Rytkheu’s A Dream in Polar Fog, provides an interesting perspective on the benefit of intellectual versus practical skills for exploration and survival. The main character, John, is initially described as an academic from Port Hope who indulges in stories about faraway seas (16-17). Clearly enamored with the thought of traveling and visiting distant lands, he embarks on a journey out of Nome. Once the ship gets stuck in the ice, however, it is revealed that the skills from his life at the university are not sufficient for him to manage in the rugged arctic landscape. Throughout the first ten chapters, John’s intellectual skills, such as reading and writing, prove themselves of little use compared to the practical skills of the native population.

John mishandling the dynamite at the beginning of the story reveals his lack of practical skills and intuition. He is described as “not thinking” as he bends over to grab the dynamite cartridge buried in the snow, when it detonates and severely injuries his hands (20). This lapse in judgment highlights his lack of experience doing challenging and dangerous physical work needed for such an expedition. While other crew members likely have experience using dynamite, John is given the responsibility despite his expertise not lying in arctic exploration. While his dreams of “seasoned mariners… [and] distant lands… undiscovered by civilized man” pique his interest in going on an expedition, his is utterly unprepared given his lack of practical skills (17).

Much like Olenin’s reaction when originally encountering the rugged landscape in The Cossacks, John has only read and dreamed about exotic people and places, which holds him back from understanding the native culture. This is clear from how John describes the native, Orvo, as “incredibly similar to the stylized picture of an Eskimo in the National University Museum in Toronto” (32). This oddly specific description of Orvo underscores John’s prior perceptions of the native culture as something exotic that he would only imagine encountering in a museum. His academic past creates a barrier between his constructed view of the Chukchi and the reality, as he does not have the skills necessary to go out and understand native tribes first hand. Though John eventually realizes that the Chukchi “way of life doesn’t require literacy or books,” he is slow to acknowledge the importance of practical skills like hunting and skinning, which complicates and impedes his embrace of the Chukchi lifestyle (84).