专栏文章

East of Eden Chapter 1

WinterMush. 2021-05-28

An introduction to the Salinas Valley

Outline: the History of the Salinas Valley

Indians
Spaniards: giving names 1) religious people or holidays; 2) feelings; 3) description; 4) animals; 5) nature of the place
Americans: 1) taking lands; 2) remaking laws; 3) renaming with things happened there

Notes

The memory of odors is very rich.
I always found in myself a dread of west and a love of east.
It was not a fine river at all, but it was the only one we had and so we boasted about it--how dangerous it was in a wet winter and how dry it was in a dry summer.
You can boast about anything if it's all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast.
The whole valley floor, and the foothills too, would be carpeted with lupins and poppies.
Once a woman told me that colored flowers would seem more bright if you added a few white flowers to give the colors definition.
It was a rasping nervous wind, and the dust particles cut into a man's skin and burned his eyes.
And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always the way.
First there were Indians, an inferior breed without energy, inventiveness, or culture, a people that lived on grubs and grasshoppers and shellfish, too lazy to hunt or fish.
Then the hard, dry Spaniards came exploring through, greedy and realistic, and their greed was for gold or God.
When the Spaniards came they had to give everything they saw a name. This is the first duty of any explorer--a duty and a privilege. You must name a thing before you can note it on your hand drawn map.
Then the Americans came--more greedy because there were more of them.
After the valleys were settled the names of places refer more to things which happened there, and these to me are the most fascinating of all names because each name suggests a story that has been forgotten.