As I noted last week, I spent a week in the mountains recently and took a few good books with me. Looking for one with a climbing theme that would still make a good review for this site, I picked Feeding the Rat by Al Alvarez (affiliate links: UK
Al, feeding his rat
***
So who is Al Alvarez anyway?
Al Alvarez is formally a poet, writer and critic, who was influential in championing the new poetry (he knew Sylvia Plath) and had a meteoric rise in academia before throwing it all in to write freelance and for newspapers so that he could play poker and climb mountains to his heart’s content (I am paraphrasing but I hope he will forgive me).
***
How did you come across him?
I came across Alvarez at university. I was doing a masters degree in a subject I won’t bore you about. Having stayed on an extra year, most of my friends had left and so I found myself increasingly at loose ends. At some point, I decided to start buying a newspaper to read at lunchtimes because there just wasn’t anyone to talk to.
However, buying a newspaper in the UK is more than just buying news, it’s making a declaration of who you are. Having spent four years already in academia, there was no choice open to me with integrity other than the Guardian.
The Guardian is a liberal broadsheet, beloved of champagne socialists, students and academics and it often has book reviews. Around that time, Alvarez had just released his autobiography, Where Did it All Go Right? and, being a man of letters, he was awarded a significant chunk of the paper to wax lyrical. I was completely captivated and started working my way through his opus.
***
And what’s he doing writing a book about climbing?
Well, the book is not so much about climbing and more about one particular climber (Mo Anthoine). Alvarez often climbed with Mo Anthoine, who was a pretty decent climber, although not a professional like Chris Bonnington.
Alvarez wrote the book as Mo was diagnosed with cancer and Mo died shortly after the book was published. In many ways, it is like an extended epitaph, or an appreciation.
***
What’s the book about, then?
It varies (do you ever get the impression I like books that are hard to pin down?). It rambles through climbs that Alvarez and Mo did together in Wales and the Dolomites. It covers the big expedition that Mo did with Chris Bonnington and Doug Scott on the Ogre in the Karakorum. It covers Mo dragging Alvarez up the Old Man of Hoy, a sea stack off the coast of Scotland.
It covers Mo’s commercial ventures: how he founded a company called Snowdon Mouldings to make climbing helmets and ended up making all manner of outdoor clothes and accessories.
It talks about Mo’s experiences as a camera rigger for the various flims, including Highlander, Rambo 3 and The Mission, which was filmed at the superlative Iguazu Falls in Argentina.
Iguazu Falls with a Rainbow by jimmyharris
***
Why is it interesting?
Ultimately, the book is about what Mo called “Feeding the Rat”. “Feeding the Rat” was apparently Mo’s description for what drives climbers to experience extreme discomfort in the pursuit of their sport.
The need to feed their inner rat is why they drag themselves high up mountainsides, eat nasty local curries and court dangerous squits in the search for that rarely attained route to the summit that few, if any, have trodden before.
Paraphrasing, because Alvarez doesn’t elaborate much on the phrase, I think that you “Feed the Rat” when you endure temporary discomfort in trying to achieve your goal. You bend your will to force your body to do what you want it to. You test to see whether you are capable of what you imagine you can do.
We all have ideas that if we put our minds to it we could be one of those people who can pull 500lbs, squat 400lbs, bench 300lbs, do a handstand push up, do a one-armed chin up, stand on stage at a ripped 180lbs, lead E3, compete in lightweight strongman or complete a triathlon without dying of boredom (OK, maybe that last one was a bit much).
But sometimes we never find out if we really can do any of these things. Sometimes, we give up because we get injured, or something else crops up or we just don’t have the focus.
When we really go for one of those goals, we start feeding our rat and he doesn’t get sated until we discover just how far we can go.
***
Why should I buy it again?
Alvarez is a professional writer. He was teaching people about writing at Oxford before you were born. He can turn a phrase that will make you realise just how much you need to get your rat fed.
I write a post every day so don’t forget to subscribe or you’ll miss out
