Underland by Robert Macfarlane
In this eagerly awaited follow-up to his worldwide blockbuster The Old Ways, Macfarlane takes us on a remarkable voyage into our relationship with darkness, burial, and what lurks under the surface of both places and thoughts. He moves through “deep time,” the dizzying lengths of geologic time that extend away from the present, from the beginning of the universe to a post-human future, from the ancient artwork of Norwegian sea caves to the icy depths of Greenland, from Bronze Age funeral chambers to the catacomb labyrinth beneath Paris, and from the underground fungal networks through which trees communicate to a deep-sunk “hiding place” where nuclear waste will be stored for thousands of years.
Underland by Robert Macfarlane
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The vivid tales of historical explorers, artists, cavers, divers, mourners, dreamers, and killers who have all been compelled for various reasons to seek what Cormac McCarthy calls “the horrible darkness within the world” are interwoven throughout Macfarlane’s own adventures.
Underland is a book that speaks eloquently to the present day thanks to its expansive geography and superb writing, lyricism, and strength. Here, Macfarlane tackles a crucial and troubling question about our planet’s long-term future: “Are we being decent ancestors to the future Earth?” In Macfarlane’s extensive mapping of the connections between landscape and the human heart, Underland represents a new chapter.
It is a voyage into awe, grief, fear, and hope from its outstanding first pages to its profoundly heartbreaking last ones. This book will alter the way you view the world since it is both old and urgent.
The Underland: What is it? There are of course caves, caverns, underground rivers, and mythical labyrinths. The Underland, however, is made up of more than just natural wonders; among its man-made features are the catacombs beneath Paris, nuclear waste storage facilities, mines, and cave paintings. Furthermore, Robert Macfarlane aspires to travel the entire length and breadth of the Underland, no matter how improbable or risky that goal may seem. He endures blizzards, ice crevasses, cold water, closed cave passageways, and oxygen deprivation in order to explore the Underland.
Akin to religious fervour is the author’s fascination with all of the Underland’s manifestations and his willingness to repeatedly put his life in danger to experience it and write this book about it. He frequently veers towards irrationality and sentimentality since he is so engrossed in his own thoughts and feelings. Even when he gets caught up in the idea of the “wood wide web,” the network of mycorrhizal fungi that connects all the plant roots in a forest, he admits it.
