Faced with one of the last truly wild landscapes left in the US, their response is to build a city. This is not creativity: it is dreadful, dull conformity. Finding one of the last sublime remnants of the unpopulated West, they want nothing more than to pack it with tender urbanites in a glorified tailgate party. This is not an alternative way of life: it is standard American operating procedure.

I think the heart of his critique is exactly right. I disagree with some of his characterizations, but I think that from his observing perch, he saw exactly what Burning Man is. I wouldn't have seen it, but I didn't have to. My Chris told me.Chris was walking with a friend through Burning Man when his friend said "Burning Man is proof that humans love to work." It is so true. Burning Man is a mix of one part hedonism, one part community, two parts creativity to ten parts labor. You hear about the rest of it, but the bulk of Burning Man is work. The organizers and artists workon their projects. The participantsin less than a week. Do not assume that means a crappy ramshackle little city. Anand said the housing looked like high-end Mumbai slums, but the public buildings are spectacular. There is a street layout; the main boulevards are lined with gas streetlights. There is the Man and two Temples and then there are towers and huge sculptures and installations. People make themselves into elaborate projects, so that thought and work scales from the miniature to the gigantic. Burning Man is work made material.Burning Man is a gathering of humans in the desert, working ferociously to make something. Mr. Clarke is right. That is profoundly American. The desert interests him more than that expression of humanity, so he is right again. He wouldn't like Burning Man. I love the desert. I truly do. But I don't know how to experience it like he does. I don't know what a long time in a desert would make of me. I can understand built works, though. I have a lifetime of interpreting them. As built works go, Burning Man is a demanding and unusual variant. I understand how his scorn follows from his preferences, but I don't share them. Burning Man is about one way for people to be, and that way is imagination made real. I'm glad I'm going.Side thoughts:If I were to try a desert pilgrimage, I wouldn't choose Black Rock. It is truly dust over cracking clay. If I were to try to spend time in the desert, I would choose something softer, like Manzanar.Imagination made real sounds fanciful, but I don't know how else to explain it. Chris was walking out one night when a couch with an end table rolled up to him. When he sat on the couch, the phone rang and he talked to people at a distant phone booth, who didn't know who they were calling. Then the couch gave him a ride. Someone thought of that and made it.If you'll be there, please find me. I'll register under my own name. I'm in Quacker Camp near 4:30 and F. I'd love to see you there.