While traveling the world in order to write her award winning book Wild, Jay Griffiths became increasingly aware of the huge differences in how childhood is experienced in various cultures. One central riddle, in particular captured her imagination: why are so many children in Euro–American cultures unhappy – and why is it that children in traditional cultures seem happier? In A Country Called Childhood, Griffiths seeks to discover why we deny our children the freedoms of space, time and the natural world. Visiting communities as far apart as West Papua and the Arctic as well as the UK, and delving into history, philosophy, language and literature, she explores how children's affinity for nature is an essential and universal element of childhood. It is a journey deep into the heart of what it means to be a child, and it is central to all our experiences, young and old.
Jay Griffiths is a tour guide for anyone who has ever wished to commune with the side of our human psyche that remains in touch with the wild. Equally at home among the "sea gypsy" Bajo people who live off the coast of Thailand and forage their food from the ocean floor, drinking the psychedelic ayahuasca plant with Amazonian shamans, or joining an Inuit whale hunt at the northern tip of Canada, Griffiths takes readers on an adventure both charted and un–chartable. She divides her meditations on these travels into sections named after the ancient elemental properties of the universe—Earth, Air, Fire, Ice, and Water—because her subject matter is not merely the places traveled to but the depths of mind and the cultural narratives revealed by place. It is a universal story told of far–flung groups of humans, with vastly different ways of life, connected through the varied wilderness that sustains them. By describing the ways in which human societies and the human mind have developed in response to the wilder elements of our homelands, Savage Grace reveals itself as a benediction for the emotional, intellectual, and physical nourishment that people continue to draw from the natural world. Under the sway of Griffiths' charisma, her poetic prose, and her deeply learned and persuasive case for the wild roots of our shared human being, we learn that we are all, each and every one of us, a force of nature.
Why are so many Western children unhappy? Why has childhood become so unnatural? Why are we scared to let our kids be free? In Kith, Jay Griffiths seeks to discover why we deny our children the freedoms of space, time and the natural world. Visiting communities as far apart as West Papua and the Arctic, as well as the UK, and delving into history, philosophy, language and literature, she explores how children's affinity for nature is an essential and universal element of childhood. It is a journey deep into the heart of what it means to be a child, and it is central to all our experiences, young and old. 'Scintillating, passionate, supremely honest. Adults and children need more books like this.' Literary Review 'A subterranean book. We excavate it to refind the secrets of childhood, our own, and many other childhoods in times and places far from ours.' John Berger 'Griffiths' understanding of how it feels to be a child is extraordinary, and her writing is as vivid as poetry.' Mail on Sunday 'I didn't just read this book; I revelled in it. There's a rare vitality and robust energy . . . reading this book feels like playing in the woods. An unabashedly Romantic rallying cry for childhood. Playful and polemical, emotional and imaginative. As vital as play itself.' Independent
A brilliant and poetic exploration of the way that we experience time in our everyday lives. Why does time seem so short? How does women's time differ from men's? Why does time seem to move slowly in the countryside and quickly in cities? How do different cultures around the world see time? In A Sideways Look at Time, Jay Griffiths takes readers on an extraordinary tour of time as we have never seen it before. With this dazzling and defiant work, Griffiths introduces us to dimensions of time that are largely forgotten in our modern lives. She presents an infectious argument for other, more magical times, the diverse cycles of nature, of folktale or carnival, when time is unlimited and on our side. This is a book for those who suspect that there's more to time than clocks. Irresistible and provocative, A Sideways Look at Time could change the way we view time-forever.
There are galaxies within the human mind, and madness wants to risk everything for the daring flight, reckless and beautiful and crazed. Everyone knows Icarus fell.But I love him for the fact that he dared to fly. Mania unfurls the invitation to fly too high, too near the sun..." Tristimania is a stark and lyrical account of the psyche in crisis. It tells the story of a devastating year–long episode of manic depression, culminating in a long solo pilgrimage across Spain. The book is rare in recording the experience of mania and shows how the condition is at once terrifying and also profoundly creative, both tricking and treating the psyche. In exploring its literary influence, Griffiths looks at Shakespeare's work, and examines the Trickster role, tracing its mercuriality through the character of Mercury. An intimate, raw journey, the book illuminates something of the universal human spirit.
As a young married man with a child, Jay Reed joined the Air Force. Getting divorced, remarried, and divorced again, Jay finally found what he was looking for in his writing, photography and exploring the outdoors.
Plots is a Jay Dubya acronym that represents a compilation of certain famous works by authors Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, O. Henry, Mark Twain and William Shakespeare. Every good story indeed has a plot, or an essential problem (or problems) that must be solved. The problem can either be a direct physical threat or an imagined mental/emotional crisis existing within the main character's mind, or perhaps the problem is represented by various combinations of those separate elements. In any case, the main problem must be addressed and/or especially solved during the story. The particular stories selected by the author have been uniquely corrupted and then creatively rewritten into adult satirical style where Jay Dubya effectively uses adult language and situations, thus adroitly modifying the general integrity of the original works.
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