Rating: 
Summary: Read this book! It gets to the roots of conservation.
Review: "From the summits of the Tetons, I see to the west a mosaic of farms scaring the round hills and valleys, as though someone had taken a razor to the face of a beautiful woman." In THE ABSTRACT WILD, Turner gets to the heart of what it means to be wild, a concept that is often thrown around, but rarely defined. It has been overstepped again and again because nobody really thought that the concept of being wild was important. But as Tuner shows us in THE ABSTRACT WILD, it is the heart of being natural. Turner found something out there in the wilderness that our society has lost. He had an intense personal experience that opened his eyes to the aura of the environment around him, to the sacred, to the holy, to what it meant to be wild. He found a critical link in our conservation ethic that has been "overstepped" because nobody knew to look there. Once we start to see the importance of the wilderness being self-ordered, autonomous, and wild. We will start to understand what needs to be done to effectively start protecting our natural environment. "As Stephen Jay Gould wrote, 'We cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well-for we will not fight to save what we do not love'"
Rating:
Summary: Read this book! It gets to the roots of conservation.
Review: "From the summits of the Tetons, I see to the west a mosaic of farms scaring the round hills and valleys, as though someone had taken a razor to the face of a beautiful woman." In THE ABSTRACT WILD, Turner gets to the heart of what it means to be wild, a concept that is often thrown around, but rarely defined. It has been overstepped again and again because nobody really thought that the concept of being wild was important. But as Tuner shows us in THE ABSTRACT WILD, it is the heart of being natural. Turner found something out there in the wilderness that our society has lost. He had an intense personal experience that opened his eyes to the aura of the environment around him, to the sacred, to the holy, to what it meant to be wild. He found a critical link in our conservation ethic that has been "overstepped" because nobody knew to look there. Once we start to see the importance of the wilderness being self-ordered, autonomous, and wild. We will start to understand what needs to be done to effectively start protecting our natural environment. "As Stephen Jay Gould wrote, 'We cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well-for we will not fight to save what we do not love'"
Rating:
Summary: Jack Turner is a genious
Review: a brutally candid and courageous look at the environmental crisis. recommended to lovers of Abbey, Muir, Thoreau.
Rating:
Summary: Where other books raise questions, this one answers them
Review: An outstanding book that will have special relevance to anyone who has had an experience in the wild that brings an awakening of spirit. Exactly the kind of experience not attainable at Disney World, which is the author's point. He has remarkable answers to questions that trouble any environmentally-concerned person. Questions raised in the exceptional book "Wild Echoes" by Charles Bergman, are answered in the Abstract Wild. Anyone who has been put down for having strong views about man's destructive nature will find solace in this book. Turner knows it is OK to rant for wilderness, and only if we all rant together can we possibly make a difference.
Rating:
Summary: Wild is as wild does
Review: At last a book which captures far better than anything I've seen in print the real sense of "wild" not in the stagnant, sanitised way of zoos or even of gardens but rather in the experience of real vulnerability felt in the presence of something awe inspiring and possessing of an energy which flows freely and powerfully when the human being just "lives". Inadvertently Turner expresses the same thoughts often stated by others such as David Bohm : ever creative nature, the holomovement, David Abram : spell of the sensuous and it reminds one at times of the silent activity so easily perceived in Haiku poetry. His experience at first seeing Indian rock paintings holds the mind with its strength and vitality, especially so when he notices his own very human qualities as the energy of that moment seems to fade thereby expressing the need of the person to experience each moment as new rather than as a memory. Similarly the very personal experience of being hunted by a mountain lion is not lost on anyone who even vaguely remembers what it was to be alive, say as a child or the sudden and unexpected feelings of "how good it is to be alive" that would assult one at times in his/her life. Unfortunately these things are rare and only vague memories for most of us. As such Turner awakens this in us again and the desire to feel as a human being once more.
