Underland: A Deep Time Journey

A profound and moving exploration of humanity's relationship with the spaces beneath our feet, Underland is a surprisingly philosophical treatise on the nature of time, the natural world, and our own fleeting mortality.Prior to Underland, I hadn't read anything by Robert Macfarlane, so I didn't know what to expect. Macfarlane's writing in Underland is undeniably beautiful, lyrical, and haunting. One could probably categorize Underland as a "travel writing," but that would do the book a disservice. Yes, each chapter of Underland concerns Macfarlane's journey to an exotic location somewhere in (and often under) the world, but it's his philosophical musings—imbued with wisdom from science, history, myth, and literature—that truly distinguish this work.Throughout Underland, readers are taken on claustrophobic journeys to the "hidden spaces" beneath our feet—both natural and man-made. You'll explore the ancient burial chambers in Somerset, the underground labyrinth that twists its way under Paris, the fungal web that unites a forest in London, the "starless rivers" of Italy, the blue holes of the Greenland ice cap, and the nuclear waste storage facility in Finland. However, it's Macfarlane's ruminations on the nature of "deep time"—geological time scales beyond the comprehension of human understanding—that boggle the mind (and soul). Never has a book made me feel more small and insignificant, and yet so happy to be alive.One of the recurring motifs in Underland is humankind's impact on the natural world during the Anthropocene—our current geological era defined by industrialization. No matter where Macfarlane finds himself—say, an isolated Norwegian sea cave or a roaring underground torrent in Slovenia—the human presence announces itself through plastic and other petrochemical-derived garbage. It's disturbing to realize that this—our detritus—will most likely be humankind's legacy after we're gone—not our art, religion, or science, but our waste products. At the same time, through the perspective of deep time, Macfarlane suggests that the biggest risk we pose to is to ourselves—the world will continue spinning long after the Anthropocene.I really wasn't prepared for how much Underland would affect me. Yes, it's adventurous and exciting at times (the claustrophobic descriptions of underground exploration are particularly unsettling), but it's also perspective shifting. You'll never look at the ground beneath your feet the same way again.

If any of you are looking for a deep, slightly dark and interesting lead pick up this book. It explores our experiences with subliminal places beneath the surface of the world through myth, archeology and art through eons of time. It is a compelling, lyrical read. Check it out!

MacFarlane is an astonishingly great writer when it comes to describing and finding meaning and magic in landscapes. He could write about walking from his front door to his car and have me swooning with the beauty and discovery of the journey.His descriptive skills are at peak (or should I say subterranean) levels in Underland. He writes vividly about his explorations through crypts and hollows beneath cities, catacombs, mines, remote caverns covered in neolithic art, underground rivers, glacier melt holes, nuclear waste storage sites, and more. In fact, he's so good at transporting his reader into these confined spaces that there are passages describing his claustrophobia that are so powerful I had to put down the book so I could escape just for a moment and breathe again.His adventures underground are accompanied by a wealth of historical, anthropological, geological and other facts and speculation. Yet I felt a small something missing in this book. In his best works, like The Wild Places and The Old Ways, his journeys are, on the surface, less spectacular than those in this book, yet nearly every twist and turn is filled with surprising and enlightening little epiphanies. Underland offers more literal adventure and science, and a bit less literary thought-provoking contemplation than those other books. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it for the places he brings you in the currents of his evocative prose.

Robert Macfarlane is a master of rich and vivid prose. In this book, he examines the world beneath the ground and explores the idea of "deep time" - geologic time, in which humans are barely a blip on the screen. He takes us along on explorations of places under the earth that most of us will never experience. Macfarlane examines the ways in which humans have viewed and utilized the underground from the earliest handprints in a cave to the current burying of nuclear waste. The book is filled with references to earth sciences, philosophy, mythology, science writers and poets, and provides thought-provoking reflection and cautionary tale. It can be enjoyed on many levels - for its adventure, its science and for the wonderful prose. This is not a book that you can blow through in a day. This is a volume to read slowly, holistically and to savor for its intertwining themes. Doing so will change your perspective of what lies beneath.

I couldn't put it any better than what Philip Goureuvitch wrote:"Robert Macfarlane writes of his astonishing subterranean explorations with such wondrous, indelible power that you remember what he sees as if you saw it yourself."This man can write! And he takes you along on his (sometimes scary, always amazing) underground adventures. Highly recommend.

This is an extraordinary book. It's natural history, but fine literature as well. As the author says, we know so much less about the earth beneath our feet than we do the planets in our solar system. Each chapter stands alone as a short essay, so the book does not need to be read in its entirety, but I'm sure you will have trouble putting it aside for any length of time. The central theme is that as we descend beneath the surface we go back in time, so not only do we learn about part of our planet we know so little about, we learn about its history as well. This has been book of choice for gifts for over a year now. Read it and it will be your go to gift as well.