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Common Ground: A Naturalist's Cape Cod
"In these compassionate, quietly evocative essays, Mr. Finch makes an eloquent case for dealing with nature not just as an extension of ourselves but as a world apart." -- New York Times Book Review When Common Ground was first published, Annie Dillard praised Robert Finch's essays for "their strength, subtlety, and above all their geniality." New readers will have a chance to discover that Finch's Cape Cod is indeed a wonderful place. The birds, fish, and animals that share the cape's fragile ecology on any given summer day with the human residents are described with the fresh eye of a first-rate nature writer.
- GenresNatureNonfiction
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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About the author
Robert Finch
77 books34 followersRobert Finch has lived on and written about Cape Cod for forty years. He is the author of six collections of essays and co-editor of The Norton Book of Nature Writing.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 26, 2021
There is so much more going on in here than a bunch of descriptions of nature in Cape Cod. These intimate essays are very subtle, but they glean universals out of rich details. Most of these details come from nature, but, along the way, Finch indexes the ephemera of the social, the historical, and, perhaps most of all, the psychological.
Along the way a series of hypotheses about the meaning of wilderness are offered:
"wilderness is where you find it, or perhaps where you lose yourself" (19)
"wildness and wilderness are not to be evaluated by size or remoteness, but by the nature and play of forces within a place" (28)
wilderness is surprise: "a managed game preserve may produce the largest and healthiest flocks and herds, but if it is managed to the point where it lacks surprise, then it is nothing more than a spacious zoo or duck farm." (46)
What all these propositions share is an emphasis on wilderness as a subjective human experience. The objective, concrete reality of nature is less important than its place in our hearts, minds, and marrow. His aim, I think, is to remind us of how central wilderness ought to be to our daily lives, and that it is something nearby, ultimately to be experienced with our bodies and in our minds.
Though the human experience is central for Finch, he does not take an entirely homocentric view. Rather, it is our ability to play in the world, to observe the world, to contemplate the world. Wilderness, ultimately, is a place of relationships. And these relationships are bigger than any one of us and all of us put together.
But we don't need to fear this cosmological sublime. All we need to do is find our connection.
If we are to follow the Delphic Oracle's injunction to know thyself, then in Finch's world that would mean knowing your place in the web of relationships -- hurricanes, shifting sand dunes, loons' migrations, the sight-lines of snowy owls.
Along the way a series of hypotheses about the meaning of wilderness are offered:
"wilderness is where you find it, or perhaps where you lose yourself" (19)
"wildness and wilderness are not to be evaluated by size or remoteness, but by the nature and play of forces within a place" (28)
wilderness is surprise: "a managed game preserve may produce the largest and healthiest flocks and herds, but if it is managed to the point where it lacks surprise, then it is nothing more than a spacious zoo or duck farm." (46)
What all these propositions share is an emphasis on wilderness as a subjective human experience. The objective, concrete reality of nature is less important than its place in our hearts, minds, and marrow. His aim, I think, is to remind us of how central wilderness ought to be to our daily lives, and that it is something nearby, ultimately to be experienced with our bodies and in our minds.
Though the human experience is central for Finch, he does not take an entirely homocentric view. Rather, it is our ability to play in the world, to observe the world, to contemplate the world. Wilderness, ultimately, is a place of relationships. And these relationships are bigger than any one of us and all of us put together.
But we don't need to fear this cosmological sublime. All we need to do is find our connection.
If we are to follow the Delphic Oracle's injunction to know thyself, then in Finch's world that would mean knowing your place in the web of relationships -- hurricanes, shifting sand dunes, loons' migrations, the sight-lines of snowy owls.
March 13, 2009
A lovely book and great subway reading to boot. Romantic without being sentimental, these essays explore the real Cape Cod, from its winter dunes with pockets of scrub oak and pitch pine to the woodlots that have populated what used to be open expanses of space. Interspersed are vignettes about loons in Maine, a majestic black oak in Pittsburgh, and the joy of working as a roofer in the fall.
I'd encountered Robert Finch while a wildlife advocate on Cape Cod. He served on the National Seashore Advisory Commission that divided over the issue of allowing pheasant stocking for recreational hunting. To this day, I'm not sure how he came down on the issue. On one hand, he's a man of great compassion, who describes taking pains to rehabilitate an injured bird and feeling uncomfortable about witnessing the deaths of ants. On the other, he describes a nature that is both adaptive and soulless -- one, in other words, that can withstand human abuse without suffering.
I'd encountered Robert Finch while a wildlife advocate on Cape Cod. He served on the National Seashore Advisory Commission that divided over the issue of allowing pheasant stocking for recreational hunting. To this day, I'm not sure how he came down on the issue. On one hand, he's a man of great compassion, who describes taking pains to rehabilitate an injured bird and feeling uncomfortable about witnessing the deaths of ants. On the other, he describes a nature that is both adaptive and soulless -- one, in other words, that can withstand human abuse without suffering.
January 16, 2017
Common ground, a naturalist's Cape Cod by Finch_ Robert
We visit the area every 5 years or so and have enjoyed our stays.
Essays of interesting subjects: snowy white owls, beach erosion and things found on the seashores. It's about the same where we live in RI, down the coast a bit.
Loved hearing of the 1978 blizzard as we got married that weekend in RI and shut down our state for over a week so to hear the damage on the cape is meaningful to me.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
We visit the area every 5 years or so and have enjoyed our stays.
Essays of interesting subjects: snowy white owls, beach erosion and things found on the seashores. It's about the same where we live in RI, down the coast a bit.
Loved hearing of the 1978 blizzard as we got married that weekend in RI and shut down our state for over a week so to hear the damage on the cape is meaningful to me.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
January 15, 2014
really really good. a couple of the essays are forced, trying to create sentiment where not much is going on, but by and large, these essays are introspective, deep, educational, thoughtful, and touching. i limited myself to one essay/night to keep myself from rushing through it.
May 29, 2009
Listened to the audio book SOUNDINGS which are essays about Cape Cod taken from this book. Mildly interesting - good for listening while walking the bog.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews