Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark

by Paul Bogard (Editor)

The development of the modern world has brought with it rampant light pollution, destroying the ancient mystery of night and exacting a terrible price--wasted energy, damage to human health, and the sometimes fatal interruption of the life patterns of many wildlife species. Artificial light blocks our view of the stars and mirrors a lack of appreciation for night’s gifts of quiet and repose, and it negatively affects ecosystems in ways we are only beginning to understand. In Let There Be Night twenty-nine writers, scientists, poets, and scholars share their personal experiences of night and help us to understand what we are losing as dark skies and nocturnal wildness disappear. Their testimonies speak of the emotional and spiritual comforts of night; the awe we experience in the presence of vast, starlit skies; the scientific complexity of earth's diurnal rhythms; and the thrill of witnessing children's discovery of the magic of nighttime. These writers examine the folklore of night and trace the historical devaluation of nighttime as industrialization and technology banished darkness and its companion, silence, from our lives. And they propose ways by which we might restore the beneficence of true night skies to our cities and our culture. Let There Be Night examines a precious aspect of human experience in grave danger. The contributors offer an urgent call to awareness and action, and their diverse perceptions and voices also provide a statement of hope that the ancient magic of the night can be returned to our world.

Twenty-nine writers, poets, scientists, and scholars testify on behalf of darkness and against light pollutions diminishment of the night.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Astronomy, Book Club, Science

228 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2008

About the author

Born and raised in Minnesota, I have lived in Minneapolis, Albuquerque, Reno, northern Wisconsin, Winston-Salem, and now Harrisonburg, Virginia. Ah, the academic life.

I have a wonderful dog named Luna, a Brittany who is nearly 15. Her favorite place to live was Reno. Dog heaven, she says.

Every summer, we leave wherever we are and drive to New Mexico and Nevada to see old friends and walk old walks. Then we head to northern Minnesota for a few weeks. My family has a cabin on a lake there, and so I grew up standing out on our dock, or lying back in a canoe, watching the Milky Way bend from one horizon to the other. That's probably where my book The End of Night was first inspired.

Pizza, the color green, autumn. Things I love.

Reviews

[Paula Koneazny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, the essays collected here veer more toward the “how I feel about losing the night sky of my childhood” variety than suits me. That said, there are a number of well-written personal essays included that meld personal experience with “fact” in an interesting and thought-provoking way, and which I truly appreciate: Chet Raymo’s “Why the Night Sky is Dark,” Christopher Cokinos’s “ A Backyard History of Light,” Michael P. Branch’s “Ladder to the Pleiades,” Anne Matthews’s “The Sound of Falling Snow,” William L. Fox’s “Night in Mind,” Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Nightfall,” and Christina Robertson’s “Circadian Heart.” As a whole, the collection emphatically communicates how imperative it is that we ameliorate light pollution and reclaim the dark skies of nighttime, both to protect and preserve an important human cultural experience (stargazing), as well as to disrupt as little as possible migratory bird behavior, astronomical activities, etc. As Chet Raymo succinctly states: “All this light directed upward has no utility on the ground; it provides no security or convenience for our nighttime activities.” We don’t need it, so lets dim the lights. In doing so, we may be able to, for example, bring the Pleiades and the Milky Way back into view. As Michael P. Branch so aptly notes in reference to the Seven Sisters, “Insofar as our visceral experience of them is concerned, these stars are critically endangered.”

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go outside at night!

Since I started reading this book I don't think I've missed one sunset or the opportunity to at least see a few stars at night. Yeah, that's right. A few. It's very disheartening to read about the gorgeous starry night and then go outside and find a street lamp glaring at you while you try to imagine where the stars might be. This book makes a powerful statement. Some of the essays are a bit dry and didactic but the majority flow with such beautiful prose and almost poetry that I am inspired to await the night sky like never before. My favorites are by Alison Hawthorne Deming and Scott Russell Sanders. But there are many more that piqued my curiosity and really made me pay attention to amount of light pollution that surrounds what I used to consider a dark neighborhood. Unfortunately anything in the eastern sky is lost to me because of the glare of a street lamp. This book reminded me of the time my parents let me stay up all night in the backyard watching for meteors. I was thrilled to report 13 sightings to the local tv the next day. Now I can't remember the last time I saw a "shooting star". Are we really losing our night sky? Is it even possible that people don't care?

