"Whatever Predicament You Get Yourself Into"

June 9, 2022 8:44 AM

Less Alone (on spending a month in a fire-spotter's cabin in rural West Virginia, SLBitter Southerner)
posted by box (11 comments total)

This was so wonderful to read at this particular time, date and point in history. My day is made. Thank you so much.
posted by y2karl at 9:32 AM on June 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

That is a very good read. Thanks, box!
posted by jaruwaan at 10:11 AM on June 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Bitter Southerner consistently produces some of the best "magazine" literature available online. I'm happy to be a member. (It's produced by PBS of Georgia, more or less.)
posted by COD at 10:26 AM on June 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Paris Review had a similar-but-different diary by a fire-watcher in Montana in its Summer 2008 issue.
posted by Hogshead at 10:56 AM on June 9, 2022

Great read. Thanks.

Now I am off to see what kinds of predicaments I can get into AND out of.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:08 AM on June 9, 2022

My parents did fire watch in Montana a long long time ago, and that is supposedly my origin story, heh.
Thank you for sharing.
posted by birdsongster at 12:11 PM on June 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

I enjoyed reading this. Thank you!
posted by starscream at 12:41 PM on June 9, 2022

There's a PNW tradition of poets and remote fire watch cabins. Gary Synder is the most widely known but I was surprised that he inspired Jack Kerouac and Philip Whalen to do the same.

(snip)
Snyder would inspire two other writers to become fire lookouts: his Reed college roommate Phillip Whalen and Beat Generation icon Jack Kerouac.
posted by aleph at 1:36 PM on June 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

Mixed feelings about Kerouac, but some of his best writing was about his fire watch experiences.
posted by ovvl at 6:47 PM on June 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Interesting—I did a whole summer in Montana doing this, back in undergrad. Wasn’t a “volunteer” job.
posted by Ideefixe at 4:47 PM on June 10, 2022

Firewatch the game captures some of what's described in the article. The isolation, the element of risk/danger, the glorious sunrises. At its heart, it's an atmospheric mystery game, but it's also a heck of a storyteller.
posted by xedrik at 10:00 PM on June 11, 2022