Overview

Fire is a powerful constant in the American West, Everyone who lives in the West confronts fire intimately or frighteningly at some time. As author David J. Strohmaier notes, ""Whether we have tended a campfire along Oregon's Deschutes River in March, engaged the advancing front of a Great Basin wildfire in the torrid heat of August, or watched fire settle into the subdued, smoldering leaf piles of October, all of our lives, to one degree or another, are bracketed by fire."" In The Seasons of Fire, Strohmaier effectively blends nature writing, personal essay, and philosophical analysis as he deliberately crosses disciplinary boundaries. He discusses the ""moral"" dimensions of fire - not only whether fires are good, bad, or indifferent phenomena, but also how fire, more generally understood, shapes meaning for human life. The consequences of discussing the moral side of fire speak directly to the contours of the human soul, and to our sense of our place on the land. Strohmaier, a long-term firefighter himself, includes accurate and vivid descriptions of the firefighter's experience, including the philosophical wanderings and the downright boredom that may dominate between direct confrontations with the searing, terrifying flames.

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9780874174830

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Reviews

Firefighters can hardly avoid philosophical moments, but here is a philosopher of fire par excellence, a quite penetrating and literary stream of consciousness in ongoing analysis and encounter. Strohmaier discovers fire to be an entry point into understanding who we are, what sort of world we live in, and how we come to know what is inherently valuable about each. 'Fire promotes life as it destroys it, becomes a perennial sacrament of life persisting in the midst of its perpetual perishing. This is provocative reading for all who wonder about the wonders of fire. - Holmes Rolston III, University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University

This is a unique book. I know of no other quite like it. Strohmaier makes a significant contribution to the burgeoning literature about wildfire. - Peter List, editor of Environmental Ethics and Forestry: A Reader Those whose lives are affected when plumes of smoke rise into the August sky will find here a thoughtful contribution to the story of their hopes and fears. - Western American Literature

"""Firefighters can hardly avoid philosophical moments, but here is a philosopher of fire par excellence, a quite penetrating and literary stream of consciousness in ongoing analysis and encounter. Strohmaier discovers fire to be an entry point into understanding who we are, what sort of world we live in, and how we come to know what is inherently valuable about each. 'Fire promotes life as it destroys it, becomes a perennial sacrament of life persisting in the midst of its perpetual perishing. This is provocative reading for all who wonder about the wonders of fire."" - Holmes Rolston III, University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University"

""Firefighters can hardly avoid philosophical moments, but here is a philosopher of fire par excellence, a quite penetrating and literary stream of consciousness in ongoing analysis and encounter. Strohmaier discovers fire to be an entry point into understanding who we are, what sort of world we live in, and how we come to know what is inherently valuable about each. 'Fire promotes life as it destroys it, becomes a perennial sacrament of life persisting in the midst of its perpetual perishing. This is provocative reading for all who wonder about the wonders of fire."" - Holmes Rolston III, University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University

Author Information

David J. Strohmaier is a public comment analyst with the U.S. Forest Service. He has worked fifteen seasons as a wildland firefighter with the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. He is published in Wildfire Magazine, Ecological Restoration, and Camas: People and issues of the North Rockies. Strohmaier holds graduate degrees in philosophy of religion from Yale University and in environmental studies from the University of Montana. He writes from his home in Missoula, Montana.

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