Classics Book Club of NY

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Charles Frazier. Cold Mountain. (1997).

"Beautifully written.  I feel like I've known the characters for years, I relate to Ruby pragmatics, Ada's spoils, and Inman's wandering pain." -Eric

"I read the book when it first came out and thought it was terrific.  There is an article in the Times Arts section today (see below) about the movie and it discusses some of the ways that the movie is different from the book" - Patricia

ARTS AND LEISURE DESK | December 21, 2003, Sunday
The Civil War, Without All The Sepia Tint
By CHARLES McGRATH (NYT) 1828 words
Late Edition - Final , Section 2 , Page 1 , Column 1

"This was my second time reading the book, the first shortly after its publication.  It does not lend itself to "skimming", but I enjoyed the usage of words, although sometimes too flowery.   I'm looking forward to our discussion, but will we discuss the book, the movie, or the comparison between the two.?" -Dennis

"Here is some background on the "Cold Mountain" poet (in Chinese, his nom de plume is "Han Shan") from 8th century China, alluded to in the opening quotation of our current novel (also called Cold Mountain!! But why?) " -Andy

The Story of Han-shan and Shih-te: The first and by far the most famous Ch'an (Zen) eccentrics are Han-shan ("Cold Mountain"; Japanese: Kanzan) and Shih-te ("Foundling"; Japanese: Jittoku). The origins of the legends of Han-shan and his inseparable companion Shih-te can be traced to a collection of about three hundred T'ang poems, known as the Collected Poems of Han-shan. According to the preface, Han-shan was a recluse and poet who lived on Mount T'ien-t'ai (Chekiang, a place renowned for its hermits, both Taoist and Buddhist). He was a friend of the monks Feng-kan and Shih-te of the Kuo-ch'ing-ssu, a monastery near his hermitage. Shih-te, who had been found as a child by Feng-kan (Japanese: Bukan), and who had been brought up in the monastery, worked in the dining hall and kitchen. He supplied his hermit friends with leftovers. Sometimes, the legend says, Han-shan would stroll for hours in the corridors of the monastery, occasionally letting out a cheerful cry, or laughing or talking to himself. When taken to task or driven away by the monks, he would stand still afterwards, laugh, clap his hands, and then disappear. Judging from his poems, which abound with references to the Tao-te-ching and Chuang-tzu, the Taoist classics, Han-shan was actually more of a Taoist recluse than a Ch'an monk. - from Zen Painting and Calligraphy by J. Fontein and M.L. Hickman

"Kanzan lived in a cave behind Kuo Ch'ing monastery on Mount Tientai, the locus of the Tendai worship in China. The kitchen worker Jittoku would bring him food from the monastery, and the two men would amuse themselves in the evening with poetry and moon viewing. One among many examples of Kanzan's poetry is the following":

 I divined and chose a distant place to dwell- T'ien-t'ai: what more is there to say? Monkeys cry where valley mists are cold; My grass gate blends with the color of the crags. I pick leaves to thatch a hut among the pines, Scoop out a pond and lead a runnel from the spring. By now I am used to doing without the world. Picking ferns, I pass the years that are left. - Burton Watson, trans., Cold Mountain - from History of Japanese Art by P. Mason

You find a flower half-buried in leaves, And in your eye its very fate resides. Loving beauty, you caress the bloom; Soon enough, you'll sweep petals from the floor. Terrible to love the lovely so, To count your own years, to say "I'm old," To see a flower half-buried in leaves And come face to face with what you are. -   Han Shan, 750     Translated by Peter Stambler 

Beams with a thatch over them, - a wild man's dwelling! Before my gate pass horses and carts seldom enough; The lonely woods gather birds; The broad valley stream harbours fish; With my children I pluck the wild fruits of the trees; My wife and I hoe the rice field; What is there in my house? A single case of books. -   Han Shan, 750     Translated by R. H. Blyth     Zen and Zen Classics, p 132

Once, my back wedded to the solid cliff, I sat silently, bathed in the full moon's light. I counted there ten thousand shapes, None with substance save the moon's own glow. The pristine mind is empty as the moon, I thought, and like the moon, freely shines. By what I knew of moon I knew the mind, Each mirror to each, profound as stone. -   Han Shan, 750     Translated by Peter Stambler

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Clambering up the Cold Mountain path, The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on: The long gorge choked with scree and boulders, The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass. The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain The pine sings, but there's no wind. Who can leap the world's ties And sit with me among the white clouds?

