Non-fiction: John Long: Mountains of Madness (Joseph Henry Press, 2001)
Mountains of Madness is an account of two trips the Australian geologist John Long made to Antarctica, in 1988 and 1991. In some ways, it’s a pretty routine book about working as a scientist in Antarctica in that it goes through the process of traveling and working in detail, explaining everything about the flights, the survival training, and working in the deep field. However, it’s distinguished by the earnestness of its narrator. He comes across as a geeky everyman confronted with the majesty and terror of the Antarctic continent. Sometimes he’s talking about his underwear, or interesting fossil specimens… But then it’s suddenly about the experience of near death.
Long has done his Antarctic reading, and as the title suggests, there are numerous references to H.P. Lovecraft as well as a lot of polar literature. These are important when the book tries to grapple with the emotional impact of the Antarctic experience. Writing about himself as an emotional subject is another area where the book shines, and the relatable, at times goofy nature of its narrator becomes an asset.
From a poetic perspective, this is a book about a family man, a working scientist, who goes to the ends of the earth and has to face infinity, mortality and the limits of the human body. At the end, Long writes about how Antarctica changed him emotionally, and there’s something quite touching about it. In some ways, the Lovecraft-inspired title is a bit of hyperbole because nobody lost their minds on the trips recounted in the book. But at the same time, the narrator doesn’t return unscathed either.