This quote reminds me a lot of an overused Marilyn Monroe quote: "Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."
Kerasote is talking about the "wild" and how, once everything is tamed, it becomes dull. The "wilderness" will no longer be "wild". Monroe, on the other hand, is talking about humans. Humans, once tamed and no longer ridiculous, become boring/dull.
Maybe the insight gained from both of these quotes can tell us something. Maybe it is further proving the point that humans belong in the wilderness and thus, the two, are pretty much synonymous.
