Correspondences

by Ingold, Tim

• ISBN13: 9781509544110
• ISBN10: 1509544119
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2020-12-07
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

We inhabit a world of more than humans. For life to flourish, we must listen to the calls this world makes on us, and respond with care, sensitivity and judgement. That is what it means to correspond, to join our lives with those of the beings, matters and elements with whom, and with which, we dwell upon the earth. 

In this book, anthropologist Tim Ingold corresponds with landscapes and forests, oceans and skies, monuments and artworks. To each he brings the same spontaneity of thought and observation, the same intimacy and lightness of touch, but also the same affection, longing and care that, in the days when we used to write letters by hand, we would bring to our correspondences with one another. 

The result is a profound yet accessible inquiry into ways of attending to the world around us, into the relation between art and life, and into the craft of writing itself. At a time of environmental crisis, when words so often seem to fail us, Ingold points to how the practice of correspondence can help restore our kinship with a stricken earth.

Author Biography

Tim Ingold is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements 
Invitation 

Part 1: Tales from the Woods 
Introduction 
1.1 Somewhere in Northern Karelia… 
1.2 Pitch-black and firelight 
1.3 In the shadow of tree being 
1.4 Ta, Da, Ça 

Part 2: Spitting, Climbing, Soaring, Falling Introduction 
2.1 The foamy saliva of a horse 
2.2 The mountaineer’s lament 
2.3 On flight 
2.4 Sounds of snow 

Part 3: Going to Ground Introduction 
3.1 Scissors paper stone 
3.2 Ad coelum 
3.3 Are we afloat? 
3.4 Shelter 
3.5 Doing time 

Part 4: The Ages of the Earth Introduction 
4.1 The elements of fortune 
4.2 A stone’s life 
4.3 The jetty 
4.4 On extinction 
4.5 Three short fables of self-reinforcement 

Part 5: Line, Crease and Thread Introduction 
5.1 Lines in the landscape 
5.2 The chalk-line and the shadow 
5.3 Fold 
5.4 Taking a thread for a walk 
5.5 Letter-line and strike-through 

Part 6: For the Love of Words 
Introduction 
6.1 Words to meet the world 
6.2 In defence of handwriting 
6.3 Diabolism and philophilia 
6.4 Cold blue steel 

Au revoir