Granite and Grace : Seeking the Heart of Yosemite

In Granite and Grace Michael Cohen reflects on a lifetime of climbing, walking, and pondering the granite in Yosemite National Park at Tuolumne Meadows. This high-country region of Yosemite is dominated by a young, beautifully glaciated geological formation known as the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite. It does not include familiar Yosemite icons like Half Dome, yet geologists describe this granitic realm at over 8,000 feet as “an iconic American landscape.” Drawing together the humanistic and scientific significance of the wild landscapes he traverses, Michael uncovers relationships between people and places and meaning and substance, rendering this text part memoir—but also considerably more. On-the-rock encounters by hand and foot open up a dialogue between the heart of a philosopher and the mind of a geologist. Michael adds a literary softness to this hard landscape, blending excursions with exposition and literature with science. It is through his graceful representations that the geological becomes metaphorical, while the science turns mythological. This high country, where in 1889 John Muir and Robert Underwood Johnson planned what would become Yosemite National Park, is significant for cultural as well as natural reasons. Discoursing on everything from Camus’s “Myths of Sisyphus” to the poems of Gary Snyder, Michael adds depth to an already splendorous landscape. Premier early geologists, such as François Matthes, shaped the language of Yosemite’s landscape. Even though Yosemite has changed over half a century, the rock has not. As Michael explores the beauty and grace of his familiar towering vistas, he demonstrates why, of the many aspects of the world to which one might get attached, the most secure is granite. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1. Invocation: Going to Granite Chapter 2. Human Bodies Chapter 3. Granite Intrudes Chapter 4. Up and Down: Mountains Walking Chapter 5. Glacial Polish Chapter 6. Signs of Exfoliation and Change Chapter 7. Grace on Granite Chapter 8. The Transformation of Things Chapter 9. Out of Bounds Chapter 10. Rock and Water Chapter 11. Inside Rock Chapter 12. Right and Wrong Kinds of Rock Chapter 13. An Aristotelian Mythology of Geohistory Chapter 14. The Purity of Granite Chapter 15. A Contingent Earth Chapter 16. Myths of Glaciers Chapter 17. Erratics, Domes, and Trundling Chapter 18. Iconic Landscape Chapter 19. The Sound of Talus Chapter 20. Fairview Dome Chapter 21. Above and Below: Ghosts of Glaciers Chapter 22. Meandering Around Matthes Crest Chapter 23. The View from Pothole Dome Chapter 24. Granite at Sunrise Chapter 25. This is Not a Mountain Chapter 26. Granite as Enigma Chapter 27. An Edge of History: An Edge of a Continent Epilogue: Ventifacts Notes Acknowledgments About the Author "Granite and grace: seeking the heart of Yosemite reflects on Valerie and Michael Cohen's fifty-year encounter with the granite in the high country of Yosemite National Park, where they seek a sense of belonging in an era called the Anthropocene. By creating a dialogue between geological and literary representations, where the geological becomes metaphorical, while science turns mythological, these essays shaped by on-the-rock encounters with landforms, open up important experiential and pragmatic dimensions."--Provided by publisher