A book from the same list that made me read ‘Hatch’, and for more or less similar reasons I said fuck it. Mostly, because it was short. I didn’t think there was much to this book, so this will be short.
Call of the Wild is a short novel about a dog named Buck. He begins the short book living in relative dog luxury in California, only to be kidnapped and sent to the wild of Alaska. There he experiences the cruelty of humanity and nature, and find a pull towards his more savage nature. It ends with him joining a wolf pack and submitting to the titular Call of the Wild.
Years ago, I used to argue with people that the movie ‘The Matrix’ wasn’t as original as people were giving it credit for. Taking a bunch of ideas that had been around for ages and making a stew from it is not originality. Or at least, it wasn’t for me at that period of my life. I gave more credit to the people who originated the work. I feel like when this was written, it was a very cute and new idea to have a book written in the point of view of an animal. And yet, reading it now a days makes the idea feel a bit cliche. It reminds me of the Nabakov quote I seem to be brining up a lot recently “Style and Structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash”. It is a book about a dog, and that is a bit hogwash. But London was a very talented writer, and there is plenty of style and structure here to keep this going.
Worth reading? Sure, why not. The general culture purposes. Don’t think it is ever going to come back up again in my life.
Failures in Polymathy 