Ex Libris by Fadiman

I started reading Ex Libris while in the bathtub this evening. Although I admire her unquenchable thirst for books, I do not think we are interested in the same subject matters. She talks about authors I do not particularly care for or read, I am a non-fiction individual (but her mention of Arctic literary fondness was interesting). On page 28 in the last paragraph she writes: "The lesson these books have taught me is that if you are going to be a martyr, you had better choose your animus with care. When I think of the causes for which people more commonly give up their lives - nationalism, religion, ethnicity - it seems to me that a thirty-five pound bag of rocks, and the lost world it represents, is not such a bad thing to die for." I immediately thought this woman has no sense of what the word martyr means or what it is to be one. I pulled out my trusty dictionary and found this definition: Martyr - a person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce his or her religion; a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause; a person who undergoes severe or constant suffering. For a man and his fellow travelers to die for a thirty-five pound bag of rocks is not being a martyr, it was death by CHOICE. They chose rocks over rations, I would subsequently categorize this as stupid, and whilst they died for their decision my favorite belief that stupidity should be painful (in this case it was) seems to prove wise once more.