While all of my students are reading a book for the independent reading unit, I too have selected a book to read.  The Wolf Hunters, by James Oliver Curwood, was first published in 1908 and tells of the adventures of a young man from the city of Chicago who accompanies some good friends from northern Ontario, Canada, for a season of back country hunting and trapping.  Roderick, the protagonist, is compelled to go on this adventure because of a strong inner call to adventure and a need to provide for his widowed mother. I have previously read this book and as a young man I identified very strongly with the protagonist and his friend and hunting guide, Wa-bigoon. 
      While in high school and college my friend and I loved to test our limits in similar fashion to these characters.  We would dog sled out into the middle of the woods, build a shelter, and sleep for the night, we would climb mountains together, and we would share stories and thoughts while sitting around a campfire eating roasted venison and drinking strong coffee.  Perhaps I chose to read this book because I still long for that adventure and re-reading the story stokes the embers of my desire, or perhaps it was because I just happened to stumble upon it in the Nook online book store.  Regardless of the reason why I chose to read this book again, I now, as a husband, father of two, and a professional, am left with a somewhat different assessment of the book as a whole.  I am left questioning, analyzing, and debating over the motives of the characters, the plausibility of their situations, and the affects a work like this has on its readers.
      Curwood's novel inspires people to do big things, confront danger with poise, and live life to the fullest.  I am left to question whether or not this is possible anymore.  Can we, in today's modern American society, live a life of adventure, risk, and huge payoffs, or is that sort of life only assigned to characters in an old dime store novel?  Have film, mass media, and written works, so permeated our society that we resign to live vicariously through the characters found in those mediums, or do they just compell us to move forward in our own adventures. If one is able to find the same sort of adventure what would that mean for his/her interpersonal relationships?  How might one measure a man/woman who continually leaves the entanglements of civilised life to seek out adventure?  I am left asking these questions now because I am uncertain of the answers and yet I think that they are of utmost importance to our individual lives as well as our societies as a whole.  William Goldman wrote in  his novel, The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure,

      "But take the title words--'true love and high adventure'--I believed in that once.  I thought my life was going to follow that path.  Prayed that it would.  Obviously it didn't, but I don't think there's high adventure left any more.  Nobody takes out a sword nowadays and cries, 'Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father; prepare to die!
        And true love you can forget about too.  I don't know if I love anything truly and more beyond the porterhouse at Peter Luger's and the cheese enchilada at El Parador's." (Goldman 30).

      I still want to be inspired by the wildness of nature, of characters in novels who loose themselves in their adventures,and to motivate others to go on big adventures and to do big things.  But, are all of those things unrealistic and existent only in a fantasy world?  What I would like is for you all to participate in this conversation by adding your thoughts, insights, and experiences in the comment section of this post.  You should initially respond to this post but as more of you begin to post you can comment on eachother's musings as well.  Your comment lengths are up to you but think about the questions raised and answer sincerely. It is here where the mirror of literature begs us to respond by evaluating ourselves.  You, the students in my World Literature class, are all at the point in your respective live's when the answers to these questions are of more than a passing interest to you.  I look forward to reading what you will write.