i bought a book today called 'towards re-enchantment: place and its meanings' mainly for an essay by iain sinclair about clapton; springfield park, the river lea, walthamstow marshes. i read the essay and walked the route. out of the city. like home. two hours later i walked back on the opposite side of the river and stopped off in the hope and anchor, a local boozer for people off the boats. the time i spent in there and the people i met is for another time, but the essay i read in the latter half of the book, 'a counter-desecration phrasebook' by robert macfarlane, opened with a quote that hooked me.
'our task is that of taking up the written word, with all of its potency, and patiently, carefully writing language back into the land.' - David Abram.
home, i searched for more on him. bit of a hippy but what he is saying about the relationship between alphbetic society and ecology crisis is interesting.
walking home over the bridge there were two plastic folder pockets, make-shift notices, attached to the wire fencing with cable ties. 'don't be harsh, save the marsh.' it told me that the olympic committee are paving over the land to build a car park and some sort of training ground for the basket ball teams. they promise to put it back in 9 months.
Dr. David Abram - The Spell of Literacy
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