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Wild Animus tracks the obsessive quest of Ransom Altman, who, on
leaving college, rejects a normal life, vowing instead to live—with
his girlfriend Lindy—in a world of “inexhaustible desire.”
Rich says of his protagonist: “It’s a unique time for most of us.
That period between 15 and 21 years of age. We discover what the magic
of love is about, and what surrender is about. Ransom is making that
discovery, and he arrives at some extreme conclusions.”
One of these conclusions is that being in love is like being chased
by a pack wolves:
“The notion that in love there is an element of self-destruction—a
yielding up of the self in order to realize a participation in something
greater—is familiar to many of us. Ransom perceives that if there’s
going to be surrender between two individuals, then there will be a
hunter and hunted. He develops a mythos around that, and tries to live
it out.”
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In order to do that, Ransom and Lindy head north to the Alaskan wilderness—and an encounter with the hidden depths of the human heart.
“Wilderness is the place where superficialities are stripped away and what’s fundamental rises to the surface.
“In the wilds, you can get a visceral sense of what the world was like before human civilization arose. The big mammals are important. The breadth of scale is important, especially in the mountains. At your feet, you see tundra plants that are miniscule. Then you look up at icefalls that rise a mile into the sky, or ranges that stretch as far as the eye can see.
“Everything in our urban world is human-sized. That fools us into a human-centric view of creation. The Alaskan wilds are a great antidote for that.”
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Ransom becomes captivated with animals in the wild—specifically Dall sheep and wolves. Rich is crazy about them, too:
“Of the mammals on our planet, Dalls live at the elevation limit. To see them—between storms, on these precipices at 5 to 6,000 feet—it’s incredible. Their world, the vistas they see, the life they lead— It’s a grand, precarious existence. Full of danger.
“Wolves are part of that world. Coursing through the mountains, looking for prey. If you’re hiking and climbing in a place like Mt. Wrangell, you’ll see Dall sheep regularly. I’ve been fortunate in getting very close to some of them. The experiences were memorable.
“As for wolves, I spent a fair amount of time with a couple of packs in northern Minnesota. I was assisting David Mech, the wolf researcher, and had an opportunity to experience them at close quarters.”
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Ransom’s imagined transformation into a wild creature, though extreme, takes its cue from our human tendency to identify on a deep level with animals:
“The world is like a big chest full of totems, and we get to pick out one that suits us. Every emotional state open to our experience can be witnessed in other animals. And different animals accentuate different states. What could be more natural than for humans to identify themselves with an animal that seems to mirror their temperament? Detroit has used this for years to sell cars.
“Dog-lovers decide which dog has the emotional makeup that suits them. ‘This is me! I’m a German shepherd,’ or ‘I’m a dachsund,’ or “I’m a beagle.’ Of course, pet selection is more complicated than that. Often people choose a dog in opposition to their temperament, or to complement it. The amazing thing is the diversity: from the amiability of a spaniel to the viciousness of a Doberman.
“Creation has done the same thing with the life-forms on planet earth. If you look at any wilderness setting, you see a diversity of temperaments. A predator has one temperament, a grass eater has a different one. If we take our own natures and regard them in that light, we can have a better understanding of who we are and who we might be.”
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Wild Animus tracks the obsessive quest of Ransom Altman, who, on
leaving college, rejects a normal life, vowing instead to live—with
his girlfriend Lindy—in a world of “inexhaustible desire.”
Rich says of his protagonist: “It’s a unique time for most of us.
That period between 15 and 21 years of age. We discover what the magic
of love is about, and what surrender is about. Ransom is making that
discovery, and he arrives at some extreme conclusions.”
One of these conclusions is that being in love is like being chased
by a pack wolves:
“The notion that in love there is an element of self-destruction—a
yielding up of the self in order to realize a participation in something
greater—is familiar to many of us. Ransom perceives that if there’s
going to be surrender between two individuals, then there will be a
hunter and hunted. He develops a mythos around that, and tries to live
it out.”
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That covers the “Wild” part. But what/who is “Animus”?
“Ransom is an idealist. He values ideas as paramount, more important than life itself. He commits himself to live in a state of surrender, in a world ‘where the molten heart is always flowing,’ which is his way of saying, ‘I felt a certain way during the moment of surrender with this love of mine, and I would like that state to be continuous and ongoing. Endless.’
“That may not be a realistic view of things. But that is his objective, and Animus is his way of instantiating that as a goal or summit for his aspiration.”
Is Ransom inspired by a transcendent truth, or prey to a misguided fantasy?
“At some level, Ransom’s brand of idealism doesn’t work. But sometimes the greatest aspirations lie right beside the greatest pitfalls. And who isn’t in love, really, with great ideas?”