The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism
- ISBN-10
- 1440602727
- ISBN-13
- 9781440602726
- Category
- Voyages and travels
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2008
- Author
- Geoff Nicholson
Description
From the Publisher: A fascinating, definitive, and very personal rumination on the history, science, philosophy, art, and literature of walking, by a skilled cultural commentator. Geoff Nicholson, author of Bleeding London and Sex Collectors, turns his eye to the intellectual and cultural history of that most common of activities-walking. This simple, omnipresent activity has inspired numerous subcultures, literary and artistic legacies, sporting events, personal memories, epic journeys, mystical revelations, and scandals. It's a rich tradition that embraces such novelists as Charles Dickens and Paul Auster, musicians like Robert Johnson and Bob Dylan, and moviemakers from Buster Keaton to Werner Herzog. But it's also a tradition that includes obsessives and eccentrics, such as the artist Mudman, who coats his body in mud and then walks the city streets; competitive pedestrians such as Captain Barclay, who walked one mile an hour for a thousand successive hours; and gang members who use the hidden language of the "Crip Walk" to spell out messages in the dirt with their scuffing. How we walk, where we walk, why we walk announces who and what we are. Geoff Nicholson is a master chronicler of the hidden subversive twists on a seemingly normal activity. He analyzes the hows, wheres, and whys of walking through the ages. He finds people who walk only at night, or naked, or for thousands of miles at a time, in costume, for causes, or for no reason whatsoever. Here, he brings curiosity and genuine insight to a subject that often walks right past us.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2011-09
- 278 pages
- Paperback
- Harbour Publishing
Similar books
-
风景园林大师西蒙兹考察笔记
By 方薇, 约翰·奥姆斯比·西蒙兹, 王欣本书从许多有关建筑, 规划及风景园林的讲稿中挑选了这些文章, 表达了作者保护地球的哲学思想.
-
Sail of the "Shannon": Diary of Joseph Steele's Journey from England to Tasmania, August-November 1874
By Joseph Gilbert SteeleSail of the "Shannon": Diary of Joseph Steele's Journey from England to Tasmania, August-November 1874
-
Our Man in - Heaven and Hell
By Clive AndersonMoon Moon probably needed them before doing the bed scene with me ; I needed a few drinks to improve my Bengali accent . Moon Moon brought with her to the club an extraordinary , small man of some years who had worked as a dresser and ...
-
Still in the Same Boat
By Paul Howard, Fiona McCallStill in the Same Boat
-
From Pole to Pole and Between
By Sylvan Myron Elliot Shane... Tova Gittle , and Levi . The author resides in Baltimore in a ten room ranch house including a swimming pool all of which he built with his own hands in 1950 . 166 Dr. Sylvan . Shane Anesthesiology Photo by Kerry Butler 165.
-
The Walkabouts: A Family at Sea
By Mike SaundersReefing under the lee of Cabo Frio was still something of a battle , but at least the waves were smaller . When the job was done we close - hauled and headed out again , shaving the cape so close that the lighthouse winked down on us ...
-
放自己一年梦想假: 李欣频的奢华极乐之旅
By 李欣频放自己一年梦想假: 李欣频的奢华极乐之旅
-
心灵蛻变之旅
By 李欣頻, 1970-))心灵蛻变之旅
-
创意启蒙之旅
By 李欣頻, 1970-))本书分享了影响作者创意观点最深远的11个国家的旅游经历.
-
Le Bout du monde existe ailleurs: roman
By Hélène Rioux"Un bateau de croisière vogue sur la mer Égée. Les vies de ses passagers - et bien d'autres encore - se croisent, se retrouvent, se perdent... Un roman ambitieux, porté par une plume fluide, maîtrisée, éblouissante."--BANQ.