The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World

by David Abram

book data

320 ratings, 4.25 average rating, 76 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		52%
4		28%
3		13%
2		2%
1		2%

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published

February 25th 1997 (first published 1996) by Vintage

binding

Paperback, 352 pages

isbn

0679776397 (isbn13: 9780679776390)

description

David Abram's writing casts a spell of its own as he weaves the reader through a meticulously researched work that gently addresses such seemingly dau...more

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07/31/07

Brandon rated it:

In Chinese medicine, disease is defined as that which goes against the Breath of Nature (Bian Hua變化). This statement begs the question: If human disease is that which goes against the breath, how are we going against the breath? Or more specifically, how did we get to this point of widespread cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, allergies, and depression? David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous offers some important insight.

Once upon a time, humans were inherently tied to the la...more In Chinese medicine, disease is defined as that which goes against the Breath of Nature (Bian Hua變化). This statement begs the question: If human disease is that which goes against the breath, how are we going against the breath? Or more specifically, how did we get to this point of widespread cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, allergies, and depression? David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous offers some important insight.

Once upon a time, humans were inherently tied to the land as hunter-gatherers – to survive they were required to follow the laws of nature and the land that they inhabited. With the advent of agriculture and the ability to store surplus grain and consequently generate wealth, a separation arose. No longer did man have to toil day in and day out for food and his survival, but with smart farming techniques and the eventual domestication of grain, the more wealthy could pursue intellectual pursuits: the creation of the aleph-beth emerged as a technology that could transmit some of these intellectual constructs.

Abram discusses the consequences of this gradual transformation from oral to written culture as a divorce from the embodied sensorial experience of time-space to a domain that is referent only to the human domain. “Only with the emergence of the phonetic alphabet, and its appropriation by the ancient Greeks [from the Hebrews who consciously did not encase the majestic air as written vowels] did the written images lose all evident ties to the larger field of expressive beings. Each image now came to have a strictly human referent: each letter was now associated purely with a gesture or sound of the human mouth.” (p.138, italicized comments mine). Instead of seeing language in everything around us – the birds, the wind, the trees, the earth itself – encapsulating speech into written words divides humans from the very world in which we depend on for our well-being. The written word is no longer a transient mutating form, but a fixed non-breathing non-living reference to be analyzed, discussed, and returned to for all time. In short, the written word divides us from nature because it is in and of itself completely unnatural; simply a construction, a technological advancement, of the human mind.

When I go to write something down, I do so to preserve the present moment so that in some future time it can again be accessed. But my words, no matter how poetic or successful at describing some part of a scene or mood must fail to express the entirety of the scene. The pure infinite nature of the present is incapable of being recorded in this linear, discrete fashion, exported into the future to be re-experienced. So language itself, and written language even more-so, is limited*.

Besides the wealth generation of agriculture, the invention of the phonetic written word can be seen as the grandmother of the technologies we enjoy today. But these technologies come at a price. Because they are invented for humans instead of for the world in which humans live, using these inventions inherently reinforces this division. In this way man can then manipulate the environment for his gain. Thus, man is not required to observe, much less follow, the breath of nature. Sometimes we do follow the breath, and we are healthy and vibrant. But often we go against the breath, and we develop diseases that ultimately kill us.

Abrams describes the healer's role (in shamanic cutures) existing at the edge of society, constantly nourishing the border between human beings and the other beings – the animate and seemingly inanimate creatures of nature. For it is through this membrane that nature communicates with us, and where the answers lie to cure disease and live in the balance that is necessary to sustain life.(less)

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12/07/07

Jason rated it:

bookshelves: we-own

The book has two significant flaws:

1) Abram is far too quick to succumb to reducing Judeo-Christian sensibilities to the villainous role here. In doing so, he's exacerbating the dialectic gulf he's making otherwise noteworthy leaps toward bridging. I had a hunch he'd be headed down this path, though, when he summarily blacklisted the Genesis creation account as narrative of oppression and dominion, ignoring its long tradition, in various theological circles, as an account emphasizing...more The book has two significant flaws:

1) Abram is far too quick to succumb to reducing Judeo-Christian sensibilities to the villainous role here. In doing so, he's exacerbating the dialectic gulf he's making otherwise noteworthy leaps toward bridging. I had a hunch he'd be headed down this path, though, when he summarily blacklisted the Genesis creation account as narrative of oppression and dominion, ignoring its long tradition, in various theological circles, as an account emphasizing relational stewardship of land. He - and his argument - would've been much better off with a fairer treatment of this prevailing tradition, with giving dialogue a little encouragement as opposed to giving those within the Judeo-Christian tradition inclined to think his view hot air reason for thinking it.

