The Resurgence of the Real: Body, Nature and Place in a Hypermodern World

by Charlene Spretnak

Book Overview

In this insightful, beautifully written work, one of America's most important feminist ecological thinkers reflects on the roots of modernity in Renaissance humanism, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, Spretnak argues that an "ecological postmodern" ethos is emerging in the 1990s. the creative cosmos, and the complex sense of place." Both a sharp critique and a graceful performance of the art of the possible, The Resurgence...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415922984
• ISBN13: 9780415922982
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A worthy slog

Charlene Spretnak's depth of insight is nearly overwhelming. In fact, the only reservation I have about recommending this book is that it is really heavy going. You're gonna have to work at it -- and you may want to save Chapter 2 for later, unless the concept of "deconstructionist postmodernism" either gives you goose bumps or makes you seethe. (For what it's worth, Spretnak dispatches with the whole empty concept of d-p, but her triumphant campaign isn't for the faint of heart.) In brief, the author's argument is that modernism -- the philosophy which has ruled us for a few hundred years -- has led us astray. In particular it has distorted our relationship to body, nature and place. We have accepted a separation of self (intelligence or spirit) from our physicality, of our lives from nature (as if we lived in glass boxes, or existed "on top" of it), and of our entire existence from its setting. Modern culture embodies the pretense that it is a cloak around the planet which could as easily be draped elsewhere. Of course that is not and has never been the case, but it is the conceit of modernism that such a mental picture is the scientific or objective truth behind our subjective experience. What follows lies all around us today. Spretnak is very optimistic that the Real is coming back with a bang, and just in time. Her philosophic defense of bioregionalism, of holistic health strategies, of Green politics, of deeply felt community, of respectful attention to ancient alternatives, and on and on, is brilliant and invigorating. As is her demolition of the underpinnings of GATT, the World Bank, modern economic theory and the use of computers in grade school classrooms, or the overweening adoption of a computerized mind-set. She blasts Sesame Street out of the water. BAM! Most telling of all is Spretnak's explanation of why radical localism does not imply a new isolationism. She argues that we must learn to live locally in intimate contact with our bioregion, but with utter respect for the global commons. We each live in a place. We all live on earth. We must adopt solutions that work Here without deleteriously impacting There. This one may well knock your socks off. Whew.

A Beautiful & Elegant Critique of the Post-Modern Mystique!

In "Resurgence of the Real", Author Charlene Spretnak takes accurate aim at the pandemic, negative and deadening global aspects of the hyper-rationalized social, economic, and political environment of the postindustrial world, diagnosing its ills, and proposing a quite realistic, attainable, and more organic alternative to our misguided ways. In this elegantly written and argued neo-Luddite thesis, Spretnak passionately speaks on behalf of a more enlightened post modern ecology that actively eschews the deadening embrace of 20th century scientism and technological industrialism and recognizes the basic human connection to nature and the environment.This is a book with a mission and a message. On the one hand, she offers an impressive critique of how our blind fascination with rationalism, science, and technological innovation has strangled out of consciousness any appreciation or awareness of the natural world around us, and has led us into a ritual denial of our fundamental connection to nature. On the other hand, showing how illusory and simplistic our intellectual categories seem to be, she argues for a recovery effort in order to actively regain our individual and collective awareness of our natural context, our relationships to other human beings, and to our basic grounding in the ecology of the real world around us.But the leap toward such critical awareness eludes many of our contemporaries, who are locked into such a modernistic, mechanistic and rational worldview that they tend to view themselves as bio-machines requiring external interventions when malfunctioning. Every thing about our artificially created and sustained human environment holds us within this kind of faulty and dangerous world-view. Instead, she argues, we need to recognize that we are self-correcting energy systems operating within nature, which she defines as a dynamic and self-regulating cosmos. This is heady and quite intellectually stimulating stuff, and requires a close reading and a requisite ability to think, as they say, "outside the box" of conventional thought. The author faces the issues of our time with eloquence, clarity, and a keen intellectual acumen. The book is obviously written with great care, passion, and unimpeachable intellectual clarity. Spretnak offers a stinging and accurate diagnosis of what has gone wrong in the post-modern world, and presents, with great lucidity and careful thought, a look at the emerging postmodern ecological world-view we need to overcome the ecological, social, and political problems confronting us. This is a very special, passionate, and wonderful book, and is one offering hope for the future. I hope you enjoy it.

Beautiful and Philosophical

Humanity is so ready for this groundbreaking book!I heard Charlene Spretnak on the radio and rushed to buy this book.Spretnak goes beyond our arbitrary ways of categorizing the world and its inhabitants, offers hope for the environment, for humankind, for our spirit. Forget right and left, modern and postmodern, communist and capitalist, all the usual labeling. Spretnak explores what's wrong with modernity, from its beginnings in the age of Renaissance humanism! She writes eloquently of the suicidal rush to embrace technology at all costs.Excellent book for any environmentalist, anyone with a spiritual or religious inclination, any art history student, any political scientist.

perspective-altering masterpiece...

Here is easily the most fascinating, thought-provoking book I've ever read. Far too rarely do we examine those reasons we should feel jusitified in our disillusionment, instead opting to revel in it. I can't count the number of times I had to re-read a paragraph or page to fully comprehend Spretnak's complex argument. I can't count the number of times I rushed out to read passages aloud to my brother. I'd love to teach this book one day.