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Cargando... Beechcombings: The Narratives of Treespor Richard Mabey
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. An example of the interweaving of the personal and the factual. There is personal recollection, almost development as Mabey changes to appreciate the ‘naturalness’ of trees after acquiring a wood. Arising out of this we have the scientific and naturalist’s observations – very close up to the detail of individual trees as well as specific woods plus the animals that live on them. Alongside both of these we have historical developments in writings, paintings, aesthetics and attitude to trees. This is closely tied to the economics of trees and their involvement in the rights of commoners and landowners. Individual detail – for instance how trees change their texture so that they are thicker and stronger around points of weakness – is vividly emphasised when he goes to a wood and observes individual trees which have had to cope with stressful events and describes them in detail, letting us see how this strange, even picturesque, shape is the result of a natural development. He even clowns around trying to stand at an acute angle like one of the trees, nearly falling over. Highly recommended. I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would, but there can be little doubting Mabey's mastery of his subject. He is very strong on the potential contradictions involved in the protection or promotion of nature and wildlife. We humans, it seems, just can't avoid seeing everything in terms of how it relates to us, and thus struggle to avoid the tendency to try and control nature. If we seek to protect woodlands in their current form are we really protecting "nature" or instead protecting something that happens to exist at a particular point in time because of the actions of our ancestors? We think we are promoting nature by planting trees, but Mabey suggests that trees often do better when left to their own devices. At the same time, he is careful not to dismiss out of hand our man-made efforts to promote woodlands. Nor should I mislead you into believing this is primarily a piece of polemical writing, because it is not. Essentially, this is a history of Beech woodlands in England and how they developed both because of and in spite of the actions of their human neighbours. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
This engaging book is about beech trees, but it is also about numerous other issues, including global warming and the importance of trees in the landscape. Trees are the largest and most significant organisms on our planet. Beech trees reached Britain about 8,000 years ago, and they were workhorses, not ornaments: fuel for Rome's glassworks; firewood for London; oars for the ships of Venice; raw material for furniture, cut and turned by "bodgers" who lived like nomads among the trees in huts made of beechwood shavings. Author Richard Mabey discusses beech trees through autobiography, history, and natural history in Europe as well as Britain. His beeches are full of character--"hectic, gale-sculpted, gnomic"--and he writes about the bluebells, orchids, fungi, deer, and badgers associated with them, as well as the narratives that have been told about trees and the images we make of them. Many other kinds of tree are featured, and the portraits and celebrations of the beech always point to a larger story. This is a personal investigation of the ambivalent, enigmatic relationship that humans have with trees. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)583.460941Natural sciences and mathematics Plants Dicotyledonae MyrtalesClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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