The Aesthetics of Environment

Rating:
Summary: An aesthetics of engagement
Review: Berleant explains clearly why conventional aesthetics do not only impede our encounter with the arts, but even more obstruct the aesthetic appreciation of nature.Thus instead of disinterested contemplation Berlant talks about total engagement and a sensory immersion in the natural world. One cannot distance oneself from events such as "the moving mass of a mighty waterfall", "the sight of the boundlessness of the overwhelming tumult of the ocean" and the "walking through the tall grass of a hidden meadow whose tree-defined edges besome the boundaries of the earth". These quotations show that this book is not just worth reading for it's convincing theoretical standpoint, but also for Berleants linguistically powerful and rich descriptions of the aesthetics of nature.