SOURCE: "Fact and Fiction: The Development of Eco-logical Form in Peter Mathiessen's Far Tortuga," in Critique, Vol. 35, No. 4, summer, 1994, pp. 245-59.

In the following essay, Ragion analyzes and underscores the elements of Zen Buddhism that appear in Peter Matthiesson's ecological novel Far Tortuga.

A perception of the interrelatedness of all life underlies the work of any writer with ecological concerns, but no career illustrates this point as clearly as Peter Matthiessen's, and no work as forcefully as his haunting and powerful novel, Far Tortuga. However, because this perception of interrelatedness is based upon insights derived from the new science of ecology, a tension is frequently felt between form and meaning in Matthiessen's work. This tension, in part, accounts for the restless shifting between fiction and nonfiction that has occurred throughout his career, as well as for the variety of genres Matthiessen has used in weaving together his most...