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Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition

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Gardens: An Essay on the Human ConditionHumans have long turned to gardens both real and imaginary for sanctuary from the frenzy and tumult that surrounds them. Those gardens may be as far away from everyday reality as Gilgamesh's garden of the gods or as near as our own backyard, but in their very conception and the marks they bear of human care and cultivation, gardens stand as restorative, nourishing, necessary havens. With Gardens, Robert Pogue Harrison graces readers with a thoughtful,

Humans have long turned to gardens--both real and imaginary--for sanctuary from the frenzy and tumult that surrounds them. Those gardens may be as far away from everyday reality as Gilgamesh's garden of the gods or as near as our own backyard, but in their very conception and the marks they bear of human care and cultivation, gardens stand as restorative, nourishing, necessary havens.

With Gardens, Robert Pogue Harrison graces readers with a thoughtful, wide-ranging examination of the many ways gardens evoke the human condition. Moving from from the gardens of ancient philosophers to the gardens of homeless people in contemporary New York, he shows how, again and again, the garden has served as a check against the destruction and losses of history. The ancients, explains Harrison, viewed gardens as both a model and a location for the laborious self-cultivation and self-improvement that are essential to serenity and enlightenment, an association that has continued throughout the ages. The Bible and Qur'an; Plato's Academy and Epicurus's Garden School; Zen rock and Islamic carpet gardens; Boccaccio, Rihaku, Capek, Cao Xueqin, Italo Calvino, Ariosto, Michel Tournier, and Hannah Arendt--all come into play as this work explores the ways in which the concept and reality of the garden has informed human thinking about mortality, order, and power.

Alive with the echoes and arguments of Western thought, Gardens is a fitting continuation of the intellectual journeys of Harrison's earlier classics, Forests and The Dominion of the Dead. Voltaire famously urged us to cultivate our gardens; with this compelling volume, Robert Pogue Harrison reminds us of the nature of that responsibility--and its enduring importance to humanity.

I find myself completely besotted by a new book titled Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition, by Robert Pogue Harrison. The author . . . is one of the very best cultural critics at work today. He is a man of deep learning, immense generosity of spirit, passionate curiosity and manifold rhetorical gifts.--Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune

This book is about gardens as a metaphor for the human condition. . . . Harrison draws freely and with brilliance from 5,000 years of Western literature and criticism, including works on philosophy and garden history. . . . He is a careful as well as an inspiring scholar.--Tom Turner, Times Higher Education

When I was a student, my Cambridge supervisor said, in the Olympian tone characteristic of his kind, that the only living literary critics for whom he would sell his shirt were William Empson and G. Wilson Knight. Having spent the subsequent 30 years in the febrile world of academic Lit. Crit. . . . I'm not sure that I'd sell my shirt for any living critic. But if there had to be one, it would unquestionably be Robert Pogue Harrison, whose study Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, published in 1992, has the true quality of literature, not of criticism--it stays with you, like an amiable ghost, long after you read it.

"Though more modest in scope, this new book is similarly destined to become a classic. It has two principal heroes: the ancient philosopher Epicurus . . . and the wonderfully witty Czech writer Karel Capek, apropos of whom it is remarked that, whereas most people believe gardening to be a subset of life, 'gardeners, including Capek, understand that life is a subset of gardening.'"--Jonathan Bate, The Spectator



Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 09/01/2009
ISBN: 9780226317908
Pages: 248
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.70d

Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 10/11/2009 pg. 20
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This is the side sleeper version of the best pillow out there. My 26 year old son was always complaining about his pillow and his neck and back hurting. About every year I’d buy him the next “best” pillow promising to be the best but they never worked for him. I read an article saying THIS pillow was the “Goldilocks” of pillows. So since he sleeps in all positions, I got him the regular shaped pillow. The next morning after his first night with the pillow, he came out of his room talking about how wonderful his pillow is. Same thing the next morning. And the next. And the next. Then I thought to myself, my current pillow is the best I’ve had but I’m not in love with it. But I’m a side sleeper so I purchased this particular contoured pillow for me. NOW I UNDERSTOOD WHAT MY SON WAS TALKING ABOUT. I became the person who went on and on about my pillow. Until my husband told me to replace his with one of these side sleeping versions for himself. And he loves it. Then we got a regular pillow (for those who sleep in all positions, but this same company) for our guests. My best friend came to visit, immediately noticed the pillow upgrade from previous visits and when she returned home, she purchased one for herself. This pillow is like a feather pillow except it is filled with tiny squares of memory foam. And it comes with an extra pack of stuffing, so you can add or remove stuffing to customize it perfectly for you. None of us in the house added filling, and my son removed some that came with his pillow. I also sleep with a body pillow and have for years. And I was wishing this came in a body pillow version until I realized I could make my own. I bought a zippered body pillow case. The larger size. I think it was 54 inches long. And I bought a king size pillow and used the extra stuffing pack that came with that pillow along with the 4 packs that came with the other pillows that we didn’t use. Though you could probably do the same thing with two standard size pillows. These pillows are on the expensive side but they go on sale during every holiday. That’s when I purchase them. Oh and my body pillow is HEAVEN. Between that and the pillow, I spend my nights in fluffy cloud goodness.
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