4.0 

Becoming Animal

By David Abram
Becoming Animal by David Abram digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

David Abram’s first book, The Spell of the Sensuous has become a classic of environmental literature. Now he returns with a startling exploration of our human entanglement with the rest of nature.
 
As the climate veers toward catastrophe, the innumerable losses cascading through the biosphere make vividly evident the need for a metamorphosis in our relation to the living land. For too long we’ve ignored the wild intelligence of our bodies, taking our primary truths from technologies that hold the living world at a distance. Abram’s writing subverts this distance, drawing readers ever closer to their animal senses in order to explore, from within, the elemental kinship between the human body and the breathing Earth. The shape-shifting of ravens, the erotic nature of gravity, the eloquence of thunder, the pleasures of being edible: all have their place in this book.

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Becoming Animal Reviews

4.0
“I enjoyed parts of the novel, but I did not enjoy and largely did not agree with the approach used by Abram. There is little concrete evidence in the novel, less educational/scientific than I imagined and more spiritual and philosophical. The prose is often redundant, and feels pretentious more than moving in many sections. The discussion of "native" and "indigenous" people lumps indigenous culture together as a group of mystics (the author even acknowledges that other writers make this mistake). The overall idea, that we need to engage with not only our own animal senses, but with the people, animals, and world around us, is thought provoking and highly relevant to when it was written in 2011, and even more so now. While I did not enjoy the writing style, and disagreed with some of the concepts, I am glad I read it and engaged with the philosophy.”
“3.25 A very immersive POV experience in the first chapter, with poetic prose that at times feels almost suffocating. The book tackles one of the important topics how human dominion over animals and nature, along with the belief in the superiority and limitlessness of the human mind, is deeply rooted in Abrahamic religious traditions rather than purely scientific conclusions. However, it leans much more toward the metaphysical than the educational- more of a feeling kind of book.”

About David Abram

David Abram is an ecologist, anthropologist, and philosopher who lectures and teaches widely around the world. His prior book, The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World, helped catalyze the emergence of several new disciplines, including the burgeoning field of ecopsychology. The recipient of a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, David was named by both the Utne Reader and the British journal Resurgence as one of a hundred visionaries transforming contemporary culture. His writings on the cultural causes and consequences of environmental disarray are published in numerous magazines, scholarly journals, and anthologies. A co-founder of the Alliance for Wild Ethics (AWE), David lives with his family in the foothills of the southern Rockies.

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