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The absent hand : reimagining our American landscape / Suzannah Lessard.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Berkeley, California : Counterpoint, 2019Edition: First hardcover editionDescription: xi, 304 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781640092211
  • 1640092218
Subject(s):
Contents:
In the village -- Suburbophobia -- Gettysburg -- Natchez -- Truth or Consequences -- Flight -- The view from a small mountain -- The pumpkins of Bergen Street -- The market -- Youngstown -- The pendulum -- Fresh kills -- The corporation in the woods -- Atopia -- Whose hand? -- The inverted cradle.
Summary: "Following her bestselling The Architect of Desire, Suzannah Lessard returns with a remarkable book, a work of relentless curiosity and a graceful mixture of observation and philosophy. This intriguing hybrid will remind some of W. G. Sebald and others of Rebecca Solnit, but it is Lessard's singular talent to combine this profound book-length mosaic 'a blend of historical travelogue, architectural tour, philosophical meditation, and prose poem' into a work of unique genius, as she describes and reimagines our landscapes. In this exploration of our surroundings, The Absent Hand contends that to reimagine landscape is a form of cultural reinvention. The Absent Hand begins by observing the residual places from our country's first European settlements, and continues to the life of our cities and their eventual overflow into suburbs and wildernesses. Yet Lessard is always joining us to discuss the effects of "enclosure," of how we manage to live on and in the land, how we surround ourselves on the land with stories, roads, buildings, and ideas. Whether it's climate change altering the meaning of nature, or digital communications altering the nature of work, the global enclosure is panoramic, infiltrative, inescapable. No one will finish this book, this journey, without having their ideas of living and settling in their surroundings profoundly enriched"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 917.304 L638 Available 33111009327335
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Of beach plums, ramps, and Ramada Inns: a quietly sensitive eminently sensible consideration of the landscapes of our lives . . . A gift." -- Kirkus Reviews

Following her bestselling The Architect of Desire , Suzannah Lessard returns with a remarkable book, a work of relentless curiosity and a graceful mixture of observation and philosophy. This intriguing hybrid will remind some of W. G. Sebald's work and others of Rebecca Solnit's, but it is Lessard's singular talent to combine this profound book-length mosaic-- a blend of historical travelogue, reportorial probing, philosophical meditation, and prose poem--into a work of unique genius, as she describes and reimagines our landscapes. In this exploration of our surroundings, The Absent Hand contends that to reimagine landscape is a form of cultural reinvention.

This engrossing work of literary nonfiction is a deep dive into our surroundings--cities, countryside, and sprawl--exploring change in the meaning of place and reimagining the world in a time of transition. Whether it be climate change altering the meaning of nature, or digital communications altering the nature of work, the effects of global enclosure on the meaning of place are panoramic, infiltrative, inescapable. No one will finish this book, this journey, without having their ideas of living and settling in their surroundings profoundly enriched.

"Following her bestselling The Architect of Desire, Suzannah Lessard returns with a remarkable book, a work of relentless curiosity and a graceful mixture of observation and philosophy. This intriguing hybrid will remind some of W. G. Sebald and others of Rebecca Solnit, but it is Lessard's singular talent to combine this profound book-length mosaic 'a blend of historical travelogue, architectural tour, philosophical meditation, and prose poem' into a work of unique genius, as she describes and reimagines our landscapes. In this exploration of our surroundings, The Absent Hand contends that to reimagine landscape is a form of cultural reinvention. The Absent Hand begins by observing the residual places from our country's first European settlements, and continues to the life of our cities and their eventual overflow into suburbs and wildernesses. Yet Lessard is always joining us to discuss the effects of "enclosure," of how we manage to live on and in the land, how we surround ourselves on the land with stories, roads, buildings, and ideas. Whether it's climate change altering the meaning of nature, or digital communications altering the nature of work, the global enclosure is panoramic, infiltrative, inescapable. No one will finish this book, this journey, without having their ideas of living and settling in their surroundings profoundly enriched"-- Provided by publisher.

In the village -- Suburbophobia -- Gettysburg -- Natchez -- Truth or Consequences -- Flight -- The view from a small mountain -- The pumpkins of Bergen Street -- The market -- Youngstown -- The pendulum -- Fresh kills -- The corporation in the woods -- Atopia -- Whose hand? -- The inverted cradle.

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