In this classic collection of 29 pieces that span half a century, Gary Snyder explores humans’ complex, ever-evolving attitudes toward the environment. He argues that nature is not separate from humanity, but intrinsic to it, and that since societies are natural constructs, it’s imperative to go beyond racial, ethnic, and religious identities to find a shared concern for acts that benefit humans and nonhumans alike. Included in the collection is his 1971 environmental manifesto “Four Changes,” which, as he writes in a postscript, is unfortunately truer than ever. In this new edition, Snyder sends out a call-to-action that challenges all beings to take moral responsibility, a call that resounds with readers discovering the book for the first time or those returning to an old favorite.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
This richly rewarding book about ecology and technology draws on 40 years of careful thought. Although it does not dwell on information technologies, the points Snyder makes about "a feeling of place" are of interest to anyone who has mulled over the ways in which cyberspace jogs our normative notions of time, space, and community.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
In these essays, manifestos, reviews and talks from the past four decades, poet/environmentalist Snyder sets forth individual initiatives to foster an ecologically sound society because "humanity has become a locust-like blight on the planet that will leave a bare cupboard for its own children." Using the concept of a watershed (land drained by a river system) as both model and metaphor, he envisions a world organized by bio-regions instead of by arbitrary political boundaries?a steady-state global economy freed from exploitation, heavy industry and dependence on fossil fuels. Snyder draws inspiration from diverse cultural sources: Buddhist teachings of nonviolence and impermanence, Native American reverence for nature, Chinese poetry, the Ainu of Japan. Also included are a critique of Walt Whitman's version of melting-pot democracy and Snyder's reminiscences of his years in a Zen Buddhist community in Japan and his musings on Beat poetry. These essays are an important and eloquent signpost for developing planetary and ecological consciousness. 40,000 first printing; first serial to Audubon.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wide ranging insights into Gary Snyder's lifetime concerns,
This review is from: A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds (Paperback)
I bought this book, along with the poetry collection, No Nature, to gain an insight into the work of Gary Snyder, someone I had often seen quoted, but had never read at first hand. Snyder is perhaps best known as a west coast 'nature' poet, a fellow traveller of the 'beat generation', but he is also a prominent Buddhist, bioregional visionary and literary scholar. To judge from this book he is, moreover, an accomplished and eloquent essayist. The essays presented here, articles, reviews, talks and what might loosely be called manifestos, come mainly from the 70s to the 90s and span the breadth of Snyder's interests. Arranged in three sections, Ethics, Aesthetics and Watersheds, Snyder's writing manages to be poetic, religious, political and compelling at all times. Having read this book I feel inspired to read more, I'll try The Practice of the Wild next (more prose), followed by Turtle Island (poetry for which Snyder won the Pulitzer Prize). For anyone concerned to cultivate a humane relationship with the more-than-human world, Snyder is a surefooted guide.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A place in space,
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This review is from: A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds (Paperback)
Gary Snyder, one the Beat Poets is still able to pull me in and hold me in what ever space he occupies. This book, a collection of essays draws on a long history of environmental stories and poems, and contains one of my favorites "The Smokey the Bear Sutra" This is the essence of Gary Snyder, funny, pointed and stick in your mind forever!
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First Sentence:
In the spiritual and political loneliness of America of the fifties you'd hitch a thousand miles to meet a friend. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
unnatural writing, first precept, democratic vistas, war against the imagination, porous world, wild systems Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, Turtle Island, Native American, The Politics of Ethnopoetics, Four Changes, United States, The New Wind, Beat Generation, The Incredible Survival of Coyote, North America, New York, Nets of Beads, Single Breath, Webs of Cells, North Beach, Village Council, Language Goes Two Ways, City Lights, Sierra Nevada, The Porous World, Third World, Coyote Man, Forest Service, The Old Ways, Smokey the Bear Sutra Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
In the spiritual and political loneliness of America of the fifties you'd hitch a thousand miles to meet a friend. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
unnatural writing, first precept, democratic vistas, war against the imagination, porous world, wild systems Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
San Francisco, Turtle Island, Native American, The Politics of Ethnopoetics, Four Changes, United States, The New Wind, Beat Generation, The Incredible Survival of Coyote, North America, New York, Nets of Beads, Single Breath, Webs of Cells, North Beach, Village Council, Language Goes Two Ways, City Lights, Sierra Nevada, The Porous World, Third World, Coyote Man, Forest Service, The Old Ways, Smokey the Bear Sutra Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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