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A review by katyab
The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane
5.0
"... I had learned to see another type of wildness, to which I had once been blind: the wildness of natural life, the sheer force of ongoing organic existence, vigorous and chaotic. This wildness was not about asperity, but about luxuriance, vitality, fun. [...] It was something most people forgot as they grew into adults."
I think Robert Macfarlane's books are the ones I've needed and benefited from the most throughout this past year. They've rekindled an absolute love of the world, despite me feeling so far or shut off from accessing it. His writing evokes such a deep and unique yearning to escape that no other book has, and makes me realise how vast and explorable this country is.
It also makes me realise, or helps to remind me in a way that's both humbling and terrifying, that the world is older than humanity. That there will come a time when we fade from dominance, and nature will reclaim what we once controlled. "... our age will pass, and our material legacy [...] will be absorbed by the land, becoming all but imperceptible." This was really emotional given the context of RM's friendship with Roger Deakin (whose books I'll be seeking out some point in the future).
There's another brilliant quote that he mentions, although he also said he'd lost the source. "Landscape was here long before we were even dreamed. It watched us arrive." The implication that "it will watch us leave" is haunting to me, in a way that I can't decide whether it's good or bad. I think it's mostly good. I remembered it when I was standing alone in the mountains last weekend. That was nothing compared to RM's experience on Ben Hope (which kept me awake after I put the book down for the night...)
It's a kind of smallness that we can lose sight of, but we shouldn't. That the natural world can be both indifferently hostile and gently passive to our existence... they're both necessary to know.
I'm gushing now, so this is a sensible place to stop.
Brilliant, as always.
I think Robert Macfarlane's books are the ones I've needed and benefited from the most throughout this past year. They've rekindled an absolute love of the world, despite me feeling so far or shut off from accessing it. His writing evokes such a deep and unique yearning to escape that no other book has, and makes me realise how vast and explorable this country is.
It also makes me realise, or helps to remind me in a way that's both humbling and terrifying, that the world is older than humanity. That there will come a time when we fade from dominance, and nature will reclaim what we once controlled. "... our age will pass, and our material legacy [...] will be absorbed by the land, becoming all but imperceptible." This was really emotional given the context of RM's friendship with Roger Deakin (whose books I'll be seeking out some point in the future).
There's another brilliant quote that he mentions, although he also said he'd lost the source. "Landscape was here long before we were even dreamed. It watched us arrive." The implication that "it will watch us leave" is haunting to me, in a way that I can't decide whether it's good or bad. I think it's mostly good. I remembered it when I was standing alone in the mountains last weekend. That was nothing compared to RM's experience on Ben Hope (which kept me awake after I put the book down for the night...)
It's a kind of smallness that we can lose sight of, but we shouldn't. That the natural world can be both indifferently hostile and gently passive to our existence... they're both necessary to know.
I'm gushing now, so this is a sensible place to stop.
Brilliant, as always.