I dont know if it is interpretion. I was refering to the man and the writer. He hated immigration for environmental reasons. He got into a fist fight with one of the orginal Earth First folks over that issue. I do respect your response and not being negative. I used loving to reading Abbey. He could take two pages to describe a flower that only blooms in a full moon in the Utah Souteastern desert in April. And one of his best essays is about Telluride before it became what it is today. I have a copy from spring 1989 Moab's paper the day he died and he is on the cover. As for grizzly's, everyone should read Grizzly Years by Doug Peacock whether you hunt one or just want to see one. I know he was a drunk, he died from a liver failure at 62. I always felt bad reading all his rafting trips through the rivers where grizzlys roam and that poor guy never got to see a grizzly bear. Here is to Rudolf the Red!I think the "magic" of any good author is to invoke thought that takes any 25 readers 25 different directions. Why I like reading Abbey.
Even his use of the word "institutions"...is up to the reader to interpret for themselves, mine is much different than yours.