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Author: David Abram
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307830551
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
Winner of the International Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction Animal tracks, word magic, the speech of stones, the power of letters, and the taste of the wind all figure prominently in this intellectual tour de force that returns us to our senses and to the sensuous terrain that sustains us. This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception. For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patters) that we have only lately come to think of as "inanimate." How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relation with the breathing earth? In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with a passion, a precision, and an intellectual daring that recall such writers as Loren Eisleley, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez.
Author: David Abram
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307830551
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 344
Get Book
Book Description
Winner of the International Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction Animal tracks, word magic, the speech of stones, the power of letters, and the taste of the wind all figure prominently in this intellectual tour de force that returns us to our senses and to the sensuous terrain that sustains us. This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception. For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patters) that we have only lately come to think of as "inanimate." How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relation with the breathing earth? In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with a passion, a precision, and an intellectual daring that recall such writers as Loren Eisleley, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez.
Author: David Abram
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0375713697
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 338
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Book Description
David Abram’s first book, The Spell of the Sensuous has become a classic of environmental literature. Now he returns with a startling exploration of our human entanglement with the rest of nature. As the climate veers toward catastrophe, the innumerable losses cascading through the biosphere make vividly evident the need for a metamorphosis in our relation to the living land. For too long we’ve ignored the wild intelligence of our bodies, taking our primary truths from technologies that hold the living world at a distance. Abram’s writing subverts this distance, drawing readers ever closer to their animal senses in order to explore, from within, the elemental kinship between the human body and the breathing Earth. The shape-shifting of ravens, the erotic nature of gravity, the eloquence of thunder, the pleasures of being edible: all have their place in this book.
Author: Andy Couturier
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
ISBN: 1623171326
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 433
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Book Description
Inspiring stories of 10 people who left urban Japan to live ‘the simple life’ in the rural mountains—for anyone interested in sustainable living, Japanese counterculture, and Eastern spirituality “Subversive in the best possible way.” —Bill McKibben, New York Times–bestselling author The Abundance of Less captures the texture of sustainable lives well lived in these ten profiles of ordinary—yet exceptional—men and women who left behind mainstream existences in urban Japan to live surrounded by the luxuries of nature, art, friends, delicious food, and an abundance of time. Drawing on traditional Eastern spiritual wisdom and culture, these pioneers describe the profound personal transformations they underwent as they escaped the stress, consumerism, busyness, and dependence on technology of modern life. This intimate and evocative book tells of their fulfilling lives as artists, philosophers, and farmers who rely on themselves for happiness and sustenance. By inviting readers to enter into the essence of these individuals’ days, Couturier shows us how we too can bring more meaning and richness to our own lives.
Author: Alan Hollinghurst
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440621535
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276
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Book Description
"The "spell" of the title is both the power of drugs, at the heart of the book, and the "sex-magic" that variously possesses - but then deserts - each of its main characters." -- The Guardian Discover this ‘sparkling celebration of sexual intrigue’ (Telegraph, London) from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Line of Beauty. The Spell is a comedy of sexual manners that follows the interlocking affairs of four men: Robin, an architect in his late forties, who is trying to build an idyllic life in Dorset with his younger lover, Justin; Robin's 22 year old son Danny, a volatile beauty who lives for clubbing and casual sex; and the shy Alex, who is Justin's ex-boyfriend. As each in turn falls under the spell of romance or drugs, country living or rough trade, a richly ironic picture emerges of the clashing imperatives of modern gay life. At once lyrical, sceptical and romantic, The Spell confirms Alan Hollinghurst as one of Britain's most important novelists.
