SHANGRI-LA ILLUSTRATED, AND RILKE

Great things are done when men and mountains meet. (Wm Blake)

I've taken to flickr to get a visual angle on Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, searching for the various locales and mountain names he drops throughout the book. I must say, there are some rather fine ones out there. God bless the internetz. Still plotting the trek on Google maps, too. Once the map's done I'll post it up here.

Much like Matthiessen and the boldest explorers of past ages I myself have been delving into the terrifying wilds of self-help literature, only taking a break occasionally to read an odd smattering of Rainer Maria Rilke's lyrical Teutonic extravaganzas. Going to start methodically going thru Die Sonette an Orpheus before too long.

ANNAPURNABELLE

Annapurna massif.

Reading Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, which has already obliged with several items of Choplogical interest. I'm following the route via Google Maps and various satellite imagery, if that ain't pretty neat.

1.) An etymology I should probably know already: Himalaya = Sanskrit hima 'snow' + alaya 'dwelling," i.e. 'abode of snow.'

2.) Annapurna is one goshdarn massive massif.