Paul Kingsnorth

Nature is so beautiful it must mean something. Christians have seen in the beauty of creation a sign of the beauty of the Creator; the natural world teaches us to know the “author of beauty.” But anyone who starts thinking more seriously about beauty soon runs into more troubling aspects. We’re more awash with images than ever before, many of them doctored or artificial. Any idealized beauty that excludes humankind’s imperfection and vulnerability is prone to becoming inhuman. And even the wholesome beauty of nature or the fine arts is only a partial truth in a world where children starve or are trafficked to abusers. Yet stubbornly, beauty remains. Through trees, gargoyles, paintings, and fellow humans, the writers in this issue ask hard questions to deepen our understanding and appreciation of the good, the true, and the beautiful. On this theme: Natalie Carnes revisits Christianity’s love-hate relationship with sacred art: Are those icons or idols? Brandon Vaidyanathan says his mother’s mental illness changed the way he sees human beauty. Sean Rubin tells how his mother found Jesus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sergio Bermudez views Paris from the perspective of Notre-Dame Cathedral’s grotesques and gargoyles. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn reflects on Michaelangelo’s Last Judgement during a conclave. Ben Quash looks at how beauty has shaped Christian imagination, from Absalom’s hair to English gardens. Philip Holsinger sees the future of El Salvador in one bright, carefree child. Caitrin Keiper searches for meaning in the loss of her unborn baby. Chris Voll profiles a sculptor who left a promising career to care for his dying father. Also in this issue: Six new poems by Wendell Berry. Paul Kingsnorth offers six ways to resist the Machine. The Bruderhof’s rule about gossip was written in 1925. Does it still work? Discover LesslieNewbigin, who reimagined the role of a missionary. Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Nature is so beautiful it must mean something. Christians have seen in the beauty of creation a sign of the beauty of the Creator; the natural world teaches us to know the "author of beauty." But anyone who starts thinking more seriously about beauty soon runs into more troubling aspects. We're more awash with images than ever before, many of them doctored or artificial. Any idealized beauty that excludes humankind's imperfection and vulnerability is prone to becoming inhuman. And even the wholesome beauty of nature or the fine arts is only a partial truth in a world where children starve or are trafficked to abusers. Yet stubbornly, beauty remains. Through trees, gargoyles, paintings, and fellow humans, the writers in this issue ask hard questions to deepen our understanding and appreciation of the good, the true, and the beautiful. On this theme: Natalie Carnes revisits Christianity's love-hate relationship with sacred art: Are those icons or idols? Brandon Vaidyanathan says his mother's mental illness changed the way he sees human beauty. Sean Rubin tells how his mother found Jesus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sergio Bermudez views Paris from the perspective of Notre-Dame Cathedral's grotesques and gargoyles. Cardinal Christoph Sch nborn reflects on Michaelangelo's Last Judgement during a conclave. Ben Quash looks at how beauty has shaped Christian imagination, from Absalom's hair to English gardens. Philip Holsinger sees the future of El Salvador in one bright, carefree child. Caitrin Keiper searches for meaning in the loss of her unborn baby. Chris Voll profiles a sculptor who left a promising career to care for his dying father. Also in this issue: Six new poems by Wendell Berry. Paul Kingsnorth offers six ways to resist the Machine. The Bruderhof's rule about gossip was written in 1925. Does it still work? Discover LesslieNewbigin, who reimagined the role of a missionary. Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

How a force that’s hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be humanIn Against the Machine, “furiously gifted” (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original—and terrifying—account of the technological-cultural matrix enveloping all of us. With insight into the spiritual and economic roots of techno-capitalism, Kingsnorth reveals how the Machine, in the name of progress, has choked Western civilization, is destroying the Earth itself, and is reshaping us in its image. From the First Industrial Revolution to the rise of artificial intelligence, he shows how the hollowing out of humanity has been a long game—and how your very soul is at stake. It takes effort to remain truly human in the age of the Machine. Here Kingsnorth reminds us what humanity requires: a healthy suspicion of entrenched power; connection to land, nature and heritage; and a deep attention to matters of the spirit. Prophetic and poetic, Against the Machine is a spiritual manual for dissidents in the technological age.

How a force that's hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be human In Against the Machine, "furiously gifted" (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original--and terrifying--account of the technological-cultural matrix enveloping all of us. With masterful insight into the spiritual and economic roots of techno-capitalism, Kingsnorth reveals how the Machine, in the name of progress, has choked Western civilization, is destroying the Earth itself, and is reshaping us in its image. From the First Industrial Revolution to the rise of artificial intelligence, he shows how the hollowing out of humanity has been a long game--and how your very soul is at stake. It takes effort to remain truly human in the age of the Machine. Writing in the tradition of Wendell Berry, Jacques Ellul and Simone Weil, Kingsnorth reminds us what humanity requires: a healthy suspicion of entrenched power; connection to land, nature and heritage; and a deep attention to matters of the spirit. Prophetic, poetic, and erudite, Against the Machine is the spiritual manual for dissidents in the technological age.

