On Feb. 27 at noon in Blackwell Hall's Prince Edward Room, Assistant Professor of Biology Brett Szymik introduced the final Blackwell Talk of the semester. Following Szymik was the pro gram's speaker, Dr. Steven Faulkner, assistant professor of English.
The subject of Faulkner's presentation was his book and forthcoming movie, "Waterwalk," about his travels with his son into the American Midwest and Bitter Root Valley, Mont. Spinning a story out of the real-life travel photos and his own fond recollection of the events, Faulkner en tertained the audience while educating them on a vast fund of history behind his travel.
Before launching into the story itself, Faulkner explained a bit about himself and his discipline within creative writing. A former carpenter, Faulkner wrote creative nonfiction, a type of writ ing that utilizes the same techniques as fiction but without bending the facts of the story too much. Some of the techniques employed are scene selec tion, dialogue and ordering of scenes among oth ers. However, citations are not employed as they would be with a historical document.
The type of creative nonfiction that really excites Faulkner is travel writing, for which he presented a quote by Pico Iyer detailing anthropological and historical aspects of travel writing.
After this, Faulkner explained the three histori cal journeys behind the trip he took with his son. The first of these was the well-known story of Lewis and Clark, and the others were those of the adventure writing 21-year-old Nez Pierce Warrior Yellow Wolf and adventurer Pierre-Jean De Smet, who, as Faulkner says, "traveled a couple hun dred thousand miles in his lifetime; around South America [and] in snowshoes, on riverboats, on mules, on horses, on dogsleds, everything across the west, [going] back and forth for a good part of his life."
De Smet also became a valuable proponent for the Indians living in those regions during his trav els across the west.
Starting in western Nebraska, Faulkner trav eled first to the city of Rock Springs, where he met a cantankerous waitress who refused to serve him and his son what they ordered. After wards, she told them the story of the Chinese riot that claimed the lives of dozens of workers with completely false information. From there, the pair moved to Yellowstone and became stuck in Lewiston, Idaho, where the portly, former horse keeper mayor gave them a ride 150 miles into the mountains. The mayor further regaled them with stories of trading rolled-up Playboy magazines with Basque shepherds.
Faulkner then traveled toward the LoLo trail in Idaho and Losa River, partially driven there by an amateur cage fighter. Shortly thereafter, the Faulkners arrived at Snake River, the site of an other famous massacre of Chinese workers and near where the Nez Perce Indians took care of Lewis and Clark's horse and then loaded them with provisions. Meanwhile, the pair had run-ins with mint-scented geese excrement, fly-fishing and rough white water currents.
Further down their journey, partially diverted by a dam and grass too dry to build a camp fire, Faulkner and his son, accompanied by a friend with an injured hand, then made their way through the Lolo trail via bicycles, and visited the town of Coeur d'Alene. Finally, they were driven back by a large hail storm out of the Black Hills.
After the presentation, Faulkner shared a few things about his writing and the story he shared with his audience in Blackwell. Drawing on the stories of three middle-aged to older men and one young man, Yellow Wolf, Faulkner was asked if there was a difference between the De Smet and Lewis and Clark narratives as compared to that of the younger man. To this, Faulkner said, "It all de pends on how they tell the story and it can vary a lot. De Smet, like Lewis and Clark, gives you lots of details about what the place is like and what happens. He's a good writer. Yellow Wolf tells of the adventure."
When asked if there was a specific way he or ganizes his information into the books he writes, he said, "I tend to take these little note pads and call one number one and then number two so at least I have some chronology. And then that gets changed when I write the book to some degree."
When asked about the book's transition into a movie, Faulkner said, "My publisher thought it'd be a good idea for a film, so he's the one who pushed it. And he made connections with Holly wood people and that is how this became a film."
After this, Faulkner ended with advice for writers and non-writers alike, saying "I am a great believer in taking adventures because it's easy to live in a cubicle at work or before a televi sion at home, so I think it's wonderful to get out and touch the real world. And live it for yourself instead of observing it on a little or even a large screen."
Faulkner addresses his book about traveling with his son into the American Midwest and Bitter Root Valley, Mont.
