What do you think?
Rate this book
Enchantment: Wonder in Modern Life
Enchantment is a profound human experience. When we encounter wonder, awe or amazement, that is enchantment. Enchantment can reveal profound truths, lead to deep values and become central to a life well-lived. This unique book explores how enchantment plays out in a wide range of contexts -- in love, art, religion and learning, in food and drink, and perhaps most significantly in our relationship with the natural world. Patrick Curry argues that modernist attempts to undermine or dismiss enchantment as a delusion are not only misguided but dangerous, potentially leading to a disengagement with our world that could have disastrous consequences for our future on this planet.
- GenresPhilosophy
154 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 17, 2019
4 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Curry
29 books17 followersI hold a B.A. (University of California at Santa Cruz, 1978, in Psychology, with highest honours), M.Sc. (L.S.E., 1980, in Logic and Scientific Method), and Ph.D. (University College London, 1987, in the History and Philosophy of Science).
Since September 2006 I have been a Lecturer (0.5) in Religious Studies at the University of Kent (Canterbury), where I teach in the MA programme on the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination. From 2002-06 I was a Lecturer (0.5) at the Sophia Centre, Bath Spa University College, where I co-taught the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astronomy.
I have reviewed books for History Today, New Statesman, The Guardian, The Independent and (most often) the Times Literary Supplement; appeared on two television programmes; and taken part in two programmes on BBC Radio Four. I also appear in interviews of two of the three extended New Line DVD’s on The Lord of the Rings.
My ongoing project (when I get time) concerns enchantment as a common but little-mentioned human experience – one which touches on and connects a wide range of strange bedfellows: nature, erotic communion, art, divination and spirituality. It is influenced by the work of Max Weber and succeeding critical theorists, as well as other writers such as as J.R.R. Tolkien, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, David Abram, Sean Kane, Val Plumwood, Bruno Latour and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. I am also very interested in related issues such as the nature of truth, metaphor, embodied phenomenology, pluralism and post-secularism.
Since September 2006 I have been a Lecturer (0.5) in Religious Studies at the University of Kent (Canterbury), where I teach in the MA programme on the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination. From 2002-06 I was a Lecturer (0.5) at the Sophia Centre, Bath Spa University College, where I co-taught the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astronomy.
I have reviewed books for History Today, New Statesman, The Guardian, The Independent and (most often) the Times Literary Supplement; appeared on two television programmes; and taken part in two programmes on BBC Radio Four. I also appear in interviews of two of the three extended New Line DVD’s on The Lord of the Rings.
My ongoing project (when I get time) concerns enchantment as a common but little-mentioned human experience – one which touches on and connects a wide range of strange bedfellows: nature, erotic communion, art, divination and spirituality. It is influenced by the work of Max Weber and succeeding critical theorists, as well as other writers such as as J.R.R. Tolkien, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, David Abram, Sean Kane, Val Plumwood, Bruno Latour and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. I am also very interested in related issues such as the nature of truth, metaphor, embodied phenomenology, pluralism and post-secularism.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 3, 2020
It is rare in life to come across a book that explains a phenomenon you experience but which you can't in fact explain. Patrick Curry has taken on perhaps the most challenging of all phenomenon -- enchantment -- and has done what no author I have ever seen done. He has retained its power by showing the complexity of how it works in our lives and how we experience it and in so doing, has made it even more remarkable by noting its resilient capacity to survive in a world that does work very hard to make sure that enchantment isn't in the forefront of our lives (though for many of us we continue to lives where it is).
Curry is a poet and philosopher and both come through so clearly in his writing which is rich, precise, and full of complex ideas expressed with a remarkable ease. As a Tolkien scholar, he reminds the reader of Tolkien's own masterwork on Fairy Stories (a personal favorite) and gives clear distinctions between magic and enchantment...between deliberate attempts to manipulate the world and the experience of acknowledging the wonder of it with no hope of that wonder necessarily repeating itself at our bidding (no matter how much we might wish it so). He takes the reader literally into enchantment's own etymology, reminding us that it means 'to be in the song' and that the song is life itself.
The arenas in which enchantment are found are not easy topics and I admire Curry's courage in taking on love and attraction, religion, art, learning, and nature...all places where one has or might encounter enchantment, and there is no question here that this is the tip of the iceberg for him and I would imagine in the future we might see whole explorations of any one of these topics as each one feels ripe for a deeper dive. He critiques technoscience and modernity but does it in a way that doesn't create an 'either or' but instead points to enchantment's resilient capacity to elude capture during the 20th and 21st centuries (despite plenty of attempts to see it tamed or removed from life), it still seems alive and well. Perhaps not celebrated in the mainstream, but always able to be present, and Curry reminds the reader of the ways of life which cultivate the conditions by which enchantment might appear, and be recognized.
