“Air This Thin Turns Anyone into a Mystic”: Extreme Sport as Metaphor for Societal Disengagement in Steven Heighton’s Every Lost Country (2010)

Abstract

Steven Heighton’s novel Every Lost Country (2010) is based loosely on a mountaineering incident that occurred September 2006. After witnessing a shooting, climbers were forced to decide whether to attempt to help those injured or to continue their quest for the summit. The decision divided the party. This incident provides an intersection between politics and mountaineering, allowing readers to explore the ethics of extreme sport. Are the climbers obligated to act upon the injustice they witness? Should they abandon their own goals and expend energy to reduce the suffering of strangers? Is pursuing the climb self-indulgent? Are these athletic goals reduced to a means of disengaging from the troubling realities of the world? Are there any redeeming qualities of such disengagement? This single incident provides a microcosm in which to address the larger question: what is the draw of extreme sport, and does it always amount to a type of disengagement from the world? Can any value be found in this type of withdrawal? This paper draws on edgework theory to explore these issues in Steven Heighton’s Every Lost Country, arguing that creative writing allows a sustained and nuanced exploration of the complex relationship between societal obligation and athletic goals.