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Escapism

Yi-Fu Tuan

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Acclaimed cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan considers humanity's enduring desire to escape reality— and embrace alternatives such as love, culture, and Disneyworld

In prehistoric times, our ancestors began building shelters and planting crops in order to escape from nature's harsh realities. Today, we flee urban dangers for the safer, reconfigured world of suburban lawns and parks. According to geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, people have always sought to escape in one way or another, sometimes foolishly, often creatively and ingeniously. Glass-tower cities, suburbs, shopping malls, Disneyland—all are among...

Acclaimed cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan considers humanity's enduring desire to escape reality— and embrace alternatives such as love, culture, and Disneyworld

In prehistoric times, our ancestors began building shelters and planting crops in order to escape from nature's harsh realities. Today, we flee urban dangers for the safer, reconfigured world of suburban lawns and parks. According to geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, people have always sought to escape in one way or another, sometimes foolishly, often creatively and ingeniously. Glass-tower cities, suburbs, shopping malls, Disneyland—all are among the most recent monuments in our efforts to escape the constraints and uncertainties of life—ultimately, those imposed by nature. "What cultural product," Tuan asks, "is not escape?" In his new book, the capstone of a celebrated career, Tuan shows that escapism is an inescapable component of human thought and culture.

Reviews

Reviews

Escapism... is not so much an argument as a tour—sometimes a tour de force—of cultural escapes with exotic stops and unexpected twists and turns. And such a convivial tour guide! Tuan is chatty, engaging, unpretentious and charming.

Writing in a deeply thoughtful style, Tuan, a leading cultural geographer, examines the wonders and atrocities that stem from the human impulse to deny the brutal realities of earthly existence.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
5.5
x
8.5
Pages
264
ISBN
9780801865404
Illustration Description
5 b&w illus.
Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1. Part / Nature and Culture
Chapter 2. Animality / Its Covers and Transcendence
Chapter 3. People / Disconnectedness and Indifference
Chapter 4. Hell / Imagination's Distortions and

Preface
Chapter 1. Part / Nature and Culture
Chapter 2. Animality / Its Covers and Transcendence
Chapter 3. People / Disconnectedness and Indifference
Chapter 4. Hell / Imagination's Distortions and Limitations
Chapter 5. Heaven / The Real and the Good
Notes
Acknowledgments
Illustration Credits
Index

Author Bio
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Yi-Fu Tuan

From 1983 until retiring in 1998, Yi-Fu Tuan was the John K. Wright and Vilas Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. One of the most important and influential cultural geographers of our time, Tuan has been the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Cullum Medal of the American Geographical Society, and the Lauréat d'Honneur of the International...