The Death of the Double-Minded Man, or Thinking Like a Mountain: Evangelicalism, Counter-Culture, and Strip-Mining in Divine Right's Trip and Kinfolks

FEATURED AUTHOR-GURNEY NORMAN The Death of the Double-Minded Man, or Thinking Like a Mountain: Evangelicalism, Counter-Culture, and Strip-Mining in Divine Right's Trip and Kinfolks Leah Bayens Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river.—Lao-tzu More than thirty years have passed since a peace and kindnessloving public first picked up copies of The Last Whole Earth Catalog and delved into Gurney Norman's Divine Right's Trip. Published in 1971 in the right-hand corners of the Catalog's pages, among descriptions of composting handbooks and Hindu incense burners, the novel became a signpost for a generation seeking innovative strategies for copingwith environmental destruction and with postmodern spiritual disintegration. Adherence to restrictive Judeo-Christian conventions didnot fullyreconcile contemporary fractures inspiritual and ecological equilibrium, and asAmericanyouthsearched for uniquemeans ofliving by scrutinizing and often rejecting their parents' value systems, these rebels often fell prey to a confusing mixture of newly hatched, faddish beliefs and drug-centered lifestyles. As Norman's protagonist Divine Right Davenport demonstrates, the counter-culture of the 1960s left many people bewildered, lacking a true sense of identity and purpose in life or way of dealingwith the natural world. Similarly, although the 1970s Christian evangelical movement was more culturally inclusive than its forerunners, the exclusive nature of fundamentalist dogma did not promote the religious variety essential to cultural health or the diversity necessary for ecosystemic strength. In Norman's work D.R. Davenport transformed from a countercultural truth forager to a clear visionary through Taoist sensibilities and a traditional mountain lifestyle. This demonstrates that sustainable interactions with nature are possible when people achieve spiritual balance. In nature, ecological health demands species diversity. Similarly, human spiritual stability is contingent on access to a variety 32 of fully developed paths to "salvation." Using this paradigm, Norman shows that cultural health can be achieved through religious diversity. Likewise, through balanced spirituality, humans are more capable of making positive, diversity-encouraging contributions to ecosystemic vigor. Ultimately, Norman's work blurs the line between culture and nature, creating a connection that many current environmental advocates encourage. In the novel, this melding of culture and nature is gradual. In fact, D.R.'s spiritual trials begin well before his return to the strip mineravaged Trace Forkcommunity. One scene details the essence ofD.R.'s spiritual—and therefore ecological—rift. Divine Rightandhis girlfriend Estelle set off on one of many reckless cross-country trips, this time to collect money from D.R.'s friend Eddie. The couple arrives in St. Louis to find that Eddie is dead, and after having attended a funeral home visitation, they join a group of friends at Eddie's apartment for a psychotropic farewell to their friend. In addition to "lying around the room on mattresses, smoking hash between hits of nitrous oxide," the mourners' homage to Eddie involves a multi-screenbroadcast inwhich three televisions are arranged in such a way that "you could hear the hypnotism man without seeing him, while you looked at Billy Graham on channel three .... As a kind ofsubplot, somebulldozers werehacking down a mountain in a strip-mining operation in Kentucky on channel seven ..." (97). The factors represented in these three images eventually contribute to D.R.'s spiritual reconciliation—a combination of Christianity, Taoism, and new approaches to contesting strip mining. In their original form on the television screens, however, they are incomplete, just as D.R. himself is incomplete. Hyper-evangelical Christianity is symbolic of Western religion that limits the diversity of spiritual choices necessary forhuman and nonhumanhealth. However, religious diversity in and of itself is not the remedy, as seen by the hypnotist's alteration of Taoist tenets concerning living in the present. In this case, a half-cocked counter-culture creed that encourages living in the present at the expense of past and future indicates a failure to incorporate the original religion's fully developed approach to life. In fact, specious creeds like this one could lead to ecological disaster if practitioners do not reflect on past and consider future uses of natural resources. Similarly, the strip miners are emblematic ofthe shortsighted doctrine ofunlimited expansionthatregardsnature solelyas commodity. Advocates of this pervasive creed do...