Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This book was written by Aron Ralston, the guy who cut off his arm. I'm pretty sure you all know about him, but just in case, here's a little re-cap. In 2003, he was hiking alone in Southern Utah, and got his arm trapped by a boulder in a slot canyon. His right hand was completely trapped, he couldn't move the boulder or chip away at it to free his hand, so on the 5th day of being trapped there with very little water and only a tiny bit of food (he thought it was about 500 calories spread over a few days), next to no sleep, and obviously his hand being crushed, he cut off his arm with a pocketknife to free himself. And then he had to rappel down a cliff and hike like 7 miles before he found other people. Insane.

I was really interested in this story when it happened (I'm sure Katie remembers me convincing her to accompany me to hear him speak at UVSC, after I assured her I didn't think he was going to discuss the gory details of the amputation. And then he totally did. This was before she was a nurse, though), and I am still totally fascinated by it. I want to see the movie, too, but I wanted to read the book first and get all the facts before I watched the movie, which I know has some extra theatrical elements. But I've found that I really love books about how amazing humans are. Our bodies and our minds. When I read Unbroken, I thought over and over that I couldn't believe that guy could survive everything that he did. And when I read this, I was really just amazed at the will to survive humans have. I don't think any other animal has that as much as we do. I mean, this guy was dying. He thought it was going to happen within a matter of hours. It was his 5th day of being trapped, he was dehydrated and hallucinating, but then he decided to take action, and he did it. It was amazing how quickly it happened. He had thought about cutting off his arm every day but always talked himself out of it. But then the day he did it, he just DID it. It took like 2 hours, and then he was free.

He interspersed the chapters about each day in the canyon with other memories of his adventurous life. It was pretty cool. I knew that he was an experienced hiker, but I didn't realize HOW experienced. He had solo climbed a whole bunch of mountains in Colorado, sometimes in the winter, he had this crazy experience with a bear stalking him in the Tetons, he graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a degree in engineering, but then quit after 5 years of working as an engineer because he loved the outdoors too much. He moved to Aspen and worked at an outdoor gear store and spent several days every week hiking, biking, and skiing. I have to admit, I skimmed through a lot of these chapters, partly because I just wanted to get back to the main story, and partly because I had to get the book back to the library. But it was interesting.

And the part I really could NOT stop reading was when I finally got to the amputation. It is pretty detailed, so if things like that will make you squeamish, do not read this. But if they don't, it is fascinating. And just incredible. I cannot believe a human being can cut off their arm, rappel down a cliff, and hike through a canyon, and be alive still. It is amazing.

Another favorite part of it for me was the pictures he included. He had a camera and a video camera with him, and he took pictures of himself. A couple of them are included in the book, including one of a blood spattered boulder in the canyon, taken after the fact. I love that he had the presence of mind to do that. And obviously he didn't include the videos in the book (because we are Muggles and don't have the capability), but he did transcribe everything he talked about. It's a message to his family and friends, tying up his financial affairs, and sharing memories with everyone, stuff like that. And I just love so much that it didn't end up being his funeral video. He would get it out and say, "Well, I think today might be the day," and stuff like that. But then he didn't die. He is ok. And that is so cool to me.

So anyway, if reading about someone cutting their arm off with a knife that is very unfit for the task will make you squeamish, don't read this. Or just skip that part, it's only like 4 pages long. If that. But if you like stories about people being inspired to live by hallucinations of their family and friends and future, you will like this. It was pretty awesome.

Also, one of my favorite passages from the book is when he finally does it. I found an excerpt online and copied and pasted it here:

It is 11.32am, Thursday, May 1 2003. For the second time in my life, I am being born. This time I am being delivered from the canyon’s pink womb, where I have been incubating. This time I am a grown adult and I understand the significance and power of this birth as none of us can when it happens the first time. The value of my family, my friends and my passions well up a heaving rush of energy that is like the burst I get approaching a hard-earned summit, multiplied by ten thousand. Pulling tight the remaining connective tissues of my arm, I rock the knife against the wall, and the final thin strand of flesh tears loose; tensile force rips the skin apart more than the blade cuts it.

A crystalline moment shatters, and the world is a different place.

Where there was confinement, now there is release. Recoiling from my sudden liberation, my left arm flings downcanyon, opening my shoulders to the south, and I fall back against the northern wall of the canyon, my mind surfing on euphoria. As I stare at the wall where not 12 hours ago I etched “RIP OCT 75 ARON APR 03”, a voice shouts in my head: “I AM FREE!”

