Bywalking,you escape from the very idea of identity,the temptation tobe someone,to have a name and a history...The freedom in walking liesin not being anyone; for the walking body has no history,it is just aneddy in the stream of immemorial life.In A Philosophy of Walking,a bestseller in France,leading thinker Frédéric Gros charts the manydifferent ways we get from A to B-the pilgrimage,the promenade,theprotest march,the nature ramble-and reveals what they say about us. Grosdraws attention to other thinkers who also saw walking as somethingcentral to their practice. On his travels he ponders Thoreau's eagerseclusion in Walden Woods; the reason Rimbaud walked in a fury,whileNerval rambled to cure his melancholy. He shows us how Rousseau walkedin order to think,while Nietzsche wandered the mountainside to write.In contrast,Kant marched through his hometown every day,exactly at thesame hour,to escape the compulsion of thought. Brilliant and erudite,A Philosophy of Walking is an entertaining and insightful manifesto for putting one foot in front of the other.
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Verso BooksISBN: 9781804290446Number of pages: 272Weight: 480 gDimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
"Resolving to take more walks in the new year might sound like promising to take more naps-choosing idleness over work. But a lot of clever people don't see it that way (...) Frédéric Gros asks why so many of our most productive writers and philosophers-Rousseau,Kant,Rimbaud,Robert Louis Stevenson,Nietzsche,Jack Kerouac-have also been indefatigable walkers."A passionate affirmation of the simple life,and joy in simple things. And it's beautifully written: clear,simple,precise.Poignant life-stories...are interspersed with the author's own meditations on walking... In the way a landscape is gradually absorbed by the long-distance rambler they steadily build into an insistent exhortation: get up,get out and walk!Impressive."Life-affirming stuff.""Philosopher Gros ponders walking,that most mundane mode of transportation or exercise,elevating it to its rightful place in inspiring creativity,evoking freedom,and quieting a troubled soul.""This elegant book inspires consideration of an oft-overlooked subject."This short,simple and profound book... will be read and re-read.Frédéric Gros asks why so many of our most productive writers and philosophers - Rousseau,Kant,Rimbaud,Robert Louis Stevenson,Nietzsche,Jack Kerouac - have also been indefatigable walkers . there are certain magical things that happen on the trail,and Gros is familiar with them. He thinks like a hiker.An admirablelittle book which will delight even the most sedentary.Anunclassifiable book in which ideas are illuminated by the bright light ofthe morning.Unpretentious and refreshing.A long walk,Gros suggests,allows us to commune with the sublime.Celebrates the liberation of the mind that comes with walking,especially in natural areas: I hike,therefore,I am.
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