2) He tries too hard to make his usually very good points, and in doing so weakens his argument. For instance, on page 252, within the space of two paragraphs, he writes:

a) "For by using visible characters to represent the sounded breath, the Greek scribes effectively desacralized the breath and the air."

b) "By providing a visual representation of that which was - by its very nature - invisible, they nullified the mysteriousness of the enveloping atmosphere..."

c) "By breaking this taboo, by transposing the invisible into the register of the visible, the Greek scribes effectively dissolved the primordial power of the air."

It reminded me of Neal Gabler's assertion that "Walt Disney was no racist" - the kind of overzealous statement that immediately makes one think Disney may very well have been. Similarly, beating your point into your reader over and over, however beautifully sculpted the sentences, bespeaks anxiety in the author that his point might not hold much water after all (it is this that I find so humorous and telling about Christopher Hitchens's anti-religious fervor). But the thing is: Abram's position is provocative, convincing, utterly fascinating and could generate a seismic shift in Western perspectives on language. His writing, too, is often gorgeous - it merely needed a booster shot of confidence now and then. (less)

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05/04/08

Brandy LaChapelle rated it:

Read in March, 2001

Abrams is incredibly adept at rolling language, the landscape, magic and sexy breathing life into ...philosophy? Phenomenology is the most intelligent philosophical notion I have ever come across. Abrams' translates the writings of Marleau Ponty and reminds us of our responsibilities to the cycle of life. In this time of going green we should all be talking to the bugs and the trees and grass and the dirt to see what they think would be the best course of action.

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02/01/08

Janie rated it:

bookshelves: this-beautiful-world

Read in January, 2000

Wow. David Abrams covers enormous ground, delving into philosophy, cultural anthropology, the environment, phenomenology, and spirituality. I read this book in NYC and it helped convince me (as did 9/11) to leave the city for an island off the coast of Maine where I lived for five years reconnecting with the natural world and my place in it. This is an important book for anyone concerned about the contemporary society's disconnect from nature.

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07/12/07

symbiotic rated it:

bookshelves: absolute-favorites, currently-reading, nonfiction

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: everyone

About halfway through this book, and will do a more thorough review when I finish (which'll probably take some time. It's one of those books that I have to read slowly - the ideas and information he presents are so foreign to me that I often need to stop & reflect). For now, I have to say that it's one of the most amazing things I've ever read. It has introduced me to so many ideas which at first glance seemed very strange, but on further thought made such complete sense that I wondered how anyo...more

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01/19/09

Cameron rated it:

Read in January, 2008

I find The Spell of the Sensuous’ captivating exploration of language, phenomenology, and oral versus written storytelling an absolutely essential addition to anybody interested in how language and place are braided inextricably together. Abram, relying upon the theories of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Edmund Husserl, and American Indian peoples, explores what happens when, through the invention of writing, language is apparently “severed” from the sensual, material reality that it is born out o...more

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01/05/09

Samantha rated it:

bookshelves: favorite, non-fiction

Read in April, 2004

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet David Abram on a number of occasions while living in Santa Fe. My poetry professor was having us read this book, partly because David Abram was a personal friend of his and partly because the book is just remarkable on a thousand different levels. It has a poetry to it, to be sure, but no other phrase works quite as well as "Spell Binding" when describing this book. It's wordy, you can't read it in one sitting like some pulp fiction book. But I s...more

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06/12/08

Cynthia rated it:

Probably one of my favorite books in the world, a brilliant discussion of language and how humans are deeply cognitively, emotionally, spiritually connected with the landscape, the earth.

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02/12/08

Daniel rated it:

Abram makes a compelling case for the rediscovery of our senses as a way of knowing. A beautiful read that said some things I had been thinking in language better than mine.

