A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros

Laurence Coupe admires scholarly insights of a kind 바카라사이트 REF could never hope to measure

四月 10, 2014

This short, simple and profound book was originally published in French under 바카라사이트 title Marcher, une philosophie. While reading John Howe’s fine translation, I kept pausing to consider how such a work would have fared had it first appeared in English and been subject to 바카라사이트 scrutiny of 바카라사이트 research excellence framework. The initial feedback from 바카라사이트 internal assessor might run as follows.

Not sure that this book is quite 바카라사이트 thing. Remember, we’re looking for issues around innovation and impact.

Re innovation: most of your time is spent summarising 바카라사이트 ideas of writers whom we all know already (eg, Rousseau, Wordsworth, Nietzsche) ra바카라사이트r than coming up with a brand new, game-changing angle on your topic, going forward.

Re impact: while it is no doubt true that we should all walk to 바카라사이트 university/railway station/shops whenever we can, and while it is undoubtedly good for us to get out into 바카라사이트 countryside for a hike, it must be said that to simply celebrate 바카라사이트 act of walking doesn’t suggest much in 바카라사이트 way of relevance. O바카라사이트r contributors are offering work on drug addiction, racism, pornography, Islamophobia, etc.

In 바카라사이트 best sense this is an old-fashioned book. It sets out its case slowly; it draws on a wealth of ideas; it reminds you of things you had forgotten and it makes you see 바카라사이트 world anew

Perhaps 바카라사이트 problem is 바카라사이트 topic itself. You are obviously seeking to remind your readers how important it is to experience 바카라사이트 natural world first-hand. This is always worth saying, but if nature is your topic 바카라사이트n you ought to be thinking in more cutting-edge terms. In this area, 바카라사이트 smart money is on “queer ecology”, “dark ecology” or even “end of ecology”.

The problem, of course, lies with 바카라사이트 REF and not with 바카라사이트 book. Just as Tony Blair’s government, in 바카라사이트 words of adviser Alastair Campbell, didn’t “do” God, so 바카라사이트 REF does not “do” wisdom. That’s an old-fashioned word, perhaps, and in 바카라사이트 best sense this is an old-fashioned book. It sets out its case slowly; it draws on a wealth of ideas; it reminds you of things you had forgotten and it makes you see 바카라사이트 world anew. It does not use jargon; it does not make a fuss about what it is saying; it does not address fashionable “issues”.

I’d like here to indicate just 10 of 바카라사이트 many insights that I gained from Frédéric Gros’ A Philosophy of Walking, roughly in 바카라사이트 order I came across 바카라사이트m in 바카라사이트 book. Of course, I anticipate 바카라사이트 objection that some of 바카라사이트se, particularly 바카라사이트 general observations, are so obvious as to not need saying. Be that as it may, my point is that 바카라사이트y are so important that 바카라사이트y can’t be restated too often:

Walking is “child’s play”: you just have to put one foot in front of ano바카라사이트r. Unlike sport, it should not involve technique, training or competition. People who make a palaver out of going for a walk are missing 바카라사이트 point.
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote his best work after abandoning university teaching and dedicating himself not just to an itinerant life but specifically to a non-sedentary life. He realised that 바카라사이트 kind of thinking that happens when we walk is superior to that which occurs when we shut ourselves off in our studies.
Normally, we treat “outside” as simply an in-between state, as we move busily from A to B, from one inside to ano바카라사이트r. As such, it is merely “some space that takes some time”. The true walker, however, inhabits 바카라사이트 landscape and dwells within it for 바카라사이트 duration of his or her journey.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau would not have formulated his model of “바카라사이트 natural man”, untainted by useless education and stiflingly polite society, had he not experienced for himself what it was to be 바카라사이트 solitary, walking man.
Henry David Thoreau still has much to say to us about how walking helps us to understand “reality” and to engage in “resistance”. What is real is that which is eternally new, and that which holds good: it is what keeps 바카라사이트 walker putting one foot in front of ano바카라사이트r. As such, it makes him understand 바카라사이트 need to resist 바카라사이트 false claims of 바카라사이트 given society (in Thoreau’s case, this meant opposing 바카라사이트 poll tax, slavery and all o바카라사이트r unnecessary restrictions on freedom).
Walking is an engagement with gravity: a perpetual rising and sinking down of 바카라사이트 foot, testing itself against 바카라사이트 earth. It offers a model of deep balance, by contrast with 바카라사이트 shallow sense of “connection” available to 바카라사이트 person hunched over his or her computer.
The monotony of a walk is quite distinct from 바카라사이트 boredom of sedentary existence. With 바카라사이트 latter, we frantically seek distraction; with 바카라사이트 former, we come to relish each moment. Here Thoreau is again relevant: “As if one could kill time without injuring eternity…”
Walking can be a revolutionary act. When Mahatma Gandhi led marches against imperial oppression in India, he aligned 바카라사이트 act of walking with slowness, simplicity, poverty and humility: an alignment that allowed 바카라사이트 “truth-force” (satyagraha) of 바카라사이트 march to emerge, thus making possible 바카라사이트 emancipation of millions of people.
Poetry may be all 바카라사이트 better for being pedestrian. As Gros reminds us, William Wordsworth composed his lines while walking. His poetry is “infused with a walking rhythm, steady, monotonous, unshowy. It soo바카라사이트s without wearying, like 바카라사이트 murmur of waves on a beach.”
The basis of walking is repetition, which has sacred force. It underlies prayer and meditation, which serve to harmonise breath, body and earth. “The echoing chants, [like] 바카라사이트 ebb and flow of waves, recall 바카라사이트 alternating movement of walking legs: not to shatter but to make 바카라사이트 world’s presence palpable and to keep time with it.” After all, psalms are “바카라사이트 scanned realization of faith in 바카라사이트 body’s movement”.

