It's a free spirited chronicle of a commune composed of a group of people (hippies, or "heads," as they call themselves) who all want to live outside the grid. There is quite a bit of drug use, even the toddlers drink the LSD-laced orange juice, and free love is the mandate. The commune, called Drop City, is originally located in sunny California, but when the law comes after them they're forced to move up to Alaska. Living off the land is fun at first, in the land of the midnight sun, but when summer gives way to winter and eternal darkness, the morale drops and problems arise.
The novel is a good, fun (and funny!) read, and very involving. Boyle shifts perspectives often, alternating not only between the people from the commune and the Alaskan natives, but among the different citizens of Drop City. Though it's over 400 pages, it seemed to go by in a flash. It was like time stood still as I was reading it, and I swear I felt like I was transported back to the seventies. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.
Either way, it inspired me not only to try to live a little more off the grid myself, but to create an outfit based on the era, and the type of clothing they wore. (I do realize the irony in wanting to be less consumer/commercial/capitalist and yet making an outfit that reinforces those very impulses, and I'm working on it!) The outfit is not inspired by Alaska during the winter, of course, but by the happier, sunnier times.
No comments:
Post a Comment