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11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
 That Certain Surplus of Being Mar 16, 2009
By Todd Green
I have just finished reading the declaration of yet another among us who survived the `trial-by-fire' that acculturation to western civilization represents to the heretical anarchist each of us is born to be. In his book, "The Recovery of Ecstasy: Notebooks from Siberia," Sandy Krolick identifies the feral self, which, finding only disciplines designed to either mold or bury it, fades quietly into the background of every newborn.
My friend Peter and I refer to this revelation as emergence from the closed-minded authority of adulthood, all too easily assumed to be the final stage of life, where most civilized elderly stew in the juices of their irretrievable, inevitably premature conclusions, peppered daily by contradiction.
A heart condition that denied him full participation in normal cultural activities growing up provided the tilt to his perspective on life that left him feeling estranged from the norm to which society is geared. His experiences, while completely different than mine, are so similar in their influence on his awakening that I have come to realize why society seems to be composed of vacuous, beautiful, obedient people and the `wannabes' who make them rich and famous. Only a sense of `cultural insufficiency or difference' challenges one's self-worth strongly enough for introspection to reach the level of grasping one's own innate value, and a sense of truth that needs no consensus. As Sandy writes, "And if culture is principally oppressive could not this very estrangement hold the seeds of liberation."
Partaking in the daily life of his wife's family in the city of Barnaul, on the Siberian Steppe at the foot of the Ural-Altai Mountains, Sandy was taken by the terse stoicism of people on the streets and in the shops, in contrast to their extremely emotional gregariousness displayed at home with family and friends. He identified this dichotomy as he witnessed the in-laws' lifestyle change when they spent the better half of the year at their dacha in the country and reverted gladly to subsistence gardening without the least care for the urban world.
To explain the transformation in their attitudes he used a term I was unfamiliar with, which I find perfect for his and my concept of the eternal present, kairos, as opposed to the infinitely strung-out timeline from the unknowable future to the forgotten past, relegating the present as a mere stepping stone in a much grander strategy called chronos. The present is the only event occurring, while we dress it in the plans and memories that also blind us from fully, directly witnessing life as it is -- so filtered through plots and remembering. His Siberian friends weren't so much into rigid plans because "life gets in the way." They see real risk as reliance on the fleeting convenience of the establishment, compared to any vagaries of a life in symbiosis with nature. He could never have experienced this attitude if he'd remained in the United States where our much shorter history is of antagonism to nature and the indigenous populations living closer even to nature than his Siberian friends.
He definitely identifies the depths to which acculturation can saturate one's life, realizing that we can "no sooner turn away from this modern civilized sanctuary and return to unbridled nature than we could forget how to speak our native tongue."
Part of the imbalance he finds is our focus on vision to the neglect of our other senses. When he allowed sound to play a larger part in his perceptions he noticed, as I have, how "conversations around me seemed cluttered with idle chatter, packed with trite clichés and disingenuous remarks."
I find one small bone to pick with his exposition, however. In order to more successfully turn away from this acculturation he says; "I no longer allowed myself to be guided by the principle deception of civilized life ... refused to look constantly, anxiously forward ... ignored the schedules created around me and for me ... forbade the strictly logical processes of rationality from directing and mediating the visceral immediacy of my life -- of what I needed to do now -- and my experience of just being." I find that before `just being' can occur one must also quit quitting -- can one just be while engaged in the doing of forbidding? To his claim that by "Abandoning this primeval condition we lost our primary gift of freedom -- the foundational power of just being-there, outside the chains of time and the terror of history," I say, that being requires no power, not even to resist power.
We are in total agreement when, in conclusion, he writes:
"In our current state of forgetfulness and slavery we remain `strangers to ourselves,' having become artful products of an epochal cultural construction. But we are also strangers to our culture because we come to society from richer, pre-civilized beginnings, each person bearing within him or herself a certain surplus of being, a feral core, which does not fit comfortably within any domesticated pattern and cannot easily be assimilated into the typical civilized milieu."
