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

I read this and loved it. Afterward, it occurred on me that I wouldn't be able to find anything as good for quite a while so I immediately read it again. Sure its about the intertwined relationship of our perceptions, language and the environment. I expected that. What I didn't expect and was very surprised by was how, after reading 80 or so pages, I walked outside and the world looked very different, much more alive and involving than before. I think that maybe after a new kidney or heart for the sake of a transplant, this may be the best present I could get. Its a great primer for folks lost in the muck of analytic philosophy about the world they live in. And for the people that don't care about philosphy, its like a wonderful love letter to the earth. This book rocks. I am anxiously awaiting the next book from David Abram. I've been waiting for about 4 years now. Dave, are you listening? We want another book. Thanks.

I read this for a grad-level seminar and was not expecting much substance. I was wrong, but only in the sense that this book opened my eyes to the power of language in a way that's different than immersing myself in good prose. A lifetime of reading and learning bits about other languages prepared me for the synthesis of this book, and I look forward to the summer so I can re-read it more leisurely to get even more from its rich construction.

In particular, I was fascinated by the suggestion that one name of God, "Yahweh", may actually be a symbolic representation of the Breath of Life, as the syllables correspond to the sounds of the intake and outtake of air. Abram does a better job explaining this than I can here, but it's worth reading just for that section alone, at least for me. The inference was that God would then be in all of us as the breath of life, making spirituality as real and tangible as any other part of life. It's not a religious book but that section -- maybe just a few paragraphs, really -- struck a part of me that hadn't expected to be affected by an environmentally focused book.

You might read this and have an entirely different reaction, based on your personal worldview and the symbology reflected therein. You might even find it weak or New Age-y. But if you give it a chance, you might find yourself breathing differently, too. I think that's worth the reasonable price.

"The Spell of the Sensuous" is one of the freshest, most enlightening and insightful books I've ever read. As I turned each page I kept saying to myself, "amazing;" amazing in its wisdom, amazing in its expression, and most amazing that it has not yet received a Pulitzer Prize. David Abram, whose uncanny perception and deep understanding and appreciation of life, coupled with eloquent and inspiring presentation, has produced a significant and beautiful piece of literature for now and for all times. And it couldn't have been written at a better time, when the suffering world is examining its misplaced priorities and seeking the insight for understanding our connectedness, our interdependence, our oneness. Abram has cast his spell with brilliance and perfection. Under it, the readers and seekers are inspired in their quest.

Like David Abram, I too appreciate nature. I would
never deliberately defile or spoil it in any way. I do not worship it, however;
but rather I worship its creator. The byline running through
this book gets too dangerously close
to pagan nature worship for me. Nevertheless the author
has many valid observations to make and I do not
write him off altogether, even though I do not
share (what I assume to be) his views of life,
and was often insulted by his opinions,
especially those with such disrespect for Christianity.
His idea of reciprocity between man and nature is
food for thought, even if it is
almost verbatim derived from what G. I. Gurdjieff taught,
in his Fourth Way movement in the early
20th century. Gurdjieff's disciple, J.G. Bennett, called it "Reciprocal Maintenance,"
the only difference being that this kind of
reciprocity governs man-to-man, and man-to-cosmos
relationships, as well as man-to-nature. Abram didn't
seem inclined to include us humans

as beneficiaries of each other's reciprocity.
It does not surprise
me however, since there is a bitter scorn
and derision cast upon many institutions
we in the West once held as synonymous with
successful living, in particular
the (always easy potshot)
whipping boys capitalism and industrialisation,
that runs throughout the book.
Abram even goes so far as to replace the
grammatically sound masculine
pronouns "he" and "his" with "she" and "her."
I was less than amused by this deliberate flouting of
English grammar rules. The one point in the book
(and not ironically the best part) where
he comes nearest a sense of reverence for
anything beyond physical nature, is his exposition regarding the ancient Hebrew language's peculiar non-existence of vowels. It was fascinating (once he finally got around to it)
to read his theory about what repercussions
followed the emergence of such vowel sounds.
After all this was the main premise of the book
to begin with. The rest was difficult to plough through,
though not unworthy of attention if you can stomach his attitude
towards Western civilization.

Few books have the power to change the way we experience our existence, but this book opens up vast new horizons. Among other virtues, it includes an uncommonly accessible presentation of the key ideas of the phenomenological philosophers Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Most amazingly, it provides an approach to understanding the human mind that somehow manages to be both abstract and very concrete. It is a compelling guide to the inner and outer worlds that we inhabit, prodding us toward a richer participation in the possibilities of those worlds.