Experience 'Snoqualmie Strange' and let the Mist Gate open
Jim St. James’ Snoqualmie Strange: A Most Peculiar Hiking Guide, Volume 1: Mist Gate opens with a warning and reads like an introduction to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks universe, not that the TV show has any more official connection to the book than location though in Snoqualmie Strange, much like real (and possibly unreal) estate, location may be one of the most important things to a person and his or her connection with a place and with others. Of course, if the Strange is too much for the reader to handle, this will do as a nice hiking guide filled with legends and stories of the places where the hiker will end up.
It is unfortunate that this book has to be enjoyed at a time when its particular strengths may not be best serving society at large. In a society where science is trumpeted as a belief system rather than a way that people can objectively verify and identify their differing perceptions, this type of book with its possibly tongue-in-cheek disparaging of science could be deceptively dangerous. These stories are told with real conviction, so much so that one could imagine a Fox TV talking head, who has already laid claims to biblical happenings because of a picture he saw on the Internet of a shark swimming on a Houston highway, an image that was photoshopped, picking up this book and not only believing in every word, but also reporting it as if it were news (there are 2 words that should never be associated with this particular talking head and his delivery of entertainment: “news” and “reporting”). This book could be used and cited as fact by those who no longer, or never did, have the journalistic credibility or ability to do research. Make no mistake, Snoqualmie Strange provides a unique and interesting guide to the Mist Gate area hikes. It touches on the apocalyptic plague brought by Europeans to the Native American population of the Pacific Northwest in the 1700s, and it discusses the devastation that the Japanese Internment of the 1940s wrought upon the area, though in supernatural terms. If you know the difference between verifiable and can do a modicum of research, get Snoqualmie Strange and be entertained as well as educated about the area. You’ll even get a list of items that you should have in your Bag of Useful Things, that way you can pull solutions out of your B.U.T. (And yes, he did go there!) |
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