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Bezig met laden... Over paden een ontdekkingstocht (2017)door Robert Moor
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Some interesting personal experiences and perspective, but I couldn't get through the last 100 pages. ( ) Working outwards from his experience of walking the entire Appalachian Trail, Moor looks into the surprisingly complex question “What is a trail?” — he investigates how and why animals, from fossil sea-bed creatures and ants to elephants and bison, change the world by making trails, where human trails used by different cultures come from and how they evolve, takes a sidestep to look at human interaction with animals as hunter, pastoralist, or scientific observer, and then takes a wide sweep through the background to modern ideas about hiking and wilderness. Along the way we get plenty of chance to reflect on the many metaphorical ways we talk and think about trails too. I found the scientific part of the discussion the most interesting: Moor seems to be an arts graduate with an unusual gift for asking scientists the right questions an continuing to do so until he actually understands what they are telling him, so his accounts of the trail-making behaviour of various animals and of how we found about it are lively and convincing, despite a few journalistic tics like his insistence on telling us about the dress and facial features of his interviewees. The section on human behaviour was quite interesting too, although it’s very North American in its focus. There’s a lot about the tracks used by Native Americans, most of which were probably originally adapted from animal trails — bison are very good at finding the most energy-efficient route, apparently — and many of which still exist as part of the modern highway network. I was also interested by the way he picks out the odd convergence between urban liberals and crotchety gun-toting libertarians in the conservation movement, even if, as he points out, America has never been the “trackless wilderness” so many people have a nostalgic affection for. Moor comes to the interesting conclusion that trails, with their mixture of serendipitous exploration and continuous refinement, are a repository of collective wisdom in the same sort of way that books or the internet are, and that trail-building behaviour is one of the great evolutionary steps that animals have taken, almost on a par with the invention of language. The last audiobook I listened to irritated me because the reader didn’t distinguish clearly enough between the author’s voice and passages of quotation; this one went the other way, giving everyone quoted the stage-school accent appropriate to his or her presumed origins. If you want to hear Nietzsche and “Goatie” speaking English like camp commandants in a seventies war film, or a distinguished Belgian ethologist doing a Poirot impersonation, you’re in the right place… The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on: the long gorge choked with scree and boulders, the wide creek, the misty blurred grass. The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain. The pine sings though there's no wind. Who can leap the world's ties And sit with me among the white clouds? From Cold Mountain Poems by Han-shan On Trails discusses everything from the oldest fossil trials of primitive organisms to insects trails to hiking on long trials. rHow did humans use the trails of animals to create their own trials, and later roads. How do different cultures route their trails in different way. Moor looked at the trials the Cherokees made and modern recreational trials that went through the same places. The modern trials were routed to get the best scenic views while the Cherokee's trials were much more functional. Robert Moor hiked the Appalachian Trail before he began his career as a journalist. Research for this book took the author from Newfoundland to Morocco and all over North America. It seemed a bit long at times but I am glad I read it to the end. This is a very meandering book with no real point, but lots of interesting stories and thoughts about trails and hiking (especially the Appalachian Trail). Stuff about how Native Americans used trails, the expansion of the AT into the International AT (including Canada, UK, Morocco), technical details of trails, stories about the creation of trails, etc. It's entertaining and interesting but doesn't really fit into one category. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
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"From a brilliant new literary voice comes a groundbreaking exploration of how trails help us understand the world--from tiny ant trails to hiking paths that span continents, from interstate highways to the Internet. In 2009, while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, Robert Moor began to wonder about the paths that lie beneath our feet: How do they form? Why do some improve over time while others devolve? What makes us follow or strike off on our own? Over the course of the next seven years, Moor traveled the globe, exploring trails of all kinds, from the miniscule to the massive. He learned the tricks of master trail-builders, hunted down long-lost Cherokee trails, and traced the origins of our road networks and the Internet. In each chapter, Moor interweaves his adventures with findings from science, history, philosophy, and nature writing--combining the nomadic joys of Peter Matthiessen with the eclectic wisdom of Lewis Hyde's The Gift. Throughout, Moor reveals how this single topic--the oft-overlooked trail--sheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents? How has humanity's relationship with nature and technology shaped world around us? And, ultimately, how does each of us pick a path through life? Moor has the essayist's gift for making new connections, the adventurer's love for paths untaken, and the philosopher's knack for asking big questions. With a breathtaking arc that spans from the dawn of animal life to the digital era, On Trails is a book that makes us see our world, our history, our species, and our ways of life anew"-- Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)796.51The arts Recreational and performing arts Athletic and outdoor sports and games Outdoor leisure WalkingLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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