From the legends of King Arthur embedded in the rocky splendour of Tintagel to the folklore and mysticism of Stonehenge, English Heritage sites are often closely linked to native English myths. Following on from the bestselling ghost story anthology Eight Ghosts, this new collection of stories inspired by the legends and tales that swirl through the history of eight ancient historical sites. Including an essay by James Kidd on the importance of myth to our landscape and our fiction, and an English Heritage survey of sites and associated legends, These Our Monsters is an evocative collection that brings new voices and fresh creative alchemy to our story-telling heritage. Author and atmospheric locations include: Edward Carey - Bury St Edmunds AbbeySarah Hall - Castlerigg and other stone circlesPaul Kingsnorth - StonehengeAlison MacLeod - Down HouseGraeme Macrae Burnet - Whitby AbbeySarah Moss - Berwick CastleFiona Mozley - Carlisle CastleAdam Thorpe - Tintagel Castle With original black-and-white illustrations by Clive Hicks-Jenkins

Ostnud Iirimaal väikese maja, hakkab Paul Kingsnorth seal koos oma naise ja kahe lapsega talu pidama ning loodab, et see on päralejõudmine. Aktiivse keskkonnakaitsja ja kirjanikuna on ta olnud pikki aastaid juurteta ja arvab, et oma maalapp võib saada ühe sügava lootuse täitumiseks, pesapaigaks, koduks. Vastu ootusi seisab ta aga äkitselt silmitsi olukorraga, kus tema kirjanikuelus lihvitud tööriistad osutuvad kõlbmatuks ning senised arusaamad keelest ja kirjutamisest kipuvad üldse murenema. Tundub, et ta satub sõjajalale koguni kultuuri enesega. Varasem kokkupuude põlisrahvastega, D. H. Lawrencei ja Annie Dillardi teosed ja igapäevane maaeluga maadlemine panevad teda "Metsikutes jumalates" küsima, mida tähendab kuuluda, missuguseid ohvreid tuleb tuua, et ühes elus tõeliselt kohal olla, ja kas sõnad saavadki üldse esitada tõde maailma kohta - või on nad hoopis osalised selles suures vales, mis hakkab elu suretama. Autorist:Paul Kingsnorth (snd 1972) on inglise kirjanik ja mõtleja. Ta on õppinud Oxfordi ülikoolis uusima aja ajalugu, toimetanud ajakirja The Ecologist ja olnud Dark Mountaini projekti asutajaid.

'Like Robert Macfarlane re-written by Cormac McCarthy.' Telegraph'Beckett doing Beowulf.' London Review of Books One thousand years from now, the sole inhabitants of a small island - a group no larger than an extended family - are living in a post-civilised world. They are perhaps the Earth's only human survivors. But lurking outside their isolated community is a figure in red, an emissary from another way of life: a virtual place of refuge and security, of escape from the dangers of a newly wild world. The visitor calls it Alexandria. A work of radical and matchless imagination, Paul Kingsnorth's new novel is a mythical, polyphonic drama driven by elemental themes: of community versus the self, the mind versus the body, machine over man; whether to put your faith in the present or the future. Set on the far side of the climate apocalypse, Alexandria completes the Buckmaster Trilogy, which began with Kingsnorth's prize-winning The Wake.

After moving with his family to a small-holding in Ireland, Paul Kingsnorth expected to find contentment. It was a goal he had sought, after years of rootlessness as an environmental activist and renowned author. Instead he found that his tools as a writer were failing him, calling into question his fundamental beliefs about language and setting him at odds with culture. Informed by his travels across the world, the writings of Annie Dillard and D H Lawrence, Savage Gods asks: what does it mean to belong? What sacrifices must be made to truly inhabit a life? And can words ever paint the truth of the world, or are they part of the great lie which is killing it?

A visionary and timely novel about a world out of balance by the prizewinning author of The Wake When Swans return, Alexandria will fall. One thousand years from now, a small religious community lives in what were once the fens of eastern England. They are perhaps the world's last human survivors. Now they find themselves stalked by a force that draws ever closer, and that seems to have brought them to the brink of extinction. A force that offers them a promise and a threat: a place called Alexandria. Set in a time on the far side of an apocalypse, and perhaps on the verge of another, Paul Kingsnorth's radical new novel is a work of matchless, mythic imagination. It is driven by elemental themes: community versus the self, the mind versus the body, machine over man--and the tension between an unstable present and an unknown, unknowable future. Alexandria is the rousing conclusion to an extraordinary fiction project that began with Kingsnorth's prizewinning novel The Wake, one that maps two thousand years of troubled human history.

