Author Tom Montgomery Fate read excerpts from “Cabin Fever," which chronicles his life in the woods, at Elon University Oct. 1 during a lecture sponsored by the English department, the environmental studies department and the Office of Sustainability.
“’We are all 24-7, omnipresent multi-taskers,’” Fate read. “’That is why some of us retreat to the woods.’”
Mirroring Henry David Thoreau’s isolation experiment in “Walden,” Fate used his time in the woods to think about Thoreau’s observations and to what extent they fit in today’s world. The title, “Cabin Fever,” is a reference to the 19th century condition where someone unable to leave a secluded cabin would go mad, longing to return to civilization.
Nevertheless, Fate took the title in a different direction.
“The contrast in the 21st century is the longing to escape a compartmentalized society,” Fate said.
Fate read various passages of “Cabin Fever,” his voice relaxed but showing considerable rehearsal and familiarity with his own words. The room in Johnson Hall was cozy, with the large windows behind Fate letting in the dimming sunset light and showing the silhouettes of trees. This created a very cabin-like atmosphere, as Fate described his return to Thoreau’s “Walden” and how he had changed since first reading the book.
“’I wasn’t a naïve 19-year-old college student,’” Fate read. “’I was a hairy and married man.’”
Most of Fate’s time Monday was spent reading from passages that dealt with this sense of time. Like Thoreau’s famous advice to “simplify,” so did Fate seek to capitalize on living in the present, which his modern life, with its duties and distractions, did not allow him to do that
“’The fire’s burn slows, thankfully, just as my time here slows the burn of my present,’” Fate wrote.
While much of Fate’s writing dealt with his realizations in the cabin, one of his more immediate breakthroughs came while watching his son play with other children at the preschool at the College of DuPage, where Fate teaches English.
“’When did I lose my faith in the present?’” Fate read. “’When did I become a to-do list?’”
Not all of Fate’s readings Monday dealt with his philosophizing on the passage of time. He shared a humorous anecdote about a time he tried to trim some elms and mulberry trees, which he also wrote about in “Cabin Fever.”
Instead of hiring a professional, Fate wore a bicycle helmet, put a 30 foot ladder up against a tree and used an electric chainsaw that was plugged in through his second story window.
“’Although the power cord keeps wrapping around the legs of the ladder, and I almost fall 25 feet while holding a roaring chainsaw, I manage to avoid catastrophe and do a pretty good job,’” Fate read.
In an ironic twist that might speak to the power of the modern world over nature, Fate told the audience he has only visited the cabin two or three times in the past year since writing “Cabin Fever.”
“After doing all these readings, I rarely get to go there,” Fate said.