Thirty years ago I was born into the world. A thousand, ten thousand miles I've roamed. By rivers where the green grass grows thick, Beyond the border where the red sands fly. I brewed potions in a vain search for life everlasting, I read books, I sang songs of history, And today I've come home to Cold Mountain To pillow my head on the stream and wash my ears. Gary Snyder-translator

When I see a fellow abusing others, I think of a man with a basketful of water. As fast as he can, he runs with it home, but when he gets there, what's left in the basket? When I see a man being abused by others, I think of the leek growing in the garden. Day after day men pull off the leaves, but the heart it was born with remains the same.

I spur my horse past the ruined city; the ruined city, that wakes the traveler's thoughts: ancient battlements, high and low; old grave mounds, great and small. Where the shadow of a single tumbleweed trembles and the voice of the great trees clings forever, I sigh over all these common bones - No roll of the immortals bears their names. Cold Mountain Han-shan tr. by Burton Watson Shambala, 1992 ISBN 0-87773-668-5

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"I guess Frazier, by naming his book "Cold Mountain" and leaving us a clue with the opening quotation, was commenting on the Zen-like atmosphere he was trying to create, such as "what is life all about anyway, if death is so prevalent and immediate."  Also, the wandering through the mountains with very little physical sustenance, but with a spiritual dream to sustain him, Inman was reminiscent of the Taoist hermit, trying to find the spiritual and physical "way" (or, Dao).  I wonder if the name "Inman" (in-man) emphasizes the internal deeper meaning of things, rather than their exterior surface, so typical of Buddhist thought and literature." -Andy

"After reading your moving "Cold Mountain" poems and analysis, I questioned my initial disappointment with the book's ending.  But Frazier has also spoken of his conscious debt to Homer's "Odyssey," in which Ulysses lives on to learn from the crises of his wanderings towards home after war.  Perhaps Frazier offers a morsel to several inconsistent and antagonistic theories. But how well does he develop any of them?  See Joyce's "Ulysses." -Ken

"The whole concept of the hero and the moral war has changed radically since Homer's time.  In some ways I think that "The Red Badge of Courage" -- perhaps the first truly anti-heroic look at war -- is more on point with reference to "Cold Mountain" than is "Odyssey." - Carey

"I think I understand you Ken, (see above)  if by "theories" you mean attitudes  towards the war and slavery.  And yes it would have been interesting if  Frazier fleshed these out more. Rape and pillage must have stirred some  passionate opinions, as would those engaged in "brother fighting brother",  as well as the fighting only for the interest of upper-class slave owners.  If I remember my history correctly, even General Lee's allegiance to the  South was a painstaking decision.  But alas Frazier seemed more intent to  make a story of everyday survival and love, rather than a philosophical  treatise...As for analogous stories, I have not read "Red Badge", and my attempt at  "Ulysses" was futile.  But (inexplicably), I thought of "Cold Mountain" in  the vein of the movie "Easy Rider".  -Eric

Why not "Easy Rider"? (see above)  A quest is a quest." - Carey

Regarding the Jan 12 meeting: The consensus seemed to be that Cold Mountain was a very well written, readable book unfortunately marred with a unsatisfying abrupt ending.  There were mixed thoughts regarding the success of the extent to which Frazier’s adhered to the Odyssey as a backbone for the novel.  Most were impressed by the strength of the female characters Ruby and Ada, who together possessed excellent synergy.  Some enjoyed particularly the Inman quest for home.  Pleasing alternative endings were as hard to fathom as the real one.  Should Inman have died before finding Ada (she would receive news second hand)? Should he have evaded capture only to test his fate up north without or without Ada?  Should he have been a classis western character and deftly win it all? A question concerning the real ending - was it possible Inman’s demise was linked to his “softened” mindstate after finally hooking up with Ada? ... There were a variety of thoughts in regard to style.  Some liked the poetic prose, some thought the language was too flowery, some found the landscape description as skimmable, and some were turned off by the ever-present squalor...  Nonetheless, does Frazier have a sophomore success in him for his next book?

In sum, Ken expresses "disappointment in finding no consistent clue to whether Frazier was intending that Inman's crises were a preparation for death (a la the Chinese Taoist "Cold Mountain" poets, quoted in the epigraph) or preparing him for life (a la Homer's "Odyssey" to which book there are obvious analogies, and which Frazier said he consciously used as a guide.)"

Eric writes in reference to Ken (see above), "Inman's crises of physical survival and his crises regarding his yearnings for Ada seem to be two inseparable forces that have little sustaining force one without the other.  As with anyone who has experienced the unique and powerful, Inman is most prepared for the role (in life or death)  of imparting wisdom.  In death, we see this wisdom as the novel "Cold Mountain" as it was written (indeed I agree, without satisfactory buildup).  In life, if Inman was to live, I can imagine him in the sense of the Clint Eastwood "Unforgiven" character -  one who wishes to learn from past mistakes but is inexorably drawn to the exiliharation to which they (the mistakes) are bound."

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Last updated: January 19, 2004.