Author | Jay Griffiths |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Travel literature |
Publisher | Tarcher |
Publication date | 2006 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Pages | 374 in 1st edition |
ISBN | 978-1585424030 |
Wild: An Elemental Journey is a 2006 book about travel in Earth's wildernesses by the British writer Jay Griffiths.
Jay Griffiths is a British writer. She read English Literature at Oxford University. She has written for the London Review of Books and contributed to programmes on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and the World Service. As a journalist, she has published columns in The Guardian, The Ecologist, Orion, and Aeon. [1] Her non-fiction books include Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time (1999), Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape (2013), and Tristimania (2016). [2]
Wild was published by Tarcher in the United States in 2006 and by Hamish Hamilton in the UK in 2007. [a] Penguin Books issued a paperback version in 2008. [3] It was published in Korean in 2011. [4]
Wild describes a seven-year odyssey to wildernesses representing the five traditional elements of earth, ice, water, air and fire, the connection between human society and wild lands. Earth is the Amazon rainforest; ice is the Canadian Arctic; the Indonesian island of Bajo, near Sulawesi, is water; the Australian outback is fire; and West Papua's montane forests represent air. [5]
It is also an intellectual travel, [5] a journey into wild mind, as Griffiths explores the words and meanings which shape people's ideas and experience of wildness, the wildness of the human spirit. [6] The book includes the description of drinking ayahuasca with shamans in the Amazon, as a treatment for depression, and discusses shamanism, nomadism and freedom. Chapters describe journeys to the Arctic, to Australia and to the freedom fighters of West Papua. [7] [8]
On publication in the UK, Wild was praised widely in major newspapers; it was described as "part travelogue, part call to arms and wholly original... A vital, unique and uncategorisable celebration of the spirit of life". [8] The Independent called it "remarkable" and "stupendous" [9] while Mark Cocker of The Guardian wrote: "Jay Griffiths is a five-star, card-carrying member of the hellfire club... a strange, utterly compelling book, Wild is easily the best, most rewarding travel book that I have read in the last decade." [5] In The Sunday Times, Anthony Sattin wrote "There is no getting away from the book's brilliance". [10] The Independent on Sunday described Wild "as a song of delight, and a cry of warning, poetic, erudite and insistent… a restless, unstintingly generous performance..." [11] The wildlife author Richard Mabey in The Times wrote of its "kaleidoscopic narrative" and "exhilarating prose". [12] In the Sydney Morning Herald, Bruce Elder describe Wild as "The best book I read all year". [13]
During an interview about the experiences she described in Wild, Griffiths said, "To my mind, at worst, the West operates a kind of 'intellectual apartheid' – the idea that our way of thinking is the only one. Really, there are more ways of living and thinking than we could ever imagine." [14]
Wild is quoted on KT Tunstall's album Tiger Suit; she called it her favourite book. [15] The Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture reads from Wild during their documentary for their album Angles, and comments: "Jay Griffiths's works are original, inspiring and dare you to search beyond the accepted norm." [16] The Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien posted a recommendation of Wild on the band's blog, stating that it was "an astonishing piece of writing " and that "it was exactly what I needed to read". [17]
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link)
Author | Jay Griffiths |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Travel literature |
Publisher | Tarcher |
Publication date | 2006 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Pages | 374 in 1st edition |
ISBN | 978-1585424030 |
Wild: An Elemental Journey is a 2006 book about travel in Earth's wildernesses by the British writer Jay Griffiths.
Jay Griffiths is a British writer. She read English Literature at Oxford University. She has written for the London Review of Books and contributed to programmes on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and the World Service. As a journalist, she has published columns in The Guardian, The Ecologist, Orion, and Aeon. [1] Her non-fiction books include Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time (1999), Kith: The Riddle of the Childscape (2013), and Tristimania (2016). [2]
Wild was published by Tarcher in the United States in 2006 and by Hamish Hamilton in the UK in 2007. [a] Penguin Books issued a paperback version in 2008. [3] It was published in Korean in 2011. [4]
Wild describes a seven-year odyssey to wildernesses representing the five traditional elements of earth, ice, water, air and fire, the connection between human society and wild lands. Earth is the Amazon rainforest; ice is the Canadian Arctic; the Indonesian island of Bajo, near Sulawesi, is water; the Australian outback is fire; and West Papua's montane forests represent air. [5]
It is also an intellectual travel, [5] a journey into wild mind, as Griffiths explores the words and meanings which shape people's ideas and experience of wildness, the wildness of the human spirit. [6] The book includes the description of drinking ayahuasca with shamans in the Amazon, as a treatment for depression, and discusses shamanism, nomadism and freedom. Chapters describe journeys to the Arctic, to Australia and to the freedom fighters of West Papua. [7] [8]
On publication in the UK, Wild was praised widely in major newspapers; it was described as "part travelogue, part call to arms and wholly original... A vital, unique and uncategorisable celebration of the spirit of life". [8] The Independent called it "remarkable" and "stupendous" [9] while Mark Cocker of The Guardian wrote: "Jay Griffiths is a five-star, card-carrying member of the hellfire club... a strange, utterly compelling book, Wild is easily the best, most rewarding travel book that I have read in the last decade." [5] In The Sunday Times, Anthony Sattin wrote "There is no getting away from the book's brilliance". [10] The Independent on Sunday described Wild "as a song of delight, and a cry of warning, poetic, erudite and insistent… a restless, unstintingly generous performance..." [11] The wildlife author Richard Mabey in The Times wrote of its "kaleidoscopic narrative" and "exhilarating prose". [12] In the Sydney Morning Herald, Bruce Elder describe Wild as "The best book I read all year". [13]
During an interview about the experiences she described in Wild, Griffiths said, "To my mind, at worst, the West operates a kind of 'intellectual apartheid' – the idea that our way of thinking is the only one. Really, there are more ways of living and thinking than we could ever imagine." [14]
Wild is quoted on KT Tunstall's album Tiger Suit; she called it her favourite book. [15] The Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture reads from Wild during their documentary for their album Angles, and comments: "Jay Griffiths's works are original, inspiring and dare you to search beyond the accepted norm." [16] The Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien posted a recommendation of Wild on the band's blog, stating that it was "an astonishing piece of writing " and that "it was exactly what I needed to read". [17]
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link)