Two excerpts from the book by American ecophilosopher David Abram The Magic of the Senses / Perception and Language in a More Than Human World (DharmaGaia, Prague 2013): the first excerpt “Animism and the Alphabet” is from the 4th chapter of the same name (pp. 154-155, 163-164); the second excerpt “What a Mystery Air Is” is from the last 7th chapter of Remembering Air (pp. 271-273, pp. 310-313). Translated by Michaela Melechovská and Jiří…
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Border Patrol: An Interview with David Abram
This interview by Jeremy Hayward with American ecophilosopher David Abram about his book The Spell of the Sensuous (Pantheon Books, New York 1996; in Czech Kozlo smyslů. DhramaGaia 2013) was originally published under the title “The Boundary Keeper” in the magazine Shambhala Sun (May 1997). It was first printed in Czech in an abridged version in the cultural weekly A2 (19 / 7.5. 2008) and was subsequently published…
David Abram: The Invisible World
This essay by American ecophilosopher David Abram was first published under the title “The Invisibles” as an introductory article in Parabola magazine (volume 31, number 1, Spring 2006). It was published in Czech in the anthology of the author’s texts Procitnutí do živé země (OPS Nymburk 2008, pp. 77-93, Czech translation by Jiří Zemánek and Barbora Svatá). The essay is also part of the author’s book Becoming Animal: An…
Vandana Shiva: We are the soil
“Land, not oil, is the future of humanity.” Vandana Shiva Vandana Shiva is an Indian philosopher, environmental activist, and one of the most prominent figures in the global justice movement. She is particularly concerned with biodiversity and organic farming. She is the director of the Foundation for Scientific Research, Technology and Natural Resources in Delhi and one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization. She is also…
Alena Malíková: Remembering our intimate connection with the land
“If man cannot find a way to treat the soil in such a way as to preserve this source of life, and is unable to maintain it, we must expect the time to come when our human species, having squandered this vast inheritance, will disappear from the face of the earth…” Evelyn Barbara Balfour, British pioneer of organic farming (The Living Soil, 1943) Alena Malíková graduated from the University of Agriculture…
Jiří Zemánek: Thomas Berry and the "great work"
“The great illusion of the industrial age is the idea that we can develop our human well-being by plundering the planet and destroying its geological and biological structure, including its functioning. From the idea that what is good for humans is also good for the Earth, we must come to the understanding that what is good for the complex community of life on Earth is good for…
Paul Kingsnorth: The Road to Dark Mountain
“… the beauty of the universe, love it, not man apart from it, or you will share in the pitiful confusion of man, or you will drown in despair when man’s days grow dark.” — Robinson Jeffers (The Solution, translated by Kamil Bednář) Paul Kingsnorth is an English writer, poet, and thinker. He is a former deputy editor of The Ecologist and co-founder of the Dark Mountains Project. He lives in the west of Ireland.…
Lenka Kubelová: Old forms are breaking down and something new is emerging
Lenka Kubelová (born 1984 in Prague) graduated from the Faculty of Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. She currently works as the editor-in-chief of the Prague publishing house Alferia. She has translated several books and has also worked as a lecturer and teacher; she is also engaged in gentle activism and, as she says, is interested in “biocultural hopes”. In this article, she discusses food fermentation as a process of strengthening the health of the human organism…