A Field Guide to Getting Lost

One of the most consistent arguments in A Field Guide to Getting Lost is that disorientation is not an error to be corrected, but a necessary state of being that enables discovery and transformation. Solnit presents getting lost—whether in the wilderness, in a city ruin, or within memory itself—as an opening for self-discovery and renewal. Losing one’s bearings strips away certainty, leaving room for new ways of perceiving and becoming.

This theme emerges in the book’s attention to thresholds. The open door of childhood memory becomes a metaphor for this practice of invitation. To step through or even to leave the door ajar is to welcome the possibility of what cannot be predicted. Similarly, the figure of the butterfly in its instar stage captures the essence of disorientation: An organism suspended between forms, vulnerable and unstable, yet on the verge of radical change. For Solnit, disorientation is akin to this liminal stage—it is where identity sheds old skins and begins to take on new forms.

The captive narratives explored in one chapter sharpen this argument. Figures like Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who was stripped of clothing, possessions, and even language, illustrate how disorientation becomes a crucible for reinvention.