The Wild Places

It woud be churlish to say that Robert Macfarlane's writing is not beautifully crafted and I wish I had his vocabulary and skill with words, but that's about as far as it goes. Much of this book seems to me to be pompous and smug. I get the impression that landsacape is a stage that Macfarlane uses to show how clever and sensitive he is. Most of the chapters have a small percentage about the so called wild place and a huge amount of pseudo intellectual background. Why he can't he just go to these places without the need to read forty books beforehand and then tell us all about them? There's also this slightly sanctimonious and quasi spiritual tone throughout - very hard to put my finger on, but it irritates me - it reminds of the writing that fills the pages of Resurgance magazine; all rainbows and wonder. I just knew that at some point he'd talk about wildness in miniature - I could feel it coming - and sure enough he looks into a gryke... Doesn't he ever just want to say: 'For God's sake Roger (Deakin), stop swimming in your darn moat and do something less pretentious instead.'

Location, location, location (1/1 people found this helpful)

Readers will not fail to appreciate Robert Macfarlane's beautiful and evocative prose, or doubt his love of wild locations. However after his excellent `Mountains of the Mind' I found this latest book a huge disappointment. The former was more visionary and it prompted mental exploration, whereas for `The Wild Places' I was left as a bystander to physical exploration - and yet the first was `merely' short-listed for the Boardman-Tasker Award in 2003, and though not a mountaineering or climbing book `The Wild Places' won outright in 2007. So what do I know?

I understand it was after writing `Mountains of the Mind' that Robert Macfarlane met Roger Deakin, a philosophical environmentalist also producing a book - `Wildwood'. I believe Macfarlane was influenced greatly by Deakin, and much is made of their friendship with homage paid to Deakin after his untimely death. Brief reference is made to Macfarlane's own family, but it is piece-meal and insufficient to know him personally. This is unfortunate as expectations, perceptions and responses to the wild vary with the individual. I suspect not all readers will agree with Robert Macfarlane's definitions of wild places.

`The Wild Places' is presented as a series of landscape essays headed `Beechwood', `Island', Valley', `Moor', etc. in which Macfarlane describes locations, introduces characters met, refers to earlier commentators, explains historical background, and makes literary connections. I enjoyed much of this - especially for locations known to me - but I do not comprehend his adverse reaction to a night on Ben Hope, a mountain I climbed recently [May 2008}. That apart, a pattern emerges throughout the essays and it is somewhat surprising how very different locations are dealt with in similar manner. There is considerable repetition, and I am unsure about coupling of wild places with numerous episodes of skinny-dipping in cold water, kipping out in storms, shinning up trees, or hoarding of momentos.

What I do acknowledge positively is Macfarlane's emphasis on wild places as quite different from wilderness. Indeed he provides evidence of how wild places do not have to be in the wilderness but can be found at locations with easy access from almost anywhere. Though readers are largely treated as observers to Macfarlane's actions, they should be inspired to re-assess locations they already know, and to search out something further.

Trying to grasp the wild (0/0 people found this helpful)

THE WILD PLACES follows a popular theme in today's society of trying to discover the wild and wilderness within our own country. As a concept, it cannot be flawed, but having now finished the book, I feel that Macfarlane perhaps has not quite grasped this.

THE WILD PLACES attempts to create a mind map by Macfarlane of the wild places within Britian and Ireland. As he goes on his travels, Macfarlane makes use of history and literary anecdotes which pertain to the places he visits. I did find these intriguing and informative, often adding something else to the body of the text, however there were times when I would have preferred more description about the places he was actually visiting, rather than their historical background. For me, a book about the wild should include the author's own response to it. I felt that it was only towards the end that I managed to get a grasp of what Macfarlane was trying to show the reader with this book - that the wild does not have to be an isolated, remote place which is more hostile than inviting, but that nature has its wildness wherever it manages to poke through.

However, that gripe aside, THE WILD PLACES does have some beautiful prose, in whcich the love of nature that Macfarlane has comes through and affects you as you read.
Waiting on my bookshelf now is Jay Griffiths' book, WILD. It will be interesting to see how they compare.

Combination of beautiful, imaginative, repetitive and irritating (1/1 people found this helpful)

When I started this book it seemed to be beautiful, imaginative and intelligent. Unfortunately it became rather repetitive and irritating. The additional material - literary and historical was mainly interesting but then he talked about some rather odd folk who devoted a lifetime to wave patterns and sand dunes!!

I also began to dread him being near water because I knew he was going to strip off and jump in - not necessarily for a swim - on his winter night in Cumbria he got in and sat in the freezing water gasping up to his neck - why?????

I began to wonder what was the point of the book. It seemed to be trying to be something it wasn't, especially when compared with Mountains of the Mind which was excellent. I suspect it was the influence of Roger Deakin (Waterlog, Wildwood), a friendship that had developed after writing Mountains of the Mind. Whether deliberately or unconsciously I think he may have been trying to be similarly philosophical, one with nature, 'wild', rejecting conventional modern lifestyle etc Perhaps even more so since Roger died before this book was finished. I ended up skimming over the last chapters.

A book to savour - poetic, reflective and precise (1/1 people found this helpful)

This book really imaginatively engaged me and brought to life the wildness of many of the landscapes of the United Kingdom. Macfarlane's precise writing evokes these places so well - the weather, plants, minerals, animal life and people. He also has the uncanny knack of bringing in his reading in English literature, nature writing , history and science in ways that seem entirely right and never forced. Casting a moving shadow over the book is the death of a friend, which also helps make this so much more than a travelogue.

Robert Macfarlane

Reader Reviews:

Oh for God's sake! (1/2 people found this helpful)

Location, location, location (1/1 people found this helpful)

Trying to grasp the wild (0/0 people found this helpful)

Combination of beautiful, imaginative, repetitive and irritating (1/1 people found this helpful)

A book to savour - poetic, reflective and precise (1/1 people found this helpful)

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