Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage (New
York Review Books Classics) by Tim
Robinson
"... The Unsummable Totality Of Human Perspectives Upon Them Which Is My Real
Subject."
The Aran Islands, in Galway Bay off the west coast of Ireland, are a unique
geological and cultural landscape, and for centuries their stark beauty and
their inhabitants’ traditional way of life have attracted pilgrims from abroad.
The Aran Islands, in Galway Bay off the west coast of Ireland, are a unique
geological and cultural landscape, and for centuries their stark beauty and
their inhabitants’ traditional way of life have attracted pilgrims from abroad.
After a visit with his wife in 1972, Tim Robinson moved to the islands,
where he started making maps and gathering stories, eventually
developing the idea for a cosmic history of Árainn, the largest of the three
islands. Pilgrimage is the first of two volumes that make up Stones of Aran,
in which Robinson maps the length and breadth of Árainn. Here he circles
the entire island, following a clockwise, sunwise path in quest of the “good

step,” in which walking itself becomes a form of attention and
contemplation.
Like Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Bruce Chatwin’s In
Patagonia, Stones of Aran is not only a meticulous and mesmerizing study
of place but an entrancing and altogether unclassi?able work of literature.
Robinson explores Aran in both its elemental and mythical dimensions,
taking us deep into the island’s folklore, wildlife, names, habitations, and
natural and human histories. Bringing to life the ongoing, forever
unpredictable encounter between one man and a given landscape, Stones
of Aran discovers worlds.
Robinson’s voyage continues in Stones of Aran: Labyrinth
Personal Review: Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage (New York Review
Books Classics) by Tim Robinson
Tim Robinson published this account of the largest of the three islands that
sit at the entrance to Galway Bay, "Arainn" in the island's own speech, in
1986. He had gone to live there in 1972, and this book is the remarkable
distillation of his experience, as well as his exploration of its past. The
islands are the last stronghold of the Gaelic language. The particular island
that is the topic of this book is roughly 8 miles long by 2 miles wide. The
humans that have chosen to live here have made significant adaptations to
their environment. I know of only one other book that I could compare it
too, one that also examines a Celtic heritage, a bit further south, in
France's Brittany. It is Eleanor Clark's "The Oysters of Locmariequer." Like
Robinson, Clark examines a very small place, and reports on the
"unsummable totality of human perspectives" to use Robinson's phrase in
his first chapter.
This book does not exhaust by any means what Robinson has to report
about the island. There is a companion volume, "Stones of Aran:
Labyrinth." "Pilgrimage" takes the format of a walk around the island's
circumference; "Labyrinth" is an exploration of the interior. For sure, there
are plenty of diversions along the way. The author immediately draws you
in, particularly for Americans suffering from "intelligent design" and
"creationism" with a discourse on a timescape without signpost, the
cosmology of the universe, with a nod to that famous date some folks think
the story all began, 4004 BC.
Robinson's approach to that "unsummable totality" as well as his own
erudition are dazzling. He is not one to have gotten trapped into the "how
many angels on a pinhead" arguments of a cramped and narrow
intellectual discipline. He ranges over disciplines as varied as cosmology,
geology, botany, sociology, history, linguists, economics, anthropology and

literature. For example he describes with remarkable prose the types of
gulls that inhabit the cliffs around Aran, and then goes on to describe the
death-defying techniques that the "Cliff men" evolved to hunt them. Then
he launched into true pyrotechnics of prose with: "...let the ocean dance in
it, and the cliffs above step back in wide balconies to accommodate the
thousands who will come to marvel at this kinetic-conceptualist,
megalominimalist, unrepeatable and ever-repeated, sublime and absurd
show of the Atlantic's extraction of Aran's square root!"
In other chapters he examines the mythology, and actuality of the
settlement of these islands. Robert Flaherty's 1932 movie, "Man of Aran,"
is a valuable referral source for Robinson, and he repeatedly references it
in his book. In terms of the economics of the island, it was always a
struggle, particularly agriculture, which was supplemented with fishing,
particularly of sharks, for their oil. Kelp played a major role in the islands
history, from it use as a source of iodine, as well as it being the principal
source of fertilizer, which made possible the growth of crops in this stony
soil.
Religion is also an integral part of the island's history and present, with a
pithy observation by Robinson: "Priests of course have always protected
their retail monopoly of supernatural benefits by maligning even the
pettiest rival outlets; the coins probably found their way into the Church's
pocket and the poor peasant was told to have no further dealings with the
Devil...". Meanwhile, the author seems to have a Faulknerian view of
history: "I am no disinterested historian; I study the past only to amplify my
greedy awareness of the present." As for reality: "The correct way of
contacting the depths of reality are just two: either to throw yourself over
the cliff into your choice of mysticisms, or to do your time in one of the
cultural armies, scientific or artistic."
A couple reviewers said the book could not be categorized. In some ways
the observation is correct, but I would demure. There is at least one fit: it is
a masterpiece.
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