As the world has shifted in the last few months, it is stories of enchantment I have heard most often. Of people standing in familiar places and noting the sound of birds for the first time, or the unexpected kindness of neighbours who have put their energy into the activity of delight for no gain than delight itself. Curry's work, which, like a few rare others (Lewis Hyde's 1986 version of The Gift, Keith Basso's Wisdom Sits in Places, and Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space) illuminates one of the most beautiful aspects of life itself and in so doing allows for even more enchantment to be found in the world.
I can't recommend it enough, especially for those who experience enchantment but for whom words for expressing it have always been difficult. At long last, we have our poet philosopher whose respect for enchantment has allowed us to understand its extraordinary qualities at the deepest levels and by gently keeping himself from being at the center of the story (as other writers on enchantment and wonder have not been able to resist) allows us very much to hear his words and yet to be in our own songs. A wonder indeed.
Curry is a poet and philosopher and both come through so clearly in his writing which is rich, precise, and full of complex ideas expressed with a remarkable ease. As a Tolkien scholar, he reminds the reader of Tolkien's own masterwork on Fairy Stories (a personal favorite) and gives clear distinctions between magic and enchantment...between deliberate attempts to manipulate the world and the experience of acknowledging the wonder of it with no hope of that wonder necessarily repeating itself at our bidding (no matter how much we might wish it so). He takes the reader literally into enchantment's own etymology, reminding us that it means 'to be in the song' and that the song is life itself.
The arenas in which enchantment are found are not easy topics and I admire Curry's courage in taking on love and attraction, religion, art, learning, and nature...all places where one has or might encounter enchantment, and there is no question here that this is the tip of the iceberg for him and I would imagine in the future we might see whole explorations of any one of these topics as each one feels ripe for a deeper dive. He critiques technoscience and modernity but does it in a way that doesn't create an 'either or' but instead points to enchantment's resilient capacity to elude capture during the 20th and 21st centuries (despite plenty of attempts to see it tamed or removed from life), it still seems alive and well. Perhaps not celebrated in the mainstream, but always able to be present, and Curry reminds the reader of the ways of life which cultivate the conditions by which enchantment might appear, and be recognized.
As the world has shifted in the last few months, it is stories of enchantment I have heard most often. Of people standing in familiar places and noting the sound of birds for the first time, or the unexpected kindness of neighbours who have put their energy into the activity of delight for no gain than delight itself. Curry's work, which, like a few rare others (Lewis Hyde's 1986 version of The Gift, Keith Basso's Wisdom Sits in Places, and Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space) illuminates one of the most beautiful aspects of life itself and in so doing allows for even more enchantment to be found in the world.
I can't recommend it enough, especially for those who experience enchantment but for whom words for expressing it have always been difficult. At long last, we have our poet philosopher whose respect for enchantment has allowed us to understand its extraordinary qualities at the deepest levels and by gently keeping himself from being at the center of the story (as other writers on enchantment and wonder have not been able to resist) allows us very much to hear his words and yet to be in our own songs. A wonder indeed.
June 30, 2020
Well, you have to be made of strong stuff to read and appreciate this book! The writing is excellent; concise, (as you can be with such a subject), erudite, with a nice occasional humorous twist. You can tell Patrick Curry is a poet as well as philosopher.
I struggled a bit with the book because of the content, never the writing. He divides the areas of enchantment into separate chapters, so Art, Religion, Nature, etc. This is really helpful as a lot of the reference he uses, I know nothing about, so it’s easier to concentrate on one area at a time, and get the hang of it.
One thing Mr. Curry missed out, I think is the enchantment of creation, or making. Although the chapter on Learning is close enough.
How he managed to define something as elusive as wonder is a marvel, and even Disenchantment and Technoscience (?).
The complete loss of self in Enchantment is what I found described in this marvellous book. And I didn’t know that you could do that! A massive undertaking to write about something as ethereal as enchantment, well done Mr. Curry!
I struggled a bit with the book because of the content, never the writing. He divides the areas of enchantment into separate chapters, so Art, Religion, Nature, etc. This is really helpful as a lot of the reference he uses, I know nothing about, so it’s easier to concentrate on one area at a time, and get the hang of it.
One thing Mr. Curry missed out, I think is the enchantment of creation, or making. Although the chapter on Learning is close enough.
How he managed to define something as elusive as wonder is a marvel, and even Disenchantment and Technoscience (?).
The complete loss of self in Enchantment is what I found described in this marvellous book. And I didn’t know that you could do that! A massive undertaking to write about something as ethereal as enchantment, well done Mr. Curry!
didnt-bother-finishing
November 23, 2020Interesting topic but I just couldn't finish. I am not sure what pushed me to put the book aside - perhaps it was the fact that the author felt the need to quote others so much - I am not talking footnotes or other academic references, I mean that on average every page had a least one quote from someone else included in the text, which lead it to feel like a book of aphorisms rather than the author's own exploration of the topic.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews