Post by Chee Yung on Sept 8, 2005 20:10:21 GMT 8
The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley
Hi Brothers
,
This is my second attempt to understand my obsession with catching fish with a fly and the graceful instruments that make up the experience. Being an avid reader and dreamer, of course another answer came in the form of yet another imaginative book. How I ‘discovered’ this author is convoluted but let me just say that the name ‘Loren Eiseley’ came from the darkly passionate lips of author Jim Harrison who wrote ‘ Legends of the Fall’ while the name Jim Harrison was quoted by John Gierach who is yet another level removed from Eiseley in the sense that Gierach writes in less sentimental language.
Eiseley was a naturalist following the footsteps of Thoreau. His gentle personality allowed him to make keen observations of ‘man’, ‘natural life’ and ‘spirituality’ without causing disturbance. This talent combined with a keen mind also allowed him to poetically weave the three disparate worlds so intimately that we cannot tell where man or creature or spirit begins.
‘The Star Thrower’ is the title of his most quoted article in this collection of various works including a solitary poem describing fly fishing. In it he describes his journey as a ‘cold and constantly observing’ scientist who is tired of so called ‘facts of life’ and is drawn by the story of a shaman ‘bone reader’ to venture to a remote beach where this mystic was supposed to live. Here, instead of finding the shaman, he observed myriad forms of marine creature being washed up the beach by the violent surf and hosts of greedy shell collectors picking up the struggling creatures.
Disgusted at the sight yet depressed by the hopelessness of it all, he wandered further down the beach in the dawning light where he first saw a rainbow formed by the surf droplets and then sighted a lone man on the beach seemingly framed by the rainbow. This man was picking up starfish and throwing them far across the surf. Upon his inquiry the thrower said, “ Maybe one will make it and be picked up to open sea by a pull of the current”. He thought the ‘star thrower’ to be mad and the act as futile as fighting death or evolution and he walked away.
Returning to his room he was haunted by the vision of the ‘star thrower ‘ and surmised that something was wrong with Man and the unquestioned reliance on scientific explanations. Indeed as a scientist he had ceased to wonder about the finicky aspects of Nature and natural creatures as the ‘Laws of Nature’ and even of the ‘Mind’ have been seemingly been fully theorized and explained by Einstein, Darwin and Freud. But he also realized that those laws do not explain his love for creatures and his fellow man.
So he went in search again for the ‘star thrower’ and, finding the man again intently casting starfish, decided to pick one up himself and make a throw. As his thrown starfish disappeared in the waves, he realised the ‘star thrower’ was heroic because this solitary man, unlike the great scientists or the greedy collectors, did what his heart told him to do and valued not ‘mankind’ but ‘life’.
From that moment on, whenever he gave up on life and the inevitability of death, he just thought about the star thrower and the fact that one person can actually make a difference to any living creature….
With this review, I applaud the actions of those who understand the true value of catch and release and more importantly, the value of all life
. Till the next review, my book is of course offered for loan should anyone be interested..
Cheers
CY
Hi Brothers
,This is my second attempt to understand my obsession with catching fish with a fly and the graceful instruments that make up the experience. Being an avid reader and dreamer, of course another answer came in the form of yet another imaginative book. How I ‘discovered’ this author is convoluted but let me just say that the name ‘Loren Eiseley’ came from the darkly passionate lips of author Jim Harrison who wrote ‘ Legends of the Fall’ while the name Jim Harrison was quoted by John Gierach who is yet another level removed from Eiseley in the sense that Gierach writes in less sentimental language.
Eiseley was a naturalist following the footsteps of Thoreau. His gentle personality allowed him to make keen observations of ‘man’, ‘natural life’ and ‘spirituality’ without causing disturbance. This talent combined with a keen mind also allowed him to poetically weave the three disparate worlds so intimately that we cannot tell where man or creature or spirit begins.
‘The Star Thrower’ is the title of his most quoted article in this collection of various works including a solitary poem describing fly fishing. In it he describes his journey as a ‘cold and constantly observing’ scientist who is tired of so called ‘facts of life’ and is drawn by the story of a shaman ‘bone reader’ to venture to a remote beach where this mystic was supposed to live. Here, instead of finding the shaman, he observed myriad forms of marine creature being washed up the beach by the violent surf and hosts of greedy shell collectors picking up the struggling creatures.
Disgusted at the sight yet depressed by the hopelessness of it all, he wandered further down the beach in the dawning light where he first saw a rainbow formed by the surf droplets and then sighted a lone man on the beach seemingly framed by the rainbow. This man was picking up starfish and throwing them far across the surf. Upon his inquiry the thrower said, “ Maybe one will make it and be picked up to open sea by a pull of the current”. He thought the ‘star thrower’ to be mad and the act as futile as fighting death or evolution and he walked away.
Returning to his room he was haunted by the vision of the ‘star thrower ‘ and surmised that something was wrong with Man and the unquestioned reliance on scientific explanations. Indeed as a scientist he had ceased to wonder about the finicky aspects of Nature and natural creatures as the ‘Laws of Nature’ and even of the ‘Mind’ have been seemingly been fully theorized and explained by Einstein, Darwin and Freud. But he also realized that those laws do not explain his love for creatures and his fellow man.
So he went in search again for the ‘star thrower’ and, finding the man again intently casting starfish, decided to pick one up himself and make a throw. As his thrown starfish disappeared in the waves, he realised the ‘star thrower’ was heroic because this solitary man, unlike the great scientists or the greedy collectors, did what his heart told him to do and valued not ‘mankind’ but ‘life’.
From that moment on, whenever he gave up on life and the inevitability of death, he just thought about the star thrower and the fact that one person can actually make a difference to any living creature….
With this review, I applaud the actions of those who understand the true value of catch and release and more importantly, the value of all life
. Till the next review, my book is of course offered for loan should anyone be interested..Cheers
CY