Adrian Reynolds has a nice essay up at the reconstituted Mondo 2000 on the importance of connecting with natural places (a theme in English poetry, of course for hundreds of years.)
Adrian connects this with the new John Higgs book and quotes from an email from John, hence my illustration.
Excerpt:
Take a look at public spaces, and you’ll discover if you haven’t already noted that the emphasis is less on the significance that they may have had in historical or cultural terms, than of the capacity they have to deprive you of money for a coffee and some themed gifts.
In 1987, I hiked down to the Colorado River and back in one day in the Grand Canyon. I emerged exhausted but revitalized by the experience — the sheer timeless power of the Canyon will stay with me forever. Certainly much more so than the ‘I Hiked The Canyon’ shirts that some chancer was selling to tourists at the top, and will have been worn a few times before being used as part of the bedding for a puppy.
I think of England as having "better places" than the U.S., at least in terms of historical locations, but I love the Grand Canyon, too, Adrian.
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