As I approach the end of my dissertation, I�ve found myself reading a lot of stuff I read a long time ago and forgot, either because I need more information, or because I need to make sure I�m not just making stuff up or because I want to make sure that particularly well-written phrases were not stolen from some other place. I find the disjointed nature of my draft-level prose a little disorienting in that regard. But in any case, my reading list for the diss has been pretty hefty lately. Consequently, I�ve been desperately trying to find reading for fun that is totally escapist. And that is how I ended up on a deserted island with Robinson Crusoe.

A couple of weeks ago, when AJ and I were on our weekly trip to the library, I came across a chapter book on the new children�s books shelf about Alexander Selkirk, the man who inspired Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe. Years ago, when attending a friend�s wedding in Scotland, we went to the town where Selkirk had grown up and saw the historical marker where his house had been. I hadn�t realized there had been a real person behind Robinson Crusoe. It captured my imagination.

When I was eight, I went through a phase of reading books of the kid vs. nature variety. My two favorites were Scott O�Dell�s Island of the Blue Dolphins and Jean Craighead George�s My Side of the Mountain. Both tell stories of a child living in the wilderness alone. Something about the self-sufficiency appealed to me. Perhaps it was due to my own lack of agency � I had just been told my family was moving to England, a decision in which I had no part. Or maybe it was just the idea of adventure that appealed to me. In any case, I thought a lot about what it would be like to have to make something out of nothing, to survive on what you could find.

I am thoroughly enjoying Robinson Crusoe for all of those reasons. It�s an adventure story. It�s about being alone � a rare and prized condition for me these days. It�s about survival, about one�s inner resources, and about the beauty and ferocity of nature. And in eliminating the cooked from the raw � culture from nature � it is also about the functions and effects of culture. The small ways in which Crusoe brings his culture into his natural surroundings are fascinating. It�s all making me want to reread Levi-Strauss. But not until I turn in my draft.

[Yesterday's entry was late. Click back if you missed the introduction of drug paraphernalia into the Harriet household.]

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