Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard · first published 1974
73% recommend27% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Meticulously observed nature writing with eloquent, vivid prose and a meditative, spiritual tone. It attends closely to small details and suits writers and readers who enjoy contemplative essays.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
What is the true nature of Nature? Is it a harmonious, interconnected system, operating according to the principles of co-dependence and benevolence? Or is it red in tooth and claw, an unfeeling, unthinking force, in which the individual is overwhelmed and subsumed to serve a larger purpose, one mysterious and obscure? This is what this volume is all about: an exploration into the nature of Nature, an attempt to discover the true character of the natural world around us. Appropriately, it is neither a rapturous celebration of Nature, nor a grim survey of its various cruelties. Rather, like Nat
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It's always worth re-reading Annie Dillard; "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" does a very good treatment of such things.
on “On Sitting Still in Nature” ↗…relations The Power Broker, by Robert Caro - unbeatably rich and compelling look at how power and politics actually work, for better (power gets things done) and for worse (power blinds and corrupts) Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard - beautiful, meticulously observed study of the natural world close at hand; made me appreciate the power of looking deeply and persistently Le Ton beau de Marot, by Douglas Hofstadter…
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗…live up to, instead wallowing in our industrial creations. One of the best meditations on this view of the world, which is neither unfair to it nor, ultimately, particularly kind, is Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek". It is non-fiction, but undoubtedly counts as literature, and won a Pulitzer prize in 1975. It meditates on precisely the fruitfulness, desolation, and transcendence in nature.
on “How Stoicism can help us” ↗Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Holy the Firm. Dillard has a way with words that is both eloquent and a little violent, and she influenced how I write just as much as Strunk and White's Elements of Style. Douglas Hofstadter's Godel,…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗[0] - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - and most by Annie Dillard, An American Childhood is also of note. She has a very good way with details. 0 - https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061233326
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗Brueggemann is amazing. I would also add, in no particular order: - wisdom of the desert (merton's translation of the sayings of the desert fathers) - pilgrim at tinker creek; annie dillard - goatwalking, jim corbett - Impostors of God: Inquiries into our favorite Idols, william stringfellow - the new testament, trans. by david bentley hart - the sabbath, Abraham Joshua…
on “Ask HN: Books that gave you different perspective on religion” ↗Late to the party, but for anyone looking for inspiration: Fiction: Death in Venice (Der Tod in Venedig) by Thomas Mann[0] Nonfiction: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard[1] Illustrated: The Insect God by Edward Gorey [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_in_Venice [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim_at_Tinker_Creek
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗…Capitalism—Jackie Wang So Many Books—Gabriel Zaid The Collected Schizophrenias—Esmé Weijun Wang 53. Best books I've read in the last 10 years: The Moonstone—Wilkie Collins Moby Dick—Melville Infinite Jest—DFW Pilgrim at Tinker Creek—Dillard Impro—Johnstone Time and the Art of Living—Grudin Le Ton beau de Marot—Hofstadter Death and Life of Great American Cities—Jacobs 72. There are many books we should know about for reasons other…
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
on “Ask HN: What non-fiction do you read?” ↗Probably my favorite writer, and "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" sits right behind "For the Time Being" as my favorite thing she's written.
on “On Sitting Still in Nature” ↗…Another work by Annie Dillard, 'The Force that Drives the Flower' was also published in the Atlantic and it's a pleasure to read (YMMV): https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1973/11/the-for... 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek', the book it was excerpted from, won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1975.
on “Total Eclipse (1982)” ↗"Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" is her signature book and for many (myself included) a spiritual experience to read. "The Writing Life" is the best book about the process of creating that I have ever read, and I often suggest it to…
on “The Abundance of Silicon Valley” ↗Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. It's such a calm, meditative book. In fact, IIRC it has a chapter on fecundity that is similar to this essay.
on “The Abundance of Silicon Valley” ↗The metaphor is an apt one. Although, it may be less a case of going from color-blindness to sight but from blindness itself to sight. The article reminded me of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, where she meditates on Marius von Senden's book Space and Sight. Von Senden recounts the effects of the first widespread successful cataract operations and the overwhelming effect the restoration of…
on “An Experimental Autism Treatment Cost Me My Marriage” ↗The Complete Fiction -Lovecraft, H.P. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek -Dillard, Annie The Fractalist: Memoir of a Scientific Maverick -Mandelbrot, Benoît B. Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories -Blackwood, Algernon Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience -Csikszentmihalyi,…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