—Historiography. 4. American wit and humor—History and criticism. 5.Comic, The, in literature. 6.Tricksters in literature. I.Title. PS163 .P45 2000 810.9'36—dc21 00-009482 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Prologue ix ONE Laying the Foundation for Humor in Nature Writing 1 AWild Pair: Coyote and Humor Two Stories of American Humor Healthy Limits in the Ecological Household SHORT CUT Coyote Storyteller, Simon Ortiz 30 TWO Edward Abbey: Laughing Out of Place 37 SHORT CUT Coyote Magician, Ursula Le Guin 74 THREE Louise Erdrich: Seeking the Best Medicine 80 SHORT CUT Coyote Newcomer, Sally Carrighar 115 FOUR Wendell Berry: Maintaining Household Jokes 122 SHORT CUT Coyote Seer, Gary Snyder 150 FIVE Rachel Carson: Upholding the Comedy of Survival159 CONCLUSION Making Sense of Humor in North America 194 Bibliography 211 Index 221 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS this book has traveled a great deal on its way to publication. I am grateful to all of the people who made the trip possible: Stephanie Sarver, for suggesting Louise Erdrich; Linda Morris, for her close reading and great editing; Gary Snyder, for proposing that I look to Coyote; and es- pecially David Robertson, whose careful reading, fine judgment, and con- tinued support truly carried the book along. I am deeply grateful to Louise Chawla, whose friendship, hospitality, and cat gave me a nurturing place to type the manuscript. The interlibrary loan staff at the Paul Sawyier Public Library in Frankfort, Kentucky, and the Crawford County Public Library in English, Indiana, kindly filled all of my requests. Dawn Marano and the other staff at the University of Utah Press have been enthusiastic and perceptive in their handling of the book. Dawn Woodring did an excellent job copy-editing. The book also owes itself to my family’s laughter, which I have been steeped in since the beginning, and my husband’s talent for surprising me. Tim Peiffer, Charles and Laurie Schimmoeller, Chris Schimmoeller and Joel Dufour, and Mark Schimmoeller and Jennifer Lindberg are all readers, writers, artists, jokesters, and hard workers—I want to thank them for their endless love and inspiration. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint: Excerpts from Beyond the Wallby Edward Abbey, copyright 1984. Used by permission of Don Congden Associates, Inc. Excerpts from “From a Few Words in Favor of Edward Abbey,” “Why I’m Not Going to Buy a Computer,” “Feminism, the Body and Machine,” “Word and Flesh,” “Waste,” “The Pleasures of Eating,” from What Are People For? by Wendell Berry. Copyright 1990 by Wendell Berry. Used by permission of North Point Press, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Excerpts from One Day On Beetle Rock by Sally Carrighar, copyright 1944 and renewed 1972 by Sally Carrighar; copyright 1943, 1944 by the Curtis (cid:1) vii viii (cid:1) acknowledgments Publishing Company. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Excerpts from The Sea Around Usby Rachel Carson, copyright 1950, 1951, 1961by Rachel Carson. Renewed 1979by Roger Christie. Used by permis- sion of Oxford University Press, Inc. Excerpts from Under the Sea Wind by Rachel Carson, illustrated by Bob Hines, copyright 1941 by Rachel L. Carson. Copyright renewed 1969 by Roger Christie. Illustrations copyright 1991by Rob Hines. ATruman Talley Book. Used by permission of Dutton, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc. Excerpts from The Bingo Palaceby Louise Erdrich, copyright 1994by Louise Erdrich; and The Blue Jay’s Dance by Louise Erdrich, copyright 1995 by Louise Erdrich. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Excerpts from “Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight,” copyright 1987 by Ursula K. Le Guin; first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction; from Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences; reprinted by permis- sion of the author and the author’s agents, the Virginia Kidd Agency, Inc. Excerpts from “Telling About Coyote,” “Two Coyote Ones,” and “How to Make a Good Chili Stew,” from AGood Journeyby Simon Ortiz, copyright 1984. Used by permission of Simon Ortiz. Excerpts from “Through the Smoke Hole,” “ABerry Feast,” from The Back Country by Gary Snyder, copyright 1968 by Gary Snyder; excerpts from “The Call of the Wild” from Turtle Islandby Gary Snyder, copyright 1974 by Gary Snyder. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Excerpts from “Coyote Man, Mr. President and the Gunfighters,” from Left Out In the Rain: New Poems 1947-1985 by Gary Synder, copyright 1986 by Gary Snyder. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
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