The Poet and the Murderer

I can't remember where I heard about this book, but it interested me because it's about Emily Dickinson and Mark Hoffman. So, the poet and the murderer, respectively. If you aren't familiar with Mark Hoffman, he was a forger. In the 1980s, he created hundreds of forged documents from historical figures. He forged signatures of Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Boone, Betsy Ross, and of course, Emily Dickinson. He also created a lot of historical Mormon documents and sold them to the Church. I knew that he had sold a lot of things to the Church, and that it was a whole big mess, but what I didn't realize before I read this book is that he also hated the Church. Mark Hoffman grew up in Salt Lake, as a member of the Church, but by the time he was a teenager he had decided he didn't believe anymore. He went on a mission, got married in the temple, and all the while he was disaffected with the Church. Then he discovered he had this skill for forgery, and decided he would use it to embarrass the Church. The documents he created conflicted with Church history. He created a blessing that Joseph Smith gave to his son, Joseph Smith III, stating that he should be the next Prophet. This of course gave legitimacy to the RLDS Church, and created quite a stir, which is what he wanted. He also created the Salamander Letter, his most famous Mormon forgery. It's a letter written from Martin Harris to W.W. Phelps, saying that a small white salamander appeared when Joseph found the plates. This obviously is not present in any of the accounts that we have, and made Joseph's claims about the Angel Moroni leading him seem less founded.

The part of the book about Emily Dickinson has much less information than is given about Mark Hoffman, but is also really fascinating. She's a very interesting character. They talk about how she wrote thousands of poems that she just hid away in her room, and were found after she died. Also, she had requested that after she died, that all her correspondence be destroyed, which I found infuriating and awesome at the same time.

The reason they bring the two together is that Mark Hoffman wrote an Emily Dickinson poem. He WROTE it. He didn't copy an existing one in her handwriting. And a whole bunch of people who were experts believed that it was real. It was in her correct handwriting for the date (I guess her handwriting changed a lot throughout her life), it was on the same kind of paper that she used at that time period, and most amazingly of all, the poem itself seemed to be in her style. I obviously think Mark Hoffman is a terrible guy. He killed two people just so he could keep on doing this deceptive work and making money from it. But I have to admit that he is a genius. Everything he did was thought to be authentic. And it wasn't like the documents were never tested, or never sent to experts. They were. He was just THAT good at what he did. And I can't say I admire that, the nature of forgery is a lie, but there's something about it that is really amazing to me.

I have to warn you, however, that this book will be offensive where the LDS Church is involved. The author did NOT do a good job of seeming objective. I understand that he had to explain some things about Church history that are pretty weird in order to explain the documents that Mark Hoffman created. But I really did not like the way he did it. You are very clear about the author's view of the Church in this book, and it is certainly not a positive one. He talks more about the temple than I was comfortable with, and calls Joseph Smith a sex addict. He talks about the Church and culture in Utah as being very authoritative, no one should ask questions, secretive, manipulative, etc. I didn't appreciate that very much. The day of the bombings that killed 2 people, Mark Hoffman went to the Church office building and met with Elder Oaks. And in the book he talks about how the Church believes that their Apostles have a divine connection, and can discern things, but he didn't even know that the man he was talking to was a murderer, so how can they possibly truly be Apostles of God? I did NOT like that. 

So anyway, it was a VERY interesting book, as far as the descriptions about forgery, and the stories of trying to trace everything back to Hoffman, and Emily Dickinson, and pretty much all of it, actually. In fact, when I was about 50 pages in, they hadn't gotten to any of the Church stuff yet, and I found myself telling everyone about it, and how interesting it was. But you must have a very thick Mormon skin to be able to handle the Church stuff and the things he says. 

Oh, and if you're wondering, yes, Mark Hoffman is of course in prison for the rest of his life, at the Utah State prison. One thing I thought was so funny was the author's description of the prison, he said something about it being on a lonely windswept plain West of Salt Lake City. That was when I REALLY decided to not trust everything this guy said. I was like, dude, you could practically hit the prison with a rock from your car, driving down I-15. Ikea is like next door. I will give him the Ikea thing, actually, the book was published in 2003, but still. Come on. There was still a waterpark across the freeway in 2003. I kind of thought, "Did he think no one on the Wasatch Front was going to read this book?" But whatevs, Simon.

So I would recommend it, but I couldn't possibly feel good about not giving that qualifier. I would hate for someone to pick it up and read it and be like, "Erin, why would you tell me to read this book that is sort of anti?" So I have to tell you that up front. It was interesting, and I liked it, but it is not something you MUST read. If it weren't for all the Church stuff, it might have been, but to have something so close and dear to me treated to insensitively and negatively was pretty hard to take. And in the end, it was interesting, but it's not like it was uplifting or made me feel good. It's about a guy who deceived my Church for money and killed a couple of people. So it's not like I expected it to make me feel all warm and fuzzy, but you know.