Subject: [permaculture] The Whole Earth Blogalog- pre-cursors to permaculture?
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:04:58 -0400
Hi-
As the owner of all three books referenced, and someone interested in
the pre-permaculture movement,
(From Counterculture to Cyberculture, What the Doormouse Said and
Counterculture Green),
mentioned in Kevin Kelley's http://kk.org/ct2/2008/09/the-whole-earth-blogalog.php
let me put in a plug for two books and a talk that went on the web a few
days ago.
Reviewed in the NY Times last Sunday, this memoir looks at the famous
Western Massachusetts Montague Farm, home to the Liberation News
Service, about which four books have already been written, and whose
literate authors and friends spawned about fifty more (check out
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance in wikipedia).
The author reminisces about living on the farm, checks in and then
writes about where his friends are in 1980 (this is the best part of
the book, and probably was written in 1981 and sat in his desk for a
few decades).
The talk is by one of the founders of the Farm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farm_(Tennessee)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farm_%28Tennessee%29>
This talk appeared at an interesting time. Just as I wondering if Rob
Hopkins, innovator of the wonderful Transition Towns movement had
investigated what happened the last time people decided en masse to
stress eco-cooperative living, it turns out that he invited Albert Bates
of the Farm to talk at Totnes a few nights ago (and it's already up on
the web). While Bates, like Fels and Agnew, seems a little heavy on what
was happening in his immediate vicinity and a little light on the larger
context, it is a fascinating talk. I had heard many of the tidbits
before, but never heard the story of The Farm put together all at once.
Bates starts the talk by praising the work of John Michael Greer, who in
his (and my) opinion is one of the more perceptive observers of the
counterculture and the peak oil movement. He says that Greer's new book,
The Long Descent, inspired his talk.
I might add that one of the best reflections I've read about life on a
communal farm was Celery Wine, written by Elaine Sundancer. If someone's
got a copy they'd like to sell, drop me a line.
-- Jim
smithmillcreek.blogspot.com
[permaculture] The Whole Earth Blogalog- pre-cursors to permaculture?,
Jim, 09/19/2008