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Correspondences
We inhabit a world of more than humans. For life to flourish, we must listen to the calls this world makes on us, and respond with care, sensitivity and judgement. That is what it means to correspond, to join our lives with those of the beings, matters and elements with whom, and with which, we dwell upon the earth.
In this book, anthropologist Tim Ingold corresponds with landscapes and forests, oceans and skies, monuments and artworks. To each he brings the same spontaneity of thought and observation, the same intimacy and lightness of touch, but also the same affection, longing and care that, in the days when we used to write letters by hand, we would bring to our correspondences with one another.
The result is a profound yet accessible inquiry into ways of attending to the world around us, into the relation between art and life, and into the craft of writing itself. At a time of environmental crisis, when words so often seem to fail us, Ingold points to how the practice of correspondence can help restore our kinship with a stricken earth.
In this book, anthropologist Tim Ingold corresponds with landscapes and forests, oceans and skies, monuments and artworks. To each he brings the same spontaneity of thought and observation, the same intimacy and lightness of touch, but also the same affection, longing and care that, in the days when we used to write letters by hand, we would bring to our correspondences with one another.
The result is a profound yet accessible inquiry into ways of attending to the world around us, into the relation between art and life, and into the craft of writing itself. At a time of environmental crisis, when words so often seem to fail us, Ingold points to how the practice of correspondence can help restore our kinship with a stricken earth.
219 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 20, 2020
13 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Tim Ingold
66 books214 followersTim Ingold (born 1948) is a British social anthropologist, currently Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. He was educated at Leighton Park School and Cambridge University. He is a fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His bibliography includes The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill, Routledge, 2000, which is a collection of essays, some of which had been published earlier.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 28, 2022
Ingold's reflective/intimate attention to the world around him, to the relationships with the objects (both man-made and natural) which he meets, are his "correspondences." And while this might seem a novelty or personal essay at first glance, instead is nothing less than an undertaking to expand meaning-making for all of us.
At times, Ingold gives short and sharp criticisms of the limits and damage which traditional/conventional thinking and language use foster. These are relative "givens," however, treading familiar territory in the bindings of Western ontological discourse. He calls for a movement to a more ontogenic cognitive model, one which demands we see how all of the world (ourselves included) have as our essences the relationships that have formed us, that mold us through different environments, and which will shape us moving forward. We are not static entities, and by rejecting the sterile stasis of theories and abstractions, we discover ways of knowing which have been too too long closed off.
Rather than simply preach this desire, Ingold powerfully demonstrates ontogenic potency through a far-reaching series of short essays written across the past several years, each brief and more or less successful. The overall effect of the book is a transformative salutation to readers, inviting them to the conversation which has been born from the experience of reading.
As I implied above, not every essay is equally successful, and the departures are not always epiphanies of magnitude but more ruminations and questions, yet this has ever been the cost of the wanderings of the mind, the 'essai' as Montaigne might have it: we may sometimes get lost, but the discovery when it happens . . . the discovery . . . .
At times, Ingold gives short and sharp criticisms of the limits and damage which traditional/conventional thinking and language use foster. These are relative "givens," however, treading familiar territory in the bindings of Western ontological discourse. He calls for a movement to a more ontogenic cognitive model, one which demands we see how all of the world (ourselves included) have as our essences the relationships that have formed us, that mold us through different environments, and which will shape us moving forward. We are not static entities, and by rejecting the sterile stasis of theories and abstractions, we discover ways of knowing which have been too too long closed off.
Rather than simply preach this desire, Ingold powerfully demonstrates ontogenic potency through a far-reaching series of short essays written across the past several years, each brief and more or less successful. The overall effect of the book is a transformative salutation to readers, inviting them to the conversation which has been born from the experience of reading.
As I implied above, not every essay is equally successful, and the departures are not always epiphanies of magnitude but more ruminations and questions, yet this has ever been the cost of the wanderings of the mind, the 'essai' as Montaigne might have it: we may sometimes get lost, but the discovery when it happens . . . the discovery . . . .
July 30, 2024
Ho letto la traduzione italiana di Raffaello Cortina Editore e devo dire che mi ha stupita. Non credevo che l’antropologia fosse capace di esprimersi attraverso queste linee di pensiero… o sarebbe meglio dire corrispondenze. Affascinante!
