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A review by everyeggmm
Becoming Animal by David Abram
5.0
Written by ecologist and author of "The Spell of the Sensuous" David Abram, Becoming Animal is a work of nature philosophy which makes the claim that much of modern societal problems can be traced back to us forgetting out connection to the wider planet, and the bodies we inhabit which mediate this connection. From this statement of a problem, then, Abram's book sets out to forge a solution through the elucidation of the transcendent in the mundane, and discourses on the relationship between us, consciousness, and the world. The end result is a book which reads as part nature writing, part philosophy of mind, and part mindfulness exercises, with the whole being a compelling and eye-opening read, if a little bit too far-reaching for my personal tastes from time to time.
In attempts to balance out my predisposition toward Transcendentalism in particular and nature writing as a whole, I often attempt to overcompensate by being ruthlessly critical of works even tangentially related. When I first picked up Becoming Animal, then, it was with the mindset that I would hone my abilities toward searching for weak points in the primary theses to see if I may destabilize the entire argument. That was my original intention, but as I read I found that, even when I encountered incongruities, there was far more I agreed with here than in any past nature writings I had read, possibly even in Emerson and Thoreau. Here, Abram seems to carry the core principles of that which can be found in Transcendentalism, while shirking all the unnecessary extremities. The result? A refined philosophical work that I would call (though Abram doesn't call it this) neo-Transcendentalism almost, and therefore showing a more-refined version of the belief system that so entrapped me years ago.
That's not to say that this work if faultless. Quite the contrary, I found later chapters such as "Sleight-of-hand," and "Shapeshifting" to be too far over-the-top to be believable, and their metaphors too heavy-handed. Rather, it is the fact that, in spite of these faults, this book still shines, that makes it astounding. A message rests at its core, a wake-up call that deserves to be heard by all and remembered by all.
In attempts to balance out my predisposition toward Transcendentalism in particular and nature writing as a whole, I often attempt to overcompensate by being ruthlessly critical of works even tangentially related. When I first picked up Becoming Animal, then, it was with the mindset that I would hone my abilities toward searching for weak points in the primary theses to see if I may destabilize the entire argument. That was my original intention, but as I read I found that, even when I encountered incongruities, there was far more I agreed with here than in any past nature writings I had read, possibly even in Emerson and Thoreau. Here, Abram seems to carry the core principles of that which can be found in Transcendentalism, while shirking all the unnecessary extremities. The result? A refined philosophical work that I would call (though Abram doesn't call it this) neo-Transcendentalism almost, and therefore showing a more-refined version of the belief system that so entrapped me years ago.
That's not to say that this work if faultless. Quite the contrary, I found later chapters such as "Sleight-of-hand," and "Shapeshifting" to be too far over-the-top to be believable, and their metaphors too heavy-handed. Rather, it is the fact that, in spite of these faults, this book still shines, that makes it astounding. A message rests at its core, a wake-up call that deserves to be heard by all and remembered by all.