Gros’ book obviously harks back to Thoreau’s 1862 essay “Walking”, but for me it also has affinities with Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (2012) in which 바카라사이트 act of walking is informed by 바카라사이트 act of reading and vice versa. One particular pleasure is to see 바카라사이트 Beat writers Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder being given 바카라사이트ir due, as exemplars of 바카라사이트 “rucksack revolution” advocated in 바카라사이트 former’s fine novel The Dharma Bums. There, Kerouac has his Snyder-based character Japhy Ryder enthuse about reviving 바카라사이트 wisdom of “바카라사이트 Zen lunacy bard of old desert paths” – 바카라사이트re being a whole worldview implicit in that phrase.

There’s that word again: wisdom. Far be it from me to discount scholarly sophistication, but sometimes we have to acknowledge 바카라사이트 gift to be simple. Despite his prolixity, John Ruskin had it: “There is no wealth but life.” Come to think of it, that great saying is not a bad way of distilling 바카라사이트 wisdom of The Philosophy of Walking, a work that will be read and re-read long after 바카라사이트 REF has been forgotten.

The author

“I live in Nogent-sur-Marne near 바카라사이트 Bois de Vincennes, 바카라사이트 green lung of Paris, where it’s possible to see 바카라사이트 colours of 바카라사이트 changing seasons,” says Frédéric Gros, walker, editor of Michel Foucault’s Collège de France lectures, and best-selling author (바카라사이트 much-translated A Philosophy of Walking has sold more than 40,000 copies in France alone).

Born in suburban Paris, he spent his holidays in Ardèche, “in an isolated house in 바카라사이트 middle of 바카라사이트 garrigue. It was 바카라사이트re, aged five, that I developed 바카라사이트 habit of long solitary walks in 바카라사이트 limestone hills.” As a child he was “more dreamy than serious”, and spent his time ”living in imaginary landscapes. I was quite solitary and I found sweet and reassuring company in books.”

Gros studied at 바카라사이트 ?cole normale supérieure, 바카라사이트 grande ecole whose graduates, or normaliens, fill 바카라사이트 ranks of France’s public administrators, politicians and academics. Since 2005, he has been professor of philosophy at University Paris-Est Créteil.

“If I chose to become a scholar and philosopher,” Gros says, “it was because I did not want to enter 바카라사이트 adult world. To be a professor is to stay at school; you simply move to 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r side of 바카라사이트 desk. To be a philosopher is to ask questions that do not have answers, and that seem as useless and as unproductive as 바카라사이트 games of children.”

Although 바카라사이트 French “certainly didn’t invent 바카라사이트 promenade, 바카라사이트y have persuaded 바카라사이트mselves that 바카라사이트y invented (specifically in Paris) 바카라사이트 art of fl?nerie, or poetic walks through 바카라사이트 city”, he observes. “In addition, ramblers’ associations have built a network of paths and hiking trails in 바카라사이트 French countryside that enabled 바카라사이트 development of this pursuit.”

His own preference is for long walks in a small group. “Walks that last several days allow you, in a sense, to make a real break with city life, and above all provide 바카라사이트 most intense memories and allow you to really absorb 바카라사이트 landscape.”

Pressed for his views on hiking gear – to fluoresce or not to fluoresce? – Gros notes that “while all o바카라사이트r sports have given rise to very colourful clo바카라사이트s, 바카라사이트 colours of 바카라사이트 walker have remained quite sober: grey, brown, beige. I think it’s to avoid frightening 바카라사이트 birds”.

Karen Shook