The Spell of the Sensuous : Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World

Winner of the International Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction Animal tracks, word magic, the speech of stones, the power of letters, and the taste of the wind all figure prominently in this intellectual tour de force that returns us to our senses and to the sensuous terrain that sustains us. This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception. For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patters) that we have only lately come to think of as "inanimate." How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relation with the breathing earth? In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with a passion, a precision, and an intellectual daring that recall such writers as Loren Eisleley, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez.

David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which—even at its most abstract—echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with passion and intellectual daring.

"Long awaited, revolutionary...This book ponders the violent disconnection of the body from the natural world and what this means about how we live and die in it."—Los Angeles Times

Publishers Weekly

How did Western civilization become so estranged from nonhuman nature that we condone the ongoing destruction of forests, rivers, valleys, species and ecosystems? Santa Fe ecologist/philosopher Abram's search for an answer to this dilemma led him to mingle with shamans in Nepal and sorcerers in Indonesia, where he studied how traditional healers monitor relations between the human community and the animate environment. In this stimulating inquiry, he also delves into the philosophy of phenomenologists Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who replaced the conventional view of a single, wholly determinable reality with a fluid picture of the mind/body as a participatory organism that reciprocally interacts with its surroundings. Abram blames the invention of the phonetic alphabet for triggering a trend toward increasing abstraction and alienation from nature. He gleans insights into how to heal the rift from Australian aborigines' concept of the Dreamtime (the perpetual emerging of the world from chaos), the Navajo concept of a Holy Wind and the importance of breath in Jewish mysticism. (Jan.)

Preface and Acknowledgments 1. The Ecology of Magic: A Personal Introduction to the Inquiry 2. Philosoyhy on the Way to Ecology: A Technical Introduction to the Inquiry PART I: EDMUND HUSSERL AND PHENOMENOLOGY Intersubjectivity The Life-world PART II: MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY AND THE PARTICIPATORY NATURE OF PERCEPTION The Mindful Life of the Body The Body's Silent Conversation with Things The Animateness of the Perceptual World Perception as Participation Synaesthesia-The Fusion of the Senses The Recuperation of the Sensuous Is the Rediscovery of the Earth Matter as Flesh Touching and Being Touched: The Recprocity of the Sensuous 3. The Flesh of Language Toward an Ecology of Language Word Magic 4. Animism and the Alphabet The Rapper's Rhythm An Eternity of Unchanging Ideas Of Tongues in Trees Synaesthesia and the Encounter with the Other 5. In the Landscape of Language The Language of the Birds The Storied Earth Dreamtime Place and Memory 6. Time, Space, and the Eclipse of the Earth PART I: ABSTRACTION The Abstraction of Space and Time The Indistinction of Space and Time in the Oral Universe Exiled in the Word Absolute Space and Absolute Time PART II: THE LIVING PRESENT The Earthly Topology of Time In the Depths of the Sensuous 7. The Forgetting and Remembering of the Air Wind and Spirit on the Great Plains Air and Awareness Among the Dine, or Navajo Wind, Breath, and Speech The Power of Letters The Forgetting of the Air Membranes and Barriers Remembering Coda: Turning Inside Out "Animal tracks, word magic, the speech of stones, the power of letters, and the taste of the wind all figure prominently in this intellectual tour de force that returns us to our senses and to the sensuous terrain that sustains us. This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception. For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patterns) that we have only lately come to think of as 'inanimate.' How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relation with the breathing earth? In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth."--Publisher description [In this book, the author] draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which - even at its most abstract - echoes the calls and cries of the earth. The ecology of magic, a personal introduction to the inquiry Philosophy on the way to ecology, a technical introduction to the inquiry The flesh of language Animism and the alphabet In the landscape of language Time, space, and the eclipse of the earth The forgetting and remembering of the air Coda, turning inside out. LATE ONE EVENING I STEPPED OUT OF MY LITTLE HUT IN THE rice paddies of eastern Bali and found myself falling through space.