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07/12/07

Ali Eastley rated it:

Read in March, 2005

one of the MOST pivotal books in my personal development; beautiful writing, flooring substance. (non-fiction)

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01/09/09

Mariana rated it:

Read in January, 2009

Wow! This is a worthwhile book which establishes a stable foundation for eco;ogy based on our connection to the earth. Using such diverse thbinking as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, our alphabet, and Apache, Navajo, and aboriginal thought to show we must reconnect to the land.
"Any undue harm that befalls the land is readily felt within the awareness of all who dwell within that land. And thus the health, balance, and well-being of each person is inseparable from the health and well-being...more

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05/08/09

Red rated it:

A clear articulation of the cure for our separation from the Other. The sheer magic of a formal realization that we live in a world inhabited by the most alien of creatures with their own perceptions and cognitions, leaves one spellbound by the majesty and mystery of previously unnoticed residents. The life of a lowly spider now seems far more enchanting and esoteric than I ever imagined. Yet, the wonder is not from any kind of hidden realm to be found in the imagination, but rather right before...more

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08/08/08

Michelle rated it:

bookshelves: summer08

Read in August, 2008

Capital! Capital! Capital!

The first thing that amazes me about this book is how poetic David Abram's writing is on a book of theories. Page after page, I never got lost in his many abstract ideas (still new to me) because his language holds life in itself, much like his beloved Earth.

The real chunk of the book starts with a crash course on phenomenology, but soon ecology, language, perception, Greek philosophy, mythology and native cultures are all synthesized harmoniou...more

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06/07/08

Chandler rated it:

Read in March, 2008

Even though it reads as speculation, it's engrossing speculation--

Probably showing my ignorance in these subjects, but what I found most interesting is the way Abram is able to drape a reverant spiritual framework onto hard matter; in my experience, the arguments for "everything is exactly as it is" tend to be rather bleak in their conclusions, ignoring the subject of mystery completely.

Thankfully, the book isn't spirituality justified by the terrible new-age "...more

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02/17/08

jeremy rated it:

Read in August, 2002

"to be sure, our obliviousness to nonhuman nature is today held in place by ways of speaking that simply deny intelligence to other species and to nature in general, as well as by the very structures of our civilized existence- by the incessant drone of motors that shut out the voices of birds and of the winds; by electric lights that eclipse not only the stars but the night itself; by air "conditioners" that hide the seasons; by offices, automobiles, and shopping malls that fina...more

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07/27/07

Jason Weeks rated it:

bookshelves: reviewed

Read in March, 2006

recommends it for: Anyone with an interest in language and thought

"I felt myself stripped naked by an alien gaze infinitely more lucid and precise than my own."

Thus does David Abram describe his close encounter with a condor in the Himalayas. Following his experiences with Nepalese holy men, Balinese shamans, and Apache story-tellers, magician David Abram returned home to a modern, western culture completely severed from participation with nature.

In this book -- as lucid and precise as the condor's gaze -- Abram argues that hu...more

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06/08/09

David is currently reading it

bookshelves: currently-reading

my new bible!!! one of the books which strikes chords on the strings of my heart in every sentence... basic premise: humans are only human in contact, and conviviality, with that which is not human. the more we detach ourselves from our earthly/natural roots, the more complicated, destructive, and depressing we make our lives. solution: immerse oneself in the natural world, remember how to relax and be at peace. (i know i sound like such a hippie but, hey, it works for me!)

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05/10/09

Sebastian1987 rated it:

Definitely one of my favorit books i have ever read. This book opened my mind for nature. Im living and was growing up in a city with much noise, turmoil and hecticness. In this enviroment it is easy to loose the awareness of nature and that you take everything for granted what surrounds you. David Abram points out how the humans continuing to move away from the nature and how on this way the alienation increases. Unfortunately there is no german translation of this book yet, but who can underst...more

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05/22/09

Ann Klefstad rated it:

For me this is a really wonderful take on the role of artists (among other things) and how it could change as the culture changes.

Abram is far more responsible to the potential of the subject than most authors would be; that is, he's both curious and scholarly, scrupulous and generous. He began as a sleight-of-hand magician doing anthropology, and the simple intuitive brilliance of that combination is a thread throughout the book.

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12/26/08

Joel rated it:

Read in September, 2008

Abram talks about how the modern world has taken us away from our senses, from living fully in the world, even how the written word has contributed to draw us away.

Ironically, the book is filled with wonderful imagery that Abrams has created to convey his concepts and to make us think.

The writing gets a bit dense in the middle w/ a long discussion on phenomonology, still it is a fabulous book.

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