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January 25, 2025Correspondencias es una recopilación de textos breves que el autor ha ido realizado para charlas, catálogos de exposiciones, revistas y libros de colegas. En este sentido, el título del libro lleva un poco a equivoco. Yo lo renombraria: "Correspondencias. Cartas a las obras de artistas y escritores que trabajan en torno al territorio".
Me quedo con sabor agridulce después de la lectura, como si algo faltase. Como si la promesa que Ingold hace al principio se hubiera perdido entre las páginas.
Me quedo con sabor agridulce después de la lectura, como si algo faltase. Como si la promesa que Ingold hace al principio se hubiera perdido entre las páginas.
December 24, 2024
Only because of the “invitation” part Ingold’s way of thinking deserves five stars.
December 31, 2023
"If, today, our world is in crisis, it is because we have forgotten how to correspond. We have engaged, instead, in campaigns of interaction. Parties to interaction face each other with their identities and objectives already in place, and transact in ways that serve, but do nothing to transform, their separate interests. Their difference is given from the start, and remains afterwards. Interaction is thus a between relation. Correspondence, however, goes along. (...) correspondence is about the ways along which lives, in their perpetual unfolding or becoming, simultaneously join together and differentiate themselves, one from another. This shift from interaction to correspondence entails a fundamental reorientation, from the between-ness of beings and things to their in-between-ness."
For me, the great value of this book lies in the introductory essay in which Tim Ingold explains his concept of 'correspondence' in a very accessible way. The rest of the book is devoted to short essays in which Ingold more or less successfully puts the theory into practice. I found this less compelling, but that may have to do with many factors beyond the quality of Ingold's experience or writing. For example, I read this on my e-reader, and I am quite sure that this is the kind of book that benefits from being read in hard copy, as a breviary to dip into, rather than as a linear argument. To engage with this book in this way would be an exercise in correspondence.
For me, Ingold is a distinctive representative of an intellectual movement that is reconnecting with the spirit of Romanticism. It is no coincidence that his latest volume of scholarly essays - Imagining for Real: Essays on Creation, Attention and Correspondence - is about imagination. His view can be summed up in a one-liner: "Imagination is being alive". There is a close relationship between imagination and our ability to correspond. When the early Romantic artists and philosophers declared their desire to 'romanticise the world', they wanted to establish a close relationship - Ingold would say 'a correspondence', François Jullien 'une connivence' - between poetry and life. Poetry was understood to encompass all the arts and sciences, as well as the process of shaping our individual and collective lives. All these spheres of human activity were to be imbued with and reflect the productive power of natura naturans. To live well was to love life and to respond to it with care, sensitivity and discernment. This is the spirit of the late Tim Ingold's intellectual-existential project.
For me, the great value of this book lies in the introductory essay in which Tim Ingold explains his concept of 'correspondence' in a very accessible way. The rest of the book is devoted to short essays in which Ingold more or less successfully puts the theory into practice. I found this less compelling, but that may have to do with many factors beyond the quality of Ingold's experience or writing. For example, I read this on my e-reader, and I am quite sure that this is the kind of book that benefits from being read in hard copy, as a breviary to dip into, rather than as a linear argument. To engage with this book in this way would be an exercise in correspondence.
For me, Ingold is a distinctive representative of an intellectual movement that is reconnecting with the spirit of Romanticism. It is no coincidence that his latest volume of scholarly essays - Imagining for Real: Essays on Creation, Attention and Correspondence - is about imagination. His view can be summed up in a one-liner: "Imagination is being alive". There is a close relationship between imagination and our ability to correspond. When the early Romantic artists and philosophers declared their desire to 'romanticise the world', they wanted to establish a close relationship - Ingold would say 'a correspondence', François Jullien 'une connivence' - between poetry and life. Poetry was understood to encompass all the arts and sciences, as well as the process of shaping our individual and collective lives. All these spheres of human activity were to be imbued with and reflect the productive power of natura naturans. To live well was to love life and to respond to it with care, sensitivity and discernment. This is the spirit of the late Tim Ingold's intellectual-existential project.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews