“Giving up is not in the blood, Sir. It’s not in the blood.”
— Nirmal Purja, Nepali climber and absolute badass
Frontier Partisan Craig Rullman insisted that I watch 14 Peaks, recently released on Netflix. He was right to do so. A more blood-stirring tale you will never watch unfold.
Nims Purja is a combat veteran of the Gurkha Regiment and the British Special Boat Service (SBS — maritime equivalent of the SAS). He took it in his head to climb all 14 +8,000-meter peaks in the world over a span of seven months. The few other climbers who have achieved this feat have taken years.
Project Possible, as Purja dubbed his mission, was crazy, especially when complicated by the fact that Nims Purja’s ethic compelled him to bring aid to climbers from other teams who were dying on these forbidding peaks. Leaving a person behind, you see, “is not in the blood.”
Nims provides us many aphorisms to live by…
The documentary film is gorgeous and makes the pulse race and the spirit soar with the desire to go forth and do hard things. And that’s what the world needs.
Watch it.
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It just occurred to me that I’ve never read Robinson Crusoe. That needs to be rectified. Really, there could not possibly be a more Frontier Partisan novel than the one published in 1719 under the actual title:
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates.
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The recording from Lynda Sanchez’s December 16 presentation Apache Warriors Tell Their Side is now up on Youtube. I am so pleased that this recording is available; I couldn’t attend the real-time event, and I am gratified to be able to enjoy it this way.
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My bedtime reading these past few nights has been Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped. It is my plan to read that and The Master of Ballantrae (which features an appearance by the Great MacShane, Sir William Johnson) this winter.
Art by William Hole.
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Y: 1883 dropped Sunday. Early scouting reports from Frontier Partisans are mostly positive. Clan Cornelius will be catching up as swiftly as we are able in this very bushy holiday season.
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Paul McNamee scouted up the trailer for The Northman, which just dropped. It looks to be a Norse revenge yarn and about as Frontier Partisan as it gets.
Matthew says
I haven’t heard of 14 peaks, but it sounds really interesting. And Gurkhas are badass.
I’m trying to remember if I ever read Robinson Caruso. I know I read a shorten kids book version, but I don’t know if I have read the original.
Now, Kidnapped I did read and even though I knew nothing about Scottish history when I read it, I found it a thrilling read. I’ve liked pretty much everything by Stevenson I’ve read. (Okay, I wasn’t thrilled with Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, but that was because I knew the story by cultural osmosis.) The Victorian age was one of great story tellers with Stevenson among others like Haggard or Conan Doyle.
Those pictures of the Witcher look like classic illustrations, so I really enjoyed them.
lane+batot says
YOU HAVEN’T READ “ROBINSON CRUSOE”?!!! Gosh, I don’t remember, for certain HOW MANY TIMES I’ve read “Robinson Crusoe”! You are in for a classic treat! Of course, I read it as a young kid(as opposed to an old kid, which is what I am now….), over and over, and DREAMED of BEING Robison Crusoe, in a way only a kid can do, so it may not translate quite the same once one becomes an adult(perish the thought!). I’ve seen scads of movies/TV series depicting the story too–some really good, some getting somewhat political(but still good), and some kinda…..meh. Like “Tarzan”, I still don’t think they have captured the book character very well on film yet. One thing did always aggravate me about Robinson, was his WHINING all the time about what a pitiful wretch he was, being “alone” on the island, and even as a little kid, I’m like “SHUT UP ROBBY! You are living in a frikkin’ paradise, King of all you survey, freer than almost anyone in the world has ever been, with plenty of goats and even a DOG for company! And later a savage cannibal for a buddy! Count yer frikkin’ blessings, man!!!” And I love the REAL story it was based on, not a shipwreck, but a disgruntled employee that just COULD NOT get along with the captain, and INSISTED he be put out on the island! Yeah, I’ve had bosses and jobs that made me want to self-exile too, so I could relate!
lane+batot says
….And I see I “shared” the trailer for “The Norseman” just a few minutes before I then saw it posted here! Frontier Partisans DO think alike!…. I’m reading “Captured By The Mohawks” just now, and speaking of great illustrations for “young people’s” books, my 1975 paperback printing of this book has a plethora of really well-done illustrations! I certainly don’t consider profuse and excellent illustrating “juvenile” by any means! Just as I like a lot of good photographs in true-life stories that occurred after the invention of the camera!….And I’m looking very forward to watching the Apache program on Youtube! Thanks for that!
David Wrolson says
I will add a little to the Trapline. I have mentioned Robert B. Strassler (an amateur classicist) before. He was an oilman and finance guy who hated the classics editions that were out there to work with so he made his own.
https://www.writersreps.com/Robert-Strassler
>>>>”Robert Strassler conceived the idea of presenting the great classics of Greek historiography in new translations with ample annotation, excellent maps, and contributions from major scholars. He calls his volumes Landmark editions, and indeed they are. There is nothing like them.”<<<<
Anyway, I am currently reading the Landmark Herodotus-I started it once before, but this time it is going much better and quicker.
I was extremely excited to see that they just put out Xenophon's Anabasis (The March to the Sea) which I have been waiting for. That is an ancient Frontier Partisans tale , if anything is.
I was going to go in sequence and do Thucydides and Xenophon's Hellenika before Anabasis but I think I will jump right to Anabasis.
JimC says
Outstanding.
Matthew says
I’ve read most of Thucydides but I eventually lost interest. Not sure why.
David Wrolson says
Matthew-if you ever want to try again. I can only recommend the Landmark series version of Thucydides. Lots of maps that help keep things straight.
They also have Julius Caesar’s writings and one on the campaigns of Alexander (Arrian, I think).
My theory is to start with Herodotus, which eventually gets to the Persian-Greek Wars then Thucydides on the Peloponnesian War, then Xenophon’s Hellenika (which finishes the Peloponnesian War) then Anabasis-except I have been looking forward to Anabasis so I might jump there.
Keep in mind, I read several books at once-so I might be on each of these for quite some time.
Matthew says
Thanks. That might be useful.
I think I may should have started with Herodotus.
Paul McNamee says
Finding classics you missed can be a treasure. No pun intended. I’ve listened to (unabridged) audiobooks of both 20000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA and AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS recently and enjoyed both immensely.
I might have read a kids’ abridged ROBINSON CRUSOE. I do remember the movie ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS, which I really liked when I was younger.
Matthew says
I read a lot of Jules Verne in grade school. Around the World, 20000 Leagues, and Journey to the Center of the Earth were great reading for a kid. They were early sci-fi, but in a lot of ways they were also Frontier Partisan literature.