Writing on Water (Terra Nova Books) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262681366 ISBN 13: 9780262681360

Publisher: MIT Press, 2002

Synopsis

Water and its multifaceted relationship to humans, as portrayed by a wide range of writers and photographers.

Water links all aspects of our existence. From the politics of watersheds to the romance of turtles climbing up from the sea to the beaches, from Leonardo da Vinci to Octavio Paz, from death at a hot spring to the practicalities of liquidation, the writings in this collection reflect on many aspects of the human encounter with water. The book contains some science, a few plans for managing and protecting water, and plenty of stories, poems, essays, and artwork. The writers include Bob Braine, Robert Grudin, Wilson Harris, George Keithley, David Morse, Octavio Paz, physicist Sidney Perkowitz, Eva Salzman, Ted Steinberg, and Peter Warshall, editor of Whole Earth magazine. Photographers include Cyril Christo, Adam David Clayman, Monique Crépault, Helen M. Ellis, Sally Gall, Margaret McCarthy, Kristin Ordahl, Jerry Uelsmann, and Marie Wilkinson. This is the second in a series of Terra Nova books from MIT Press, which aim to show that environmental issues are cultural and artistic as well as practical and political.

About this title

Review

Taking both a scientific and philosophical approach to water in its myriad forms, this collection covers everything from resource management and protection to the profound mysteries of life's liquid. Writing on Water is part of the Terra Nova series of books, which is devoted to showing "that environmental issues are cultural and artistic as well as practical and political." True to that aim, the essays, stories, poems, and photographs in this enlightened and entertaining compendium cover a wide range of waterborne topics. In his essay "The Rarest Element," physicist Sidney Perkowitz explains that despite thousands of years of scientific advancement, our understanding of water "fails just as the questions get truly interesting.... [M]any of the most basic and familiar properties of water remain tantalizingly, and frustratingly, unexplained." In an excellent piece on the endlessly complicated world of water rights, Peter Warshall, editor of Whole Earth magazine, notes that for effective watershed governance, "you need the discipline of working rules and a good sense of humor. Admire humans and their leaky canteen-like bodies, and gently, firmly cover their greedy mouths before an insatiable thirst destroys the town." In "Rain," poet Joseph Bruchac celebrates water as the alpha and omega of life on earth: "Long before we / who walk, swim or fly / arrived / this pond was singing."

This impressive collection also features the writings of Bob Braine, Anne Collet, Robert Grudin, David Morse, Eva Salzman, and Octavio Paz, as well as the photographs of Adam David Clayman, Helen M. Ellis, Sally Gall, Margaret McCarthy, and Jerry Uelsmann, among others. Rich in scope and consistently rewarding, this book will be of interest both to those studying water issues and to those content to sit and watch the river flow. --Shawn Carkonen

About the Author

Musician and philosopher David Rothenberg is the author of Why Birds Sing, Bug Music, Survival of the Beautiful,and many other books,published in at least eleven languages. His more than twenty CDs include One Dark Night I Left My Silent House and, most recently, Berlin Bülbul and Cool Spring. He has performed or recorded with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Gabriel, Scanner, Elliott Sharp, and Suzanne Vega. Nightingales in Berlin is his latest book, CD, and film. A 2019 Safina Center Fellow, he is Distinguished Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Marta Ulvaeus is former Associate Director of Terra Nova projects at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0262681366
• ISBN 13: 9780262681360
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300
• Editor: Rothenberg David, Ulvaeus Marta