Rating:
Summary: Wild is as wild does
Review: At last a book which captures far better than anything I've seen in print the real sense of "wild" not in the stagnant, sanitised way of zoos or even of gardens but rather in the experience of real vulnerability felt in the presence of something awe inspiring and possessing of an energy which flows freely and powerfully when the human being just "lives". Inadvertently Turner expresses the same thoughts often stated by others such as David Bohm : ever creative nature, the holomovement, David Abram : spell of the sensuous and it reminds one at times of the silent activity so easily perceived in Haiku poetry. His experience at first seeing Indian rock paintings holds the mind with its strength and vitality, especially so when he notices his own very human qualities as the energy of that moment seems to fade thereby expressing the need of the person to experience each moment as new rather than as a memory. Similarly the very personal experience of being hunted by a mountain lion is not lost on anyone who even vaguely remembers what it was to be alive, say as a child or the sudden and unexpected feelings of "how good it is to be alive" that would assult one at times in his/her life. Unfortunately these things are rare and only vague memories for most of us. As such Turner awakens this in us again and the desire to feel as a human being once more.
Rating:
Summary: This kind of writing is rare
Review: I got this book when searching for something for my biodiversity class to read that would hook them to the subject and move them the way "Sand County Almanac" did me back in my college days. Wasn't able to read it at the time, but I picked it up this fall, thought I would read an essay at a time before bed, like I usually do with essay books. Sometime in the wee hours I realized that I had to stop reading or I would head out into the dark night and wander until I found the wilderness again. Few modern writers, or writers of any age, have so clearly and eloquently expressed what it means to love the wild, what we are about to loose, and truly why we are loosing it despite efforts to the contrary. Turner's solution is one I believe in, but rarely find seriously advocated, probably because it would work. Frankly, if you haven't gone wild, you may not "get" this book. If you want to really know what the wild is about though, read this book and if you like the sound of things, go seek it out. If you are wild, this will be one of the few books on the topic you can stand to read these days. I haven't been so enlightened since I read "The Practice of the Wild" by Gary Snyder. Five stars means a great book. Some books are beyond that, this is one for the ages.
Rating:
Summary: This kind of writing is rare
Review: I got this book when searching for something for my biodiversity class to read that would hook them to the subject and move them the way "Sand County Almanac" did me back in my college days. Wasn't able to read it at the time, but I picked it up this fall, thought I would read an essay at a time before bed, like I usually do with essay books. Sometime in the wee hours I realized that I had to stop reading or I would head out into the dark night and wander until I found the wilderness again. Few modern writers, or writers of any age, have so clearly and eloquently expressed what it means to love the wild, what we are about to loose, and truly why we are loosing it despite efforts to the contrary. Turner's solution is one I believe in, but rarely find seriously advocated, probably because it would work. Frankly, if you haven't gone wild, you may not "get" this book. If you want to really know what the wild is about though, read this book and if you like the sound of things, go seek it out. If you are wild, this will be one of the few books on the topic you can stand to read these days. I haven't been so enlightened since I read "The Practice of the Wild" by Gary Snyder. Five stars means a great book. Some books are beyond that, this is one for the ages.
Rating:
Summary: Finding the Wildness at Our Core
Review: Jack Turner's "Abstract Wild" is a book that runs past most Nature or Environmental writings at full bore, surpassing the standard let's save some of it for the future motto. A former professor of Philosophy, Turner abandoned his post to concentrate on his passion... climbing, and is now a guide in Wyoming. He was prodded into writing this book as more and more people he knew realized the importance of his message. Turner dives to the heart of the matter when it come to the Wild, the Environment, Preservation, Conservation, etc. We as a society have become disconnected with the world at large and the Wildness at its core. This Wildness has become an Abstract concept for for most of us. This book and a few other core titles (i.e. Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" and "The Monkey Wrench Gang" and various works by the likes of Rick Bass, Barry Lopez and Bill McKibben) would make for a very important class in the Preservation of Wildness that all students should be encouraged if not required to take.
Rating:
Summary: Finding the Wildness at Our Core
Review: Jack Turner's "Abstract Wild" is a book that runs past most Nature or Environmental writings at full bore, surpassing the standard let's save some of it for the future motto. A former professor of Philosophy, Turner abandoned his post to concentrate on his passion... climbing, and is now a guide in Wyoming. He was prodded into writing this book as more and more people he knew realized the importance of his message. Turner dives to the heart of the matter when it come to the Wild, the Environment, Preservation, Conservation, etc. We as a society have become disconnected with the world at large and the Wildness at its core. This Wildness has become an Abstract concept for for most of us. This book and a few other core titles (i.e. Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" and "The Monkey Wrench Gang" and various works by the likes of Rick Bass, Barry Lopez and Bill McKibben) would make for a very important class in the Preservation of Wildness that all students should be encouraged if not required to take.
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