Author: Max Oelschlaeger
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300053708
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 506
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Book Description
How has the concept of wild nature changed over the millennia? And what have been the environmental consequences? In this broad-ranging book Max Oelschlaeger argues that the idea of wilderness has reflected the evolving character of human existence from Paleolithic times to the present day. An intellectual history, it draws together evidence from philosophy, anthropology, theology, literature, ecology, cultural geography, and archaeology to provide a new scientifically and philosophically informed understanding of humankind's relationship to nature. Oelschlaeger begins by examining the culture of prehistoric hunter-gatherers, whose totems symbolized the idea of organic unity between humankind and wild nature, and idea that the author believes is essential to any attempt to define human potential. He next traces how the transformation of these hunter-gatherers into farmers led to a new awareness of distinctions between humankind and nature, and how Hellenism and Judeo-Christianity later introduced the unprecedented concept that nature was valueless until humanized. Oelschlaeger discusses the concept of wilderness in relation to the rise of classical science and modernism, and shows that opposition to "modernism" arose almost immediately from scientific, literary, and philosophical communities. He provides new and, in some cases, revisionist studies of the seminal American figures Thoreau, Muir, and Leopold, and he gives fresh readings of America's two prodigious wilderness poets Robinson Jeffers and Gary Snyder. He concludes with a searching look at the relationship of evolutionary thought to our postmodern effort to reconceptualize ourselves as civilized beings who remain, in some ways, natural animals.
Author: Ann Lauterbach
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143133527
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 162
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Book Description
A new collection of provocative work from the author of Or To Begin Again, a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in Poetry Ann Lauterbach is one of America's most inventive poets, acclaimed for her fierce, sensuous, and intellectually charged work. In her tenth collection, Spell, Lauterbach activates the many meanings of "spell": her sense that the world is under a spell from which it must awaken, to spells of passing weather, to her desire to spell out life's difficulties and wonders, and how sin-gle words (and their etymologies) might inform and enlighten our contemporary condition. In short poems, poem sequences, and a series of "Conversations with Evening," Lauterbach calls upon all her imaginative resources to locate a new hybrid poetics of reality, with wit, urgency, and candor.
Author: Maggie Morton
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books Inc
ISBN: 1626390134
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
Terra may not be the best at magic, but she is the best at loving Athene Werth, her lover and best friend. They donÕt ever want to part, but a threat to their romance is right on the horizonÑa magical quest for AtheneÕs hand in marriage. So Terra goes undercover, disguised as a man, and she joins the quest. What other choice does she have? Once the quest begins, there are many surprises along the way, including an enchanted stone that allows Terra to visit Athene, because neither woman wants to be away from the otherÕs lips for very long. Back on the quest, a man with flaming horns is hot on TerraÕs trail, and he will stop at nothing to end her questÉand end her life. But Terra will also stop at nothing to win the quest, because AtheneÕs loving embrace lies at its end.
Author: David Abram
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Human ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 326
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Book Description
Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 45
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Book Description
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I was once in a trance while gazing at the stars in eastern Bali. I felt myself falling through space, and between the constellations below and the constellations above drifted countless fireflies, their lights flickering like the stars. #2 I had traveled to Indonesia on a research grant to study magic, and I had been a professional sleight-of-hand magician for five years back in the United States. I had spent some months in London, England, exploring the use of sleight-of-hand magic in psychotherapy. #3 The focus of my research shifted from questions regarding the application of magical techniques in medicine and ritual curing to a deeper consideration of the relation between traditional magic and the animate natural world. I came to recognize that it was through the agency of such rumors that the sorcerers were able to maintain a basic level of privacy. #4 The traditional or tribal shaman acts as an intermediary between the human community and the larger ecological field, ensuring that there is an appropriate flow of nourishment from the landscape to the human inhabitants and back to the local earth.
Author: Susan Elizabeth Hale
Publisher: Quest Books
ISBN: 9780835608565
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 326
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Book Description
Visionary singer Susan Hale believes that early peoples deliberately built their structures to enhance natural vibrations. She takes us around the globe-from Stonehenge and New Grange to Gothic cathedrals and Tibetan stupas in New Mexico-to explore the acoustics of sacred places. But, she says, you don't have to go to the Taj Mahal: The sacred is all around us, and we are all sound chambers resonating with the One Song.
