Mountains of the Mind: a History of a Fascination

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Nel mondo montano le cose si comportano in modo strano e inusitato. Anche il tempo si torce e si deforma. Di fronte a scale temporali cadenzate in ere geologiche, perdiamo la percezione del tempo che ci è consueta. L'interesse e la coscienza del mondo di fuori scompaiono di fronte a una gerarchia di bisogni molto più immediati e vitali: calore, cibo, direzione, riparo, sopravvivenza. E se qualcosa va storto, anche il tempo si spezza, per riconfigurarsi attorno a quel momento specifico, a quell'incidente particolare. Tutto porta lì e da lì si dipana. È come se, per quanto riguarda la dimensione temporale, acquistassimo un nuovo centro dell'esistenza.” Over the centuries, though, this has obviously changed. Writers and painters began to look on mountains as things of beauty. Geologists studied them in their efforts to describe the creation of earth itself. With the reputation of mountains growing, adventurers began to assault their slopes, risking all for an ephemeral thrill, which then had to be rationalized at length.

The idea of conquering mountains -- climbing to their peaks -- is, by and large, a relatively recent phenomenon.Me ha encantado. Sé que estamos en enero, pero ha entrado de lleno en mis favoritos de 2022. Estoy segura. Lo recomiendo muchísimo tanto si sois habituales de literatura de montaña como si es vuestro primer acercamiento. Precioso. Lleno de frases para enmarcar, crónicas personales, geografía e historia, y, por supuesto, vivencias crudas, propias del alpinismo. I didn't have any spare gloves. But there wasn't time to worry about it anyway, because the rotten snow which had just about tolerated our weight during the ascent would already be melting in the morning sun. We needed to get down as fast as possible. A new kind of exploration writing, perhaps even the birth of a new genre, which doesn’t just defy classification–it demands a whole new category of its own.”– The Telegraph (UK)

The last two chapters of the book were the best. The chapter on Everest gave a straightforward account of George Mallory's obsession with climbing Everest that I found compelling, and the final chapter, which is also the shortest chapter, was most like what I expected the book to be about: a critical analysis of the human drive to climb to the top. No es Cuvier el mayor poeta de nuestro siglo? —escribiría Balzac, entusiasmado, más adelante—. Nuestro inmortal naturalista ha reconstruido mundos partiendo de huesos blanqueados. Toma en las manos un fragmento de yeso y nos dice: “¡Mirad!”. Y, de pronto, la piedra se convierte en animales, lo muerto cobra vida y un mundo diferente se abre ante nuestros ojos.»” No animal or plant could exist here. In the pure morning light this absence of all life, this utter destitution of nature, seemed only to intensify our own strength. How could we expect anyone else to understand the peculiar exhilaration that we drew from this barrenness, when man's natural tendency is to turn towards everything in nature that is rich and generous?' Educated at Nottingham High School, Pembroke College, Cambridge and Magdalen College, Oxford, he is currently a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and teaches in the Faculty of English at Cambridge. Mountains of the Mind is a tumult of delights all the way. I found it particularly rewarding on early puzzling about the origin of mountains." - Roy Herbert, New ScientistMacfarlane follows this changing attitude towards nature and history, leading eventually to both an aesthetic appreciation of mountains, and then the desire to explore and conquer them. US hardcover subtitle: How Desolate and Forbidding Heights Were Transformed into Experiences of Indomitable Spirit