[Autumn Kotsiuba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.

This is a compilation of 30 writers' thoughts on night--the precious, poetic portion of our life that is disappearing more each day. I loved it. Every perspective is covered; men and women, religious and atheistic, fearful and curious, all explain why darkness matters. It brings in astronomy, poetry, biology, psychology. It's expressed in mesmerizing memories of the Milky Way and the silence of self-contemplation.

I don't know if I'll ever have kids, but I fear that they'll never have the experience of looking up at a night sky, stars scattered like rice spilled over a black countertop. I wish everyone would read this, or at least step outside for a few minutes each night to feel how absolutely grand this universe is.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. One of my favorite lines in all of literature is uttered by Esmeralda in Hugo’s Hunchback: “Daylight is for everyone. Why do they give me only the night?”

Though I have zero recollection of how I came into possession of this book, I’m glad it called to me from my shelf because it turns this association between darkness and suffering on its head. “Darkness is the original country,” and it can be where we come to know our deepest selves, and each other.

There are too many beautiful quotes to choose from, so instead I’ll recommend my favorite essays from the collection: “Original Country,” “From ‘Earth’s Body,’” “Night in Mind,” “Night Vision,” “Ode to Jeff Cobb,” and “In Praise of Darkness.” At a minimum, “In Praise of Darkness,” by John Daniel, can be easily found online, may be one of the most beautiful essays I’ve read, and is worth your time, perhaps at night ;)

[Leda Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a potent collection of essays, Paul Bogard—author of THE END OF NIGHT—has compiled what he calls "testimony on behalf of the dark." The essays are grouped thematically and range in topics, covering everything from mythology to our animal bodies, but all revolve around the idea that pure, undiluted night sky and darkness are essential for our wellbeing.

These essays contain some of the most beautiful descriptions of night I've ever had the pleasure to read, and while all showcase deep commitment to the dark, most are not so bleak as Bogard's own work, which could make me feel less empowered and more hopeless at times—like those nature documentaries that show how we're killing everything instead of showing how beautiful and diverse life can be.

Personally, my favorite essays come from the last three sections, and include "Acquainted with the Night" by Gretchen Legler, "Nightfall" by Robin Wall Kimmerer (of BRAIDING SWEETGRASS fame), and an excerpt from Scott Russell Sanders' "Earth Body."

[natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

i read this book as a series of small stories right before bed, and it was so thought-provoking and interesting. it felt almost whimsical at some points, but grounded in the reality of the harms of artificial lighting. i was given this book by a professor of mine and i totally would recommend this to others as well.

[Dan Slone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series of essays is a love story to the night. So many different facets of our relationship with darkness and night are touched upon. This is a pretty quick and easy read, well worth the effort. Not academic, but a mix of poetry, science, culture, and spirit.

[Paula Hagar · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a lover of the deep dark night-time hours and a seeker of dark sky places, and someone who can sit for hours beneath a night sky watching stars, I thoroughly enjoyed the short essays in this book on the positive powers and our human need for the dark. And how our current overly-lit world has taken us away from the power of night and the dark, and what we have lost in our souls as the result. If you love the night sky, and seek out the quiet late-night hours when the world is largely silent, this book is for you. These essays are written by 29 writers, scientists, poets, and scholars and so some are better than others, but I enjoyed them all.

[Mark Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthology. Night is inspiring, healthy, and disappearing. Repeated theme. Last entry the best, sort of a IDS lecture that darker nights, even in cities, are very possible