I highly recommend this book to anyone who stands in that lonely place--having perceived the illusion by which man has flourished for centuries.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Live a life of ecstasy! Mar 30, 2009
By Wisteria Leigh
"Wisteria"
The Recovery of Ecstasy is phenomenally empowering: empowering if you engage with it through introspective reflection on your own life; empowering when it succeeds in awakening your own meta-cognitions as you read. It is empowering if you remain receptive to the multi-layered journey of self-discovery offered here by Sandy Krolick. In part, the book attempts to answer the question, "What is the meaning of life?" As a result of Sandy's personal pilgrimage, the book looks at this question from three distinct perspectives - historically, philosophically and introspectively - through a series of anecdotal Tetrads (Chapters) that are both entertaining and contemplative. In the preface, the author asks the reader to join him on a journey of self-discovery when he writes,
"My intention is that the reader examine his or her own direction in life and ask comparable questions of his or her own personal journey-how to live, and to what end!"
The book is, in key respects, a contrast between the cultures and philosophies of the people of Siberia and America. For example, there is a marked difference in what constitutes the experience of time among Siberians. Where they are more focused on the present and not obsessively planning the future, Americans plan everything from vacations to play dates, from after-school recreation to dinner parties and other appointments with calendars, personal planners and any of the latest trendy tools to `keep us' organized. Krolick makes the point that Americans are not really free because they are constantly over-scheduled, `on-the-clock', and tied to their plans; this in itself prevents an experience of true freedom. How often is an impromptu disruption to your routine a cause for total panic and a rush to reshuffle the schedule?
Sandy Krolick's journey helped him realize his own key to living a life of ecstasy. Whatever you discover on your own journey from reading The Recovery of Ecstasy, I guarantee you will not regret the ride. Sandy Krolick has insight and a genuine love of life that is evident on every page; and he has the gift to communicate it passionately. This is a positive journey that examines the treadmill we are on, and will force you to question how much faster you want to go? Or, to take a phrase from the book, maybe it is time to consider "a new path in the midst of the confusion and helter-skelter of modern civilized life?" Instead of planning your retirement or your next vacation, perhaps find some time to read The Recovery of Ecstasy so that you won't miss living life! Highly Recommended.
Wisteria Leigh
Bookworm's Dinner
www.bookwormsdinner.blogspot.com
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
A Gem Feb 19, 2009
By Narain Scott
What a little gem. I really like this book. There's a lot going on in this lean and lovingly crafted work. If you want a glimpse of the Russian people that few westerners will ever be allowed, read this book. Krolick uses his own remarkable life story like a reagent to reveal for us the feral heart of the Siberian as his own American assumptions are subsumed in the reaction. The result is a deeply personal story of a rediscovery of ecstatic living. I come from an Eastern approach in which ecstasy results from momentary annihilation of the ego. Krolick introduces us to a path at once profoundly kind, human, primal and accessible.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Read this! Oct 06, 2009
By B. Spence
There are already several extensive, well written reviews, so I have decided to respond more briefly.
Even though Sandy may or may not like to be related to such authors, if you've read and enjoyed works from Daniel Quinn or Derrick Jensen, you will also find joy in this piece. However, that's not to say that you won't find uniqueness and originality in Sandy's work.
As a recent graduate, I've felt the immense pressure our culture places on us to, as they say, "do something with my life." I've yet to find it, and I may never will (especially in the sense of selling myself as labor). However, I am at peace with this. Sandy's descriptions of living in the now, not being obsessed with the future, and being the feral (i.e. uncivilized--not uncultured), anarchist self in the way our species has for so many thousands of years have brought not only insight to my life but also relief.
I would and have recommended this book to family and friends. Nonetheless, if you're someone like me--someone who senses that perhaps what is offered to us in this culture simply isn't enough, you'll find extra satisfaction in this book.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
A Double Liberation That Krolick Calls The Recovery Of Ecstasy!! Feb 12, 2009
By sandy krolick
In his new book, Sandy has worked out a way to both rid ourselves of the suffering of death-terror and re-conceive the past so that the new conception fills rather than empties each present moment. From one direction, take away arguably the deepest source of human suffering; from the other direction bring back arguably the deepest source of human happiness.
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