tjj
|
Edited Dec 29, 2014, 21:12
'Landmarks' - Robert Macfarlane
Dec 29, 2014, 21:08
|
Just flagging up ...
By chance I have come across a proof copy of Robert Macfarlane's new book Landmarks "a celebration and defence of the language of the landscape - a book about the power of words to shape our sense of place ..." I've dipped into it and already know I will buy the published version when it comes out in March 2015 (this one is lacking the art work and hasn't been fully edited). It contains several glossaries pertaining to subjects such as Uplands, Waterlands, Northlands, Underlands etc ... Underlands contains sixteen words for chambers and burial sites.
One of the frontispiece quotes is "Scholars, I plead with you, Where are your dictionaries of the wind, the grasses?" Norman MacCaig
|
thesweetcheat
|
Re: 'Landmarks' - Robert Macfarlane
Dec 29, 2014, 21:14
|
|
Sounds great.
|
Monganaut
|
Edited Dec 30, 2014, 04:25
Re: 'Landmarks' - Robert Macfarlane
Dec 30, 2014, 03:16
|
Ooooh, cheers for that, big McFarlane fan will check it out. Know he's desperate to be Edward Thomas (check out The South Country for some beautiful writing) but it's nice to have a bit of lyricism in travel/nature writing.
Nice talk he does about landscape and the heart here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q1IK-O5Ypg
|
tjj
|
Re: 'Landmarks' - Robert Macfarlane
Dec 30, 2014, 08:01
|
|
Monganaut wrote: Ooooh, cheers for that, big McFarlane fan will check it out. Know he's desperate to be Edward Thomas (check out The South Country for some beautiful writing) but it's nice to have a bit of lyricism in travel/nature writing.
Nice talk he does about landscape and the heart here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q1IK-O5Ypg
He often refers to writers who have gone before, Edward Thomas being just one of them (and walks in their footprints to some extent). The proof copy asks that it is not quoted but this bit in the introductory chapter shocked me ...
Apparently the new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary has culled certain words concerning nature. Deletions included acorn, adder, ash, beech, bluebell, buttercup, catkin, conker, cowslip, cygnet, dandelion, fern, hazel, heather, heron, ivy, kingfisher, lark, mistletoe, nectar, newt, otter, pasture and willow. The words introduced to the new edition included attachment, block-graph, blog, broadband, bullet-point, celebrity, chatroom, committee, cut-and-paste, MP3 player and voice-mail.
|
nigelswift
|
Re: 'Landmarks' - Robert Macfarlane
Dec 30, 2014, 08:42
|
|
tjj wrote:
Apparently the new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary has culled certain words concerning nature. Deletions included acorn, adder, ash, beech, bluebell, buttercup, catkin, conker, cowslip, cygnet, dandelion, fern, hazel, heather, heron, ivy, kingfisher, lark, mistletoe, nectar, newt, otter, pasture and willow.
Whaaat?! That's my whole childhood in a nutshell !
|
thesweetcheat
|
Re: 'Landmarks' - Robert Macfarlane
Dec 30, 2014, 13:06
|
|
nigelswift wrote: tjj wrote:
Apparently the new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary has culled certain words concerning nature. Deletions included acorn, adder, ash, beech, bluebell, buttercup, catkin, conker, cowslip, cygnet, dandelion, fern, hazel, heather, heron, ivy, kingfisher, lark, mistletoe, nectar, newt, otter, pasture and willow.
Whaaat?! That's my whole childhood in a nutshell !
Frankly that's a disgrace.
|
Monganaut
|
Re: 'Landmarks' - Robert Macfarlane
Dec 30, 2014, 14:34
|
That's crazy, surely they could add a few extra pages instead of deleting words, from what is supposed to be a resource of information and learning. Not sure how the compilers thought acorn, bluebell, buttercup and catkin, or any of the other words have become redundant, I'm sure they are part of any primary school carriculem to do with seasons and nature, if not mom and dad piointing stuff out in the garden or whilst out and about.
The compilers thinking when they do this is a little fuzzy to say the least.
|
tjj
|
Edited Jan 08, 2015, 20:42
Re: 'The Living Mountain'
Jan 08, 2015, 20:38
|
Earlier today I read the chapter in Robert Macfarlane's "Landmarks" entitled The Living Mountain. He talks about Nan Shepherd who wrote a book by that title about the Cairngorm Mountains.
I just found this little radio broadcast which is Robert Macfarlane in the Cairngorms talking about her work - he has just seen a golden eagle. Give it a listen and be transported to different place.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03mfndd
|
thelonious
|
Edited Jan 08, 2015, 20:49
Re: 'The Living Mountain'
Jan 08, 2015, 20:45
|
BBC 2 Scotland tonight at 10.00pm (channel 970 on sky, rest of UK)(should be on iPlayer later)
repeat of The Living Mountain: A Cairngorms Journey
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04tqk1n
|
tjj
|
Re: 'The Living Mountain'
Jan 08, 2015, 20:52
|
|
thelonious wrote:
I tried to watch it online but it wouldn't let me - will try again tomorrow. Thanks.
|
