Wind: Nature and Culture

by Louise M. Pryke

A natural and cultural history of wind from ancient deity to Twister .
 
By turns creative and destructive, wind spreads seeds, fills sails, and disperses the energy of the sun. Worshipped since antiquity, wind has molded planets, determined battles, and shaped the evolution of life on earth—yet this invisible element remains intangible and unpredictable. In this book, Louise M. Pryke explores wind’s natural history as well as its cultural life in myth, religion, art, and literature. Beyond these ancient imaginings, Pryke also traces how wind inspired modern scientific innovations and appeared in artistic works as diverse as the art of Van Gogh, the poetry of Keats, and the blockbuster film.

Genres: Nature

248 pages, Paperback

Published August 15, 2023

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of all the weathers that we experience, wind is the only one that we can hear and feel but not directly. I do think I can see the wind when I see trees being buffeted, or crows dancing in the wind. It is caused by the movement of air from one part of the planet to another, flowing from high-pressure points to low-pressure points in the search for equilibrium. Even though the air never stops moving, there are days when it can be utterly still and as blissful as they are surreal.

This flow of air around the planet affects everything. It creates waves, erodes mountains, moves vast quantities of dust from Africa to the Amazon and has created and formed economies and human culture. Along with earthquakes and volcanoes, winds in particular forms can be the most destructive things that we have on this planet. As a hurricane or typhoon, they can flatten buildings, toss cars in the air like confetti and as tornadoes, obliterate everything that they touch.

Humans have understood this phenomenon for millennia now. Wind has pressed it’s way into folklore and culture and has been used in warfare and has driven people mad.

I really liked this, the cultural history of wind is a wide-ranging subject that Pryke has managed to condense into this fascinating book. The prose feels authoritative without reading like an academic book. It is really nicely produced with high-quality pictures making it a fine addition to the Earth Series of books.

[Sophy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visually this book was absolutely stunning. There were some amazing colour photographs of epic quality.

From the written word perspective however, I think Pryke got carried away with the "culture" aspect of wind. I really enjoyed the meteorological and geographical and some historical observations of wind, but there seemed to be every single story or folkloric tale mentioning wind known to mankind thrown in the mix here! After the umpteenth reference to a wind god or a weather deity, I felt a bit drowned in fables if I'm honest!

I rate this a 3 star because the folklore bits dragged it down but the visuals and the limited meteorological parts just managed to heave it back up there.

A big thank you to my GR friend Paul for donating this book to me. Thank you kind sir, much appreciated.