Escapism (Hardcover)

~ Professor Yi-Fu Tuan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Who," writes the distinguished geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, "hasn't--sometime--wanted to escape? But from what?" In his fascinating look at the idea of escape, Tuan suggests that all human culture is really a kind of flight, an evasive mechanism, a means of not facing facts: our shelters give us refuge from the weather, our cities give us protection against nature red in tooth and claw, our religion and institutions give us solace against the certainty of death. "A human being," he says wryly, "is an animal who is congenitally indisposed to accept reality as it is." Tuan examines the artifacts of our present civilization to buttress his argument. The cornucopia of the modern supermarket, for instance, with its "dazzling pyramids of fruits and vegetables, its esplanades of meat," which promises ceaseless abundance, and the growth of escape-to-nature ideas, which, he insists, depend on an antithetical escape from nature (nature being, in his definition, "what remains or what can recuperate over time when all humans and their works are removed"). That escape to nature, he suggests, relies on an unfortunate abstraction, one of simplicity. Images of nature, he continues, are often formed from wishful thinking and not from direct experience, and they tend therefore to lack the complexity of reality. Tuan's vigorous essay is provocative, challenging, and a pleasure to read. --Gregory McNamee

From The Washington Post

So has Tuan written an original work to be read for both intellectual profit and pleasure? Indisputably, just so. Yet a reader should be warned--indeed a warning should be printed on the jacket: This book is PURE ESCAPISM.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (October 7, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801859263
• ISBN-13: 978-0801859267
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,203,086 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cure for a figurative head cold, April 3, 2002

By	"michaeleve" (Miami, Florida) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Escapism (Paperback)

Yi-Fu Tuan says that "a human being is an animal who is congenitally indisposed to accept reality as it is." He says ESCAPISM is the strategy we employ to rid ourselves of the humdrum of daily life which he likens to suffering a head cold. The book itself is a good head-clearing remedy. Tuan covers a wide range of topics in human cultural history and gives us a lot to think about.

He gives an "unusual" perspective on nature and culture, looking at the very meaning of reality and exploring why, traditionally, "myths", "daydreaming", and "fantasy" have such negative connotations. This is especially puzzling he says in light of escapism being not only a historical human impulse but also a universal one. He shows this with examples from Eastern and Western culture. Another puzzle is why, if it's so intrinsic to our nature, do we choose to make some explorations of it so painful? His chapter on "Hell" looks at the less-than-pleasant escapes that we have inflicted on ourselves.

Tuan is a geographer of some repute and he exhibits his masterly command of exploration of unknown spaces and places with this fascinating journey through our imagination, culture, and psyche.
He is occasionally humorous and writes in a spare, straightforward style. Reading this book is escapism itself as it will make you think, and in a final bit of perceptive wisdom Tuan has this to say: "Even in modern America, thinking is suspect. It is something done by the idly curious or by discontented people." If that's true then I endorse being idly curious and recommend escaping for a while with this book.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Culture as an escape from animality, November 15, 2003

By	Steven Reynolds (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Escapism (Paperback)

We tend to think of the way we live as "reality". Yet all human culture - from the smallest object to the grandest ideological-religious system - is a form of escape. Indeed, argues Tuan, it may well be the defining feature of humans, as a species, that we have this capacity to imagine and implement transformative projects; that we can turn the world to our will (or try to), rather than remaining the victim of Nature or of our own natures. "Escape" or "the imagination" is value-neutral, argues Tuan, as he explores the methods by which we attempt to escape from animality, and how it can lead us into both the grotesque and the sublime. What's incredibly satisfying about this book is that Tuan approaches his topic not from the position of philosopher or psychologist, but from the perspective of "human geography" which, in practice, becomes a helpful blend of sociology and anthropology grounded in history and science, but with enough gaps to allow for fruitful speculation. My only complaint is that the sheer breadth of Yi-Fu Tuan's knowledge leaves you feeling slightly dissatisfied, as if this book is only scratching the surface of an immense topic - which, of course, it necessarily is. So I suppose my dissatisfaction is only with myself. Thankfully, Tuan provides detailed notes and an excellent bibliography to point the way forward.