Mission Statement

“I dream of a hard and brutal mysticism in which the naked self merges with a non-human world and yet somehow survives still intact, individual, separate. Paradox and bedrock.” -E. Abbey, Desert Solitaire (1990, p. 6)

From December 2006 until November 2010 this site existed at bedrockandparadox.blogspot.com.  As my free bandwidth was slowly erased, and my dedication to my work here grew, it became increasingly obvious that a better template was needed.  Hence, wordpress.

I was trained in continental philosophy by one of world’s leading Friedrich Nietzsche scholars, and believe that Abbey’s work (Solitaire being the most singular example) has flown under the radar as one of the best extent answers to Nietsche’s problem of nihilism.  Nietzsche says that the dominant western ethics and epistemology (best embodied by institutional Christianity) of the last millenia have been iatrogenic, that is, they’ve made worse the problems they were meant to cure.  If that foundation is destroyed, as it must be, what system of meaning will take its place?

Like it or not, this question defined the 20th century, and is continuing to define the 21st.

I think the answer lies in redefining how human subjectivity is thought of, especially in its relation to the natural world.  Rather than attempt a definitive answer which would fall into the Cartesian trap which Nietzsche helped destroy, I try to answer this question by building on Abbey’s work here, on a weekly basis.

Subjects are centered around cultural critique from an anti-anti-naturalist, post-deconstructionist perspective, and around outdoor adventure.  My working assumption is that truth (with a lower-case t) will emanate from trip reports, situatonal musings, essays on various subjects, and discussions of outdoor techniques and equipment.

Welcome aboard.

-Dave Chenault (Kalispell, Montana)