2019/49: Underland: A Deep Time Journey -- Robert Macfarlane
Wednesday, May 15th, 2019 10:26 am2019/49: Underland: A Deep Time Journey -- Robert Macfarlane
Macfarlane's epic journey to the 'underland' -- the places beneath the earth -- is formed of three parts: 'Seeing' (caves, forests and a dark-matter research facility, all in England);'Hiding' (catacombs, underground rivers and the caves and fissures of karst uplands, in Europe); and 'Haunting' (cave paintings, undersea oil extraction, glaciers and a nuclear waste depository, all in 'the North'). One certainly gets the sense that the author, an experienced caver and mountaineer, is pushing his own physical limits at times.
( lengthy )
The same three tasks recur across cultures and epochs: to shelter what is precious, to yield what is valuable, and to dispose of what is harmful... Into the underland we have long placed that which we fear and wish to lose, and that which we love and wish to save. [loc. 113]
Macfarlane's epic journey to the 'underland' -- the places beneath the earth -- is formed of three parts: 'Seeing' (caves, forests and a dark-matter research facility, all in England);'Hiding' (catacombs, underground rivers and the caves and fissures of karst uplands, in Europe); and 'Haunting' (cave paintings, undersea oil extraction, glaciers and a nuclear waste depository, all in 'the North'). One certainly gets the sense that the author, an experienced caver and mountaineer, is pushing his own physical limits at times.
( lengthy )