Leslie Carol Roberts

A NOTE FROM
LESLIE CAROL ROBERTS:
When I was a news reporter, I had a boss who used to throw stories back at me and crow, "So what! Who cares?" -- then he would yell even louder: "You better learn to answer those two questions on your work. The ultimate test. So WHAT! Who CARES!"
Whenever I sit down to write, I can see that man, eyes on stems, white hair a crazed mop.
How would I tell him about Antarctica, and why I think of it every day?
I guess I would begin by mentioning that I believe in nature and all its complexities, in landscapes and all their rich contradictions, and most importantly I am curious about how we place ourselves into a landscape.
I can hear him say, or is it that I see him raise an eyebrow -- that sounds like bull crap Roberts!
And indeed, all shorthand for obsession or passion can take on a certain mushy edge.
So let me be specific. For more than 20 years Antarctica and the people who are held in this continent's thrall have occupied my mind. I wanted to show and tell the stories of these remarkable people working in a wholly extraordinary place -- but I wanted to tell it the way it actually feels to be there -- without the hero-worship and coffee table bookitis.

This gentoo is free in the wild. I hung out on his rocks for about two hours a couple years ago. Penguins are dazzling birds. However, there are zoos where penguins are bred then sent to other zoos for people to look at them in "habitats." These penguins never know the soaring freedom of life at sea. Rather, function as a "performance" of wilderness for people unwilling to see them in their God-willed environment.