manga: “Summit of the Gods“
Summit of the Gods Many people wonder about the motivation behind a mountaineer’s desire to risk their life in order to scale a dangerous peak, and George Mallory (1886-1924) has been attributed to have given the most famous (and also simplest) reason why. When asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, legend has it that he simply said: “Because it’s there.” While the authenticity of this quote has come into question in recent years, there is no denying the profound, yet puzzling nature of those three words. Perhaps only the bravest of mountaineers will be able to fully comprehend them. If Mallory and his partner Andrew Irvine had survived their ill-fated 1924 Mount Everest expedition, further light could have possibly been shed upon the subject. Jiro Taniguchi’s five-volume manga adaptation of Baku Yumemakura’s original novel of the same name attempts to solve the mystery behind what makes a mountaineer tick. The novel was written between 1994 and 1...