From the legends of King Arthur embedded in the rocky splendour of Tintagel to the folklore and mysticism of Stonehenge, English Heritage sites are often closely linked to native English myths. Following on from the bestselling ghost story anthology Eight Ghosts, this new collection of stories inspired by the legends and tales that swirl through the history of eight ancient historical sites. Including an essay by James Kidd on the importance of myth to our landscape and our fiction, and an English Heritage survey of sites and associated legends, These Our Monsters is an evocative collection that brings new voices and fresh creative alchemy to our story-telling heritage. Author and atmospheric locations include: Edward Carey - Bury St Edmunds AbbeySarah Hall - Castlerigg and other stone circlesPaul Kingsnorth - StonehengeAlison MacLeod - Down HouseGraeme Macrae Burnet - Whitby AbbeySarah Moss - Berwick CastleFiona Mozley - Carlisle CastleAdam Thorpe - Tintagel Castle With original black-and-white illustrations by Clive Hicks-Jenkins

* Chicago Tribune "Fall literary preview: books you need to read now"* Vulture "The Best and Biggest Books to Read This Fall"* The Guardian "A best book of 2019"After moving with his wife and two children to a smallholding in Ireland, Paul Kingsnorth expects to find contentment. It is the goal he has sought -- to nest, to find home -- after years of rootlessness as an environmental activist and author. Instead he finds that his tools as a writer are failing him, calling into question his foundational beliefs about language and setting him at odds with culture itself. Informed by his experiences with indigenous peoples, the writings of D. H. Lawrence and Annie Dillard, and the day-to-day travails of farming his own land, Savage Gods asks: what does it mean to belong? What sacrifices must be made in order to truly inhabit a life? And can words ever paint the truth of the world -- or are they part of the great lie which is killing it?

Now available in paperback, the most comprehensive--and only author-authorized--Wendell Berry reader. "America's greatest philosopher on sustainable life and living." --Chicago Tribune In a time when our relationship to the natural world is ruled by the violence and greed of unbridled consumerism, Wendell Berry speaks out in these prescient essays, drawn from his fifty-year campaign on behalf of American lands and communities. The writings gathered in The World-Ending Fire are the unique product of a life spent farming the fields of rural Kentucky with mules and horses, and of the rich, intimate knowledge of the land cultivated by this work. These are essays written in defiance of the false call to progress and in defense of local landscapes, essays that celebrate our cultural heritage, our history, and our home. With grace and conviction, Wendell Berry shows that we simply cannot afford to succumb to the mass-produced madness that drives our global economy--the natural world will not allow it. Yet he also shares with us a vision of consolation and of hope. We may be locked in an uneven struggle, but we can and must begin to treat our land, our neighbors, and ourselves with respect and care. As Berry urges, we must abandon arrogance and stand in awe.

A provocative and urgent essay collection that asks how we can live with hope in "an age of ecocide" Paul Kingsnorth was once an activist--an ardent environmentalist. He fought against rampant development and the depredations of a corporate world that seemed hell-bent on ignoring a looming climate crisis in its relentless pursuit of profit. But as the environmental movement began to focus on "sustainability" rather than the defense of wild places for their own sake and as global conditions worsened, he grew disenchanted with the movement that he once embraced. He gave up what he saw as the false hope that residents of the First World would ever make the kind of sacrifices that might avert the severe consequences of climate change. Full of grief and fury as well as passionate, lyrical evocations of nature and the wild, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist gathers the wave-making essays that have charted the change in Kingsnorth's thinking. In them he articulates a new vision that he calls "dark ecology," which stands firmly in opposition to the belief that technology can save us, and he argues for a renewed balance between the human and nonhuman worlds. This iconoclastic, fearless, and ultimately hopeful book, which includes the much-discussed "Uncivilization" manifesto, asks hard questions about how we've lived and how we should live.

The stunning new novel from the prizewinning author of The WakeBeast plunges you into the world of Edward Buckmaster, a man alone on an empty moor in the west of England. What he has left behind we don't yet know. What he faces is an existential battle with himself, the elements, and something he begins to see in the margins of his vision: some creature that is tracking him, the pursuit of which will become an obsession. This short, shocking, and exhilarating novel is a vivid exploration of isolation, courage, and the search for truth that continues the story set one thousand years earlier in Paul Kingsnorth's bravura debut novel, The Wake. It extends that book's promise and confirms Kingsnorth as one of our most daring and rewarding contemporary writers.

What kind of man am I? I wonder what I think about that now that I have spent a year here, watching the layers peel off, stripping myself back . . . Beast plunges you into the world of Edward Buckmaster, a man living alone on a west-country moor. What he has left behind we don't quite know; what he faces is a battle with himself, the elements and with the animal he begins to see in the margins of his vision. A creature that will become an obsession . . .

Paul Kingsnorth was once an activist, an ardent environmentalist. He fought against rampant development and the depredations of a corporate world that seemed hell-bent on ignoring a looming climate crisis in its relentless pursuit of profit. But as the environmental movement began to focus on 'sustainability' rather than the defence of wild places for their own sake and as global conditions worsened, he grew disenchanted with the movement that he once embraced. He gave up what he saw as the false hope that residents of the First World would ever make the kind of sacrifices that might avert the severe consequences of climate change. Full of grief and fury as well as passionate, lyrical evocations of nature and the wild, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist gathers the wave-making essays that have charted the change in Kingsnorth's thinking. In them he articulates a new vision that he calls 'dark ecology,' which stands firmly in opposition to the belief that technology can save us, and he argues for a renewed balance between the human and nonhuman worlds. Provocative and urgent, iconoclastic and fearless, this ultimately hopeful book poses hard questions about how we have lived and should live.