Jamie Davis

February 9, 2004

Research Review of Article:

“Ice Capades,” by A. Alvarez

The New York Review, August 9, 2001, p. 14-17

            We humans, by nature, are explorers—from the small child turned loose in his or her backyard inspecting under rocks, behind foliage, into cracks and crevasses, to the professional explorers such as those who traversed through hardships, pain, and death in order to provide detailed descriptions of Earth’s unforgiving frozen tundra.  A. Alvarez reviews eight books, providing a look into the world of Antarctic exploration, in his article, “Ice Capades.”

            One of Alvarez’s main focuses is the motivation behind such arduous journeys.  For example, he contends, “Explores are driven by the unappeasable need to peer over the next horizon” (p. 14).  His statement would suggest that explorers have an innate driving force of curiosity. However, Alvarez does write that humans have become restrained or sheltered from dangerous situations with the modern conveniences through technology. And in order to escape the swaddled life, one seeks out danger through means of bungee-jumping, or sky-diving.  He uses these examples to help explain possible reasons for humans to trod the frozen Earth, risking death at every turn.  Humans are naturalistically inclined to avert from dangerous situations, so one’s tendency to participate in extreme sports does not suggest that one is in dire need to become enthralled in dangerous situations.  It does, however, imply that one may seek out thrills—releasing adrenaline—to provide escapism from a coddled life.  Although there is an element of danger in extreme sports, the participant is still relying on modern technology to protect him or her from harm, hence, never fully escaping from the boring aspect to which comfort may enlist.

Alvarez’s idea to seek danger to fill some human void is also relished as a motivation for exploration, in a student’s article review by Aaron Van Baalen.  This student further suggests that “glamour and risk” are motivations for polar explorations; this is just not so, motivations for these expeditions are scientifically, politically, monetarily, or militarily rooted—to name a few (Baalen, par. 4). 

            Alvarez further elucidates the “…implacable hostility that defeated Captain Cook was what drove later polar explorers on” (p. 15).  This statement seems to be more accurate with human nature than his previous comment about seeking danger to relieve some aspect in one’s

life.  When Alvarez examines the travels of Amundsen, he discovers that privation loses its relevance in Amundsen’s journals and is replaced with an unusual cheerfulness.  Amundsen’s team successfully planted the Norwegian flag at the South Pole and returned home with no loss of life and no serious injuries.  In fact, Alvarez comments on how the men returned home with a few extra pounds of bodyweight.  Alvarez nicely contrasts Amundsen’s journey with that of Shackleton’s.  Most people want to read about failed journeys rather than successful ones, adds Alvarez.  He uses the term “heroic failure” to describe the British peoples’ interest in exploration.  One such failure is Sir John Franklin’s journey overland in Canada, in 1819; many of his men died from starvation, while the others survived by eating lichen, shoes, and their fallen comrades.  Franklin later perished during an expedition in 1845.

            According to Alvarez, men wore their hardships like “badges of honor” (p. 16).  Perhaps when faced with death on a daily basis, one would take solace in such pains; the pains, the explorers own; the explorers, the land owns.  From one The Ice Master by Jennifer Niven, one of the books that Alvarez reviewed, explains, “None of you know what life is, nor will you ever know until you come as near losing it as we were” (p. 17).  A newfound appreciation for life can be a by-product of exploration.

Questions:

1. Do some people seek out dangerous situations in order to provide escapism from comfort?  And if so, do explorers share that motivation?

2.  Do some people seek out thrills and excitement that contain an element of danger, yet are still afforded protection through modern technology, for satisfaction; or do they enlist in dangerous activities such as exploration in order to yield some intrinsic need?

3. Do you agree with the notion that humans, by nature, are explorers?  And if not, then what drives a child to explore?