Vallicella on Edward Abbey
Many of my readers also seem to read Bill Vallicella, so it is probably superfluous to send them here.

Abbey bears the marks of an undisciplined man, undisciplined in mind and in body. A slovenly reasoner, a self-indulger.

And this:

Which is more manly, to battle one’s sensuality like Augustine, or to wallow in it like Abbey? Is it cock and balls that make the man? Clothes? Social status? Money? Political power? Or is it that weak little Funklein, the fragile germ of enlightenment?

The crudity of Abbey, the elevation of Thoreau.

Abbey: a tremendous sensitivity to the beauties of nature and music, but larded over with an abysmal crudity. Half-educated, self-indulgent, willful. But he knows it, and a tiny part of him wants to do something about it, but he can’t. His base soul is too strong for his noble soul. Goethe’s Faust complained, “Zwei Seelen, ach, wohnen in meiner Brust, und der einer will sich von den anderen trennen!” Abbey could have made the same complaint about two incompatible souls in one breast.

Abbey: proud of his sensuality, his big dick, his five children whom he thinks are just darlings while meanwhile holding that others should not be allowed to procreate. A misanthrope – but not when it comes to himself, his family, and his friends.

Asceticism is much derided these days (that is, when you can find someone who knows what it means), but I think Dr. Vallicella demonstrates its uses here. I myself have long felt inclined towards askesis, while wondering what good it does me. For decades long I thought of Thoreau's Walden as my favorite book, the one that instructed me the most and had the most influence on my life. In recent years, especially given the disdain with which conservatives often speak of him, I have questioned whether I was right to let Thoreau influence me so greatly. I spent (1996-99) three years living in a cabin in the forest without utilities and only a wood stove for heat, and no near neighbors, and I have also lately come to question whether I was wasting my time then. (I hasten to add that during that time I had a job and girlfriend in town.) I am now married with a high-pressure job and living in a city, and in ill-health to boot, and I wonder how those years affected me. But I do think it clear that Abbey had it all wrong. I am also glad to see Dr. Vallicella emphasize the usefulness and importance of the religious impulse, something which even in my atheism I still have.