grubnubble's review
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
2.75
There are non fiction authors who, when straying from their subject and talking about themselves, enrich their books with stories of their experiences. I am left wanting more of their perspective. While there are personal tangents in this particular book, they feel self congratulatory and ultimately detract from the core message. Still, there is some wonderful and poetic prose in it.
samiamb's review against another edition
Great book, but others held my attention more during the brief rental period from the library. I will return to it eventually.
oisin175's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
An excellent look into an animist mindset. I loved both the biographic elements that illustrated his points and his relation of his own struggles with maintaining an animist mindset in a materialist culture. I also thought the discussion of how both mainstream and new age cultures essentially reject the inhabiting of the natural world by humans. I would highly recommend this book, though it will take several read throughs to fully grasp.
ohcapnmycapn's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
kdraw333's review against another edition
1.0
I'm all for poetic and personal writing in creative non-fiction (I loved what I've read by Philip Hoare for instance) and I can see that the author wants us to feel as much as think about the natural world, but unfortunately I felt the writing here was getting in the way by calling too much attention to itself. Maybe I was hoping for it to get more academic? It seemed to promise an examination of humanity's relationship with nature, which I thought would draw from historical, literary, anthropological research in a more rigorous way. But this feels more like a stream-of-consciousness love letter based on anecdotal, subjective experiences that just didn't hold my interest. I'm sure the author is a lovely person and I'd love to see what other books are on his bookshelf.
veewatson's review against another edition
4.0
I find myself agreeing with the criticisms Abram makes against Western culture and civilization and the historical splitting the human psyche. Abstractions of written languages, Platonic worldview and a highly technological society create distances in our relationship with the natural Earth and our material, animal body, is true enough. The author also writes beautifully. Some of the chapters were mesmerizing in description. Particularly, his time spent in Asia.
However, I find his foundational philosophy weak and unconvincing, too prone to repeation. His strength is in his personal experiences and his essay writing not in theory. But this is just a little bit of a critical casting in my part. Mostly, this book is needed, if not for an entire embrace of his cosmology, at least a perspective that enriches our sense of embodiment and awakes us to ourselves as grounded in the world. We are desperately needing this return to our place in nature. The havoc of our removal and our dismissal from the nested quality, the interdependence of our place in the world, is a blight that will bring a desolate Earth and soul.
*I recommend reading as a philosophy to complement Abram, Heidegger, Husserl and Merleau- Ponty.
However, I find his foundational philosophy weak and unconvincing, too prone to repeation. His strength is in his personal experiences and his essay writing not in theory. But this is just a little bit of a critical casting in my part. Mostly, this book is needed, if not for an entire embrace of his cosmology, at least a perspective that enriches our sense of embodiment and awakes us to ourselves as grounded in the world. We are desperately needing this return to our place in nature. The havoc of our removal and our dismissal from the nested quality, the interdependence of our place in the world, is a blight that will bring a desolate Earth and soul.
*I recommend reading as a philosophy to complement Abram, Heidegger, Husserl and Merleau- Ponty.
tangleroot_eli's review
4.0
I knew after reading 10 pages of Becoming Animal that it was going to be one of those books that radically alters the way I perceive and interact with the world, even if just for the span of time that I'm reading it. And that is true, but I thought it had the potential to become the most impacting book of my adult life thus far, and it misses that mark.
Abram does an outstanding job of recalling readers to their earthly bodies and the felt space we inhabit. He also, in many places, conjures a worldview very close to my own religious/philosophical stance: a sort of naturalistic animism that acknowledges a non-anthropomorphic life and sentience in all things and understands life as a relationship between objects (of which the human self is one), rather than a subject-object dominance with humans "on top". I did a lot of nodding and whispering, "YES!" in the first 250 or so pages.
But I was surprised and disappointed (especially as the Acknowledgements note the passing of [b:Universe Story|981818|The Universe Story From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era--A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos|Brian Swimme|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179978526s/981818.jpg|966707] co-author [a:Thomas Berry|82857|Thomas Berry|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]) that Abram's section on revitalizing the oral tradition, re-engaging with the world as a dynamic and unfolding story, rather than a set of static facts (which I'm in favor of), doesn't explore the rich possibilities of framing and building those stories in ways and terms consistent with scientific discovery. Instead he argues that, when scientific discovery seems at odds with sensorial perception, we should side with perception (this despite his repeated denial of an anti-science or anti-intellect stance). He suggests, for instance, that although Earth is proven to orbit the Sun, we should envision the world as if the Sun orbited Earth, because that's how it seems to our senses.
I had come with Abram that far, but I could not cross that final threshhold with him. To do so seemed an insult to science, knowledge, and the Earth that is so wholly (and holy) a part of us.
Abram does an outstanding job of recalling readers to their earthly bodies and the felt space we inhabit. He also, in many places, conjures a worldview very close to my own religious/philosophical stance: a sort of naturalistic animism that acknowledges a non-anthropomorphic life and sentience in all things and understands life as a relationship between objects (of which the human self is one), rather than a subject-object dominance with humans "on top". I did a lot of nodding and whispering, "YES!" in the first 250 or so pages.
But I was surprised and disappointed (especially as the Acknowledgements note the passing of [b:Universe Story|981818|The Universe Story From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era--A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos|Brian Swimme|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179978526s/981818.jpg|966707] co-author [a:Thomas Berry|82857|Thomas Berry|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]) that Abram's section on revitalizing the oral tradition, re-engaging with the world as a dynamic and unfolding story, rather than a set of static facts (which I'm in favor of), doesn't explore the rich possibilities of framing and building those stories in ways and terms consistent with scientific discovery. Instead he argues that, when scientific discovery seems at odds with sensorial perception, we should side with perception (this despite his repeated denial of an anti-science or anti-intellect stance). He suggests, for instance, that although Earth is proven to orbit the Sun, we should envision the world as if the Sun orbited Earth, because that's how it seems to our senses.
I had come with Abram that far, but I could not cross that final threshhold with him. To do so seemed an insult to science, knowledge, and the Earth that is so wholly (and holy) a part of us.
lauraglovestoread's review against another edition
4.0
"...the land is not first and foremost an arcane text to be read, but a community of living, speaking beings to whom we are beholden."
I liked a lot about Abram's Becoming Animal, enough to say I'll certainly pick up his other book. His nature writing is beautiful, and his almost pantheist sensibilities resonate with me, as does his insistence against the devaluing of the body as both below and separate from spirit/mind. He definitely makes some generalizations about "Indigenous" and "traditional" cultures here and there that at times feel, well, like too much generalization; however, overall, these are mindful, and he addresses the problems of such generalizations, and of romanticization, directly. I underlined many beautiful passages in this book and can see myself returning to it. It is not especially linear, which suits the subject matter; I would suggest reading it slowly, a bit at a time, preferably while sitting outside.
I liked a lot about Abram's Becoming Animal, enough to say I'll certainly pick up his other book. His nature writing is beautiful, and his almost pantheist sensibilities resonate with me, as does his insistence against the devaluing of the body as both below and separate from spirit/mind. He definitely makes some generalizations about "Indigenous" and "traditional" cultures here and there that at times feel, well, like too much generalization; however, overall, these are mindful, and he addresses the problems of such generalizations, and of romanticization, directly. I underlined many beautiful passages in this book and can see myself returning to it. It is not especially linear, which suits the subject matter; I would suggest reading it slowly, a bit at a time, preferably while sitting outside.
abetterjulie's review against another edition
1.0
It started out nicely, but then became preachy. This animist felt offended at times when the author insulted science. I moved on.