Mountains of the Mind: a History of a Fascination

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Aviation heroine's close shave". Shropshire Star. 20 July 2022. p.24. Article by Toby Neal, title referred to a gliding accident in Walsall in 1938 during a display partly organised by this club. Macfarlane captures the physical hardship of mountaineering well, almost gleefully recounting historical and personal frostbite-episodes, and the suffering that many have endured in their battles against mountains. When I read this passage, it made absolute sense to me, despite the intervening centuries. As de Saussure said, risk-taking brings with it its own reward: it keeps a "continual agitation alive" in the heart. Hope, fear. Hope, fear - this is the fundamental rhythm of mountaineering. Life, it frequently seems in the mountains, is more intensely lived the closer one gets to its extinction: we never feel so alive as when we have nearly died. A large area of the Long Mynd (almost all its upland area) was bought by the National Trust in 1965, and was designated an AONB as part of the Shropshire Hills in 1958. There was something unusual in the way I saw Lachenal and everything around us. I smiled to myself at the paltriness of our efforts. But all sense of exertion was gone, as though there were no longer any gravity. This diaphanous landscape, this quintessence of purity - these were not the mountains I knew; they were the mountains of my dreams. "

Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Mountains Of The Mind – Samir Chopra Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Mountains Of The Mind – Samir Chopra

Strong's 3563: Probably from the base of ginosko; the intellect, i.e. Mind; by implication, meaning. The Long Mynd has been home to the Midland Gliding Club since 1934. The club owns 136 hectares (340 acres) of land on the south end and flies gliders there throughout the year. It runs residential training courses and offers members of the public trial lesson flights. Many long flights have started from the Long Mynd, most recently one of 750 kilometres (470mi) during the summer of 2007. The gliding club is one of the few remaining clubs in Europe to regularly launch gliders by bungee. [ citation needed] One early distinguished past member was Amy Johnson, from 1937 to 1939. [9] Flora and fauna [ edit ] That was it - I was sold on adventure. In one of the reading binges which only the expanses of childhood time permit, I plundered my grandfather's library and by the end of that summer I had read a dozen or so of the most famous real-life exploration stories from the mountains and the poles, including Apsley Cherry-Garrard's tale of Antarctic endurance, The Worst Journey in the World, John Hunt's The Ascent of Everest and Edward Whymper's bloody account of his Scrambles Amongst the Alps.It wasn’t the first time I had read Hopkins’ immortal line. And my first reaction to it, and its embedding in the poem in which it features made me question MacFarlane’s deployment of it as an epigraph to his book, and indeed, in its title. In winter some valley slopes become makeshift ski slopes, but Long Mynd can be treacherous in severe weather, and has claimed many lives. In 2015 snow gates were installed at various points of access onto the Long Mynd, to deter motorists planning to use the routes in wintry conditions. [6] [7] Robert Macfarlane, Mountains of the Mind: How Desolate and Forbidding Heights Were Transformed Into Experiences of Indomitable Spirit

Mountains of the Mind - Robert Macfarlane - Complete Review Mountains of the Mind - Robert Macfarlane - Complete Review

Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth: I don’t read a lot of books like Mountains of the Mind. My bookshelves are lined with hefty volumes filled with high-stress historical events, of war and plague, oppression and political upheaval. In troubling times, I was drawn to this book’s low stakes, its thoughtful deliberations, and its gorgeous nature writing. Mountains are exceptionally hard to describe in words; even pictures often fail. But Macfarlane is exceptionally talented at describing indescribable sights. Strong's 3699: Where, whither, in what place. From hos and pou; what(-ever) where, i.e. At whichever spot.Book Genre: Adventure, Climbing, Environment, History, Mountaineering, Nature, Nonfiction, Outdoors, Philosophy, Sports, Travel Here is the mind that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth: The transformation of mountain landscapes in the European imagination was an astonishing reversal and that process has rarely been explored so effectively as Robert Macfarlane does in Mountains of the Mind. (...) Macfarlane argues that romanticism continues to dictate our responses to mountain landscapes." - Ed Douglas, The Observer There is a golf course, the Church Stretton Golf Club, located near the Cardingmill Valley, on the slopes of Stanyeld Hill and Bodbury Hill. The clubhouse is at approximately 230 metres (750ft) above sea level and the hilly links course rises up to around 375m (1,230ft). It is the oldest 18-hole golf course in Shropshire, opened in 1898, and one of the highest in the country. [8] But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased…

mind with wisdom. The seven Revelation 17:9 This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven

For that reason it doesn't deal in names, dates, peaks and heights, like the standard histories of the mountains, but instead in sensations, emotions and ideas. 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 Scientist Over and over I read that passage, and I wanted nothing more than to be one of those two tiny dots, fighting for survival in the thin air.But what is Hopkins’ line doing, serving as an epigraph to such a book? Hopkins’ poem is about melancholia; indeed, it might be one of the most powerful and moving explorations of the mind’s travails. Here is how I read his line: our mind is capable of entertaining thoughts and feelings which contain within them chasms of despair, points at which we stare into a dark abyss, an unfathomable one, with invisible depths. These are our own private hells, glimpses of which we catch when we walk up to the edge and look. The effect on the reader–especially one who has been to the mountains–is dramatic; you are reminded of the frightening heights from which you can gaze down on seemingly endless icy and windswept slopes, the lower reaches of which are shrouded with their own mysterious darkness; and you are reminded too, of the darkest thoughts you have entertained in your most melancholic moments. Here is the mind which has wisdom [and this is what it knows about the vision]. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits;