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A PHILOSOPHY OF WALKING
http://www.versobooks.com/books/1640-a-philosophy-of-walking
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“A passionate affirmation of the simple life, and joy in simple things. And it's beautifully written: clear, simple, precise.”
– Frédéric Gros interviewed by Carole Cadwalladr, The Observer
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/20/frederic-gros-walk-nietzsche-kant
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“By walking, you escape from the very idea of identity, the temptation to be someone, to have a name and a history ... The freedom in walking lies in not being anyone; for the walking
body has no history, it is just an eddy in the stream of immemorial life.”
– Frédéric Gros, A PHILOSOPHY OF WALKING
In A PHILOSOPHY OF WALKING, a bestseller in France, leading thinker Frédéric Gros charts the many different ways we get from A to B — the pilgrimage, the promenade, the protest march, the nature ramble — and reveals what they say about us.
Gros draws attention to other thinkers who also saw walking as something central to their practice. On his travels he ponders Thoreau's eager seclusion in Walden Woods; the reason Rimbaud walked in a fury, while Nerval rambled to cure his melancholy. He shows us how Rousseau walked in order to think, while Nietzsche wandered the mountainside to write. In contrast, Kant marched through his hometown every day, exactly at the same hour, to escape the compulsion of thought.
Brilliant and erudite, A PHILOSOPHY OF WALKING is an entertaining and insightful manifesto for putting one foot in front of the other.
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“Resolving to take more walks in the new year might sound like promising to take more naps – choosing idleness over work. But a lot of clever people don’t see it that way [...]
Frédéric Gros asks why so many of our most productive writers and philosophers – Rousseau, Kant, Rimbaud, Robert Louis Stevenson, Nietzsche, Jack Kerouac – have also been indefatigable walkers.”
– Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times
“This short, simple and profound book... will be read and re-read.”
– Laurence Coupe, Times Higher Education
“Poignant life-stories ... are interspersed with the author's own meditations on walking... In the way a landscape is gradually absorbed by the long-distance rambler they steadily
build into an insistent exhortation: get up, get out and walk!”
– James Atlee, The Independent
“Life-affirming stuff.”
– National Geographic Traveller
“Impressive.”
– Tom Payne, The Telegraph
“An admirable little book which will delight even the most sedentary.”
– Le Monde
“An unclassifiable book in which ideas are illuminated by the bright light of the morning.”
– L’Express
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RELATED EVENTS
May 15, 2014
Tate Modern: WITH RICHARD WENTWORTH
Frédéric Gros on The Art of Walking and Slowing Down at the Tate Modern
Join the author of A Philosophy of Walking for part of Tate Modern's Talks and Lectures series
This event invites us to reconsider the everyday activity of walking as a philosophical and creative activity, which has played a central role in the work of thinkers, artists and writers alike.
In A Philosophy of Walking, Frédéric Gros charts the many different ways we get from point A to point B: the pilgrimage, the promenade, the protest march, the nature ramble, and demonstrates what they tell us about ourselves and the society we live in.
In conversation with the artist Richard Wentworth, Gros explores the practice of walking as necessary in this era of speed, efficiency and consumption; and what this activity tells us about our experience.
For full details and for the link to buy tickets, please visit Tate's event page: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/talks-and-lectures/art-walking-and-slowing-down
May 14, 2014
Swindon Festival of Literature
http://www.swindonfestivalofliterature.co.uk/14-wed.html
May 14, 2014
Bristol Festival of Ideas
http://www.ideasfestival.co.uk/2014/events/frederic-gros
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Hardback, 288 pages / ISBN: 9781781682708 / £16.99 / $24.95
ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK
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To learn more about A PHILOSOPHY OF WALKING and to purchase a copy, please visit
http://www.versobooks.com/books/1640-a-philosophy-of-walking
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