Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

 I was 'awe-struck' by the number of connections I made to the book. Firstly, the author Dacher Keltner (quite a unique name) was a consultant for Inside Out, which I had rewatched just a couple of days ago. We have been plotting a trip to the cinemas for Inside Out 2. The narrative mentions Nipun Mehta, who we had heard speak in close quarters around 7 months ago at a spiritual retreat, in what I would say was the best live talk I have heard. The narrative talks about hiking and mountains, at a time when I am going to soon meet a famous mountaineer, who has climbed Everest. The book talks about the 'awe' of a newborn baby, at a time when we are expecting one. It also refers to the Triple Rainbow video, which is one of my favorite videos on the internet. 

'Awe' provides a scientific and artistic tour and explanation of the emotion of 'awe'. It breaks it down into eight sources of awe- inspiring stories of others, collective action such as sports, nature, music, visual arts, mystical encounters, life and death, and lastly epiphanies. It's well written. It's set to a deeply personal backdrop. During its explorations of awe, the book ventures deep into art forms such as paintings and music. It introduced me to some beautiful artworks such as those of the Dutch Artist Pieter De Hooch, whose paintings despite being all the way back from the 17th century seem so closeby in terms of the emotion and the experience of the people residing in those frames. Also Monet is not all water lillies- Rue Montarguel's waving flags strike a chord for me because I always find waving flags remarkable. Also, the Euros just ended and France did put up a decent show.  

The book quotes some remarkable passages, such as the ending stanza to Charles Darwin's Origin of Species which I found remarkable. Charles Darwin was deeply moved by music and art, and I think can be called the patron saint of Awe. The last chapter and page of the book packs some beautiful writing to tie the ribbon the book.

I enjoyed the book, and hope to dip into it repeatedly. It's a slow contemplative read - a stroll, not a dash. This could also be because I spread it across multiple sessions due to circumstances. So the reading experience itself resembles the concept of 'awe walk', which is defined at length in the book. 

Labels: Books

# posted by Ashwin Ravikumar @ 4:06 PM 0 Comments