Bøger af Marc Peter Keane

Marc Peter Keane, in his remarkable set of meditative explorations, Dear Cloud, asks what if we had the ability to act on our inner urge to experience life as another person, not just hypothetically, but to actually live their lives - to be that lonely man whose chance meeting in the high-desert changes his life forever, or the new-born babe amazed at its still unfathomed world? And not just other people, but to intimately experience the unique viewpoints of other forms of life on this planet - an ancient cedar struck by lightning, a cheetah out for blood. And going even further, to delve into the spirit of place and occupy the inanimate - a tide pool, the mirror surface of a pond. Mixing a devoted naturalist's awe with what seems almost shamanic insight, seasoned with inspired and delightfully wry big-picture matter-of-factness, Dear Cloud comprises fascinatingly detailed observations and unexpected realizations about the world we live in. These thoughts take the form of letters sent home by a shape-changing protagonist who slips seamlessly between various identities, experiencing both the profound physical solitariness of every existence, and paradoxically, their absolute interconnectedness.

Overturning our grasp of what is civil and what is wild, Marc Peter Keane's collection of nine short stories revels in the illusory space between culture and nature. A garden designer by trade, Keane forays into fiction with the wisdom and sure-footedness of someone all too familiar with manipulating the boundaries of the natural world. In "A Peaceable Kingdom," the tranquil lives of a picture-postcard American family are bewildered by discoveries of untamable nature. A girl made mute by the violence of her childhood finds solace in the orderly house and pruned gardens of her uncle's country manor in "Gardens of the Soul." And in the title story, "Moss," an overworked employee in a large Tokyo corporation pines for the return of the wild to his city, while trying desperately to discern the natural from the artificial in his surroundings. From 18th century English countryside to contemporary Tokyo, from a covered wagon crossing the American desert to a high-tech private yacht crossing the Pacific, Keane's tales offer, in alluring prose, thoughts on how to understand our place as humans in the wild world.

"Impeccably written, erudite . . . likely to remain the standard work on the subject."—Kyoto Journal

From his vantage point as a garden designer and writer based in Kyoto, Marc Peter Keane examines the world around him and delivers astonishing insights through an array of narratives. How the names of gardens reveal their essential meaning. A new definition of what art is. What trees are really made of. The true meaning of the enigmatic torii gate found at Shinto shrines. Why we give flowers as gifts. The essential, underlying unity of the world.

Marc Peter Keane's personal journey through 100 Japanese gardens, looking at them with a designer's eye.

This book, filled with gorgeous photographs, explains the theory, history, and intricacies of Japanese gardening.The creation of a Japanese garden combines respect for nature with adherence to simple principles of aesthetics and structure. In Japanese Garden Design, landscape architect Marc Peter Keane presents the history and development of the classical metaphors that underlie all Japanese gardens. Keane describes the influences of Confucian, Shinto and Buddhist principles that have linked poetry and philosophy to the tangible metaphor of the garden in Japanese culture. Creative inspiration is found in the prehistoric origin of Japanese concepts of nature; the gardens of Heian aristocrats; the world-renowned Zen garden, or rock garden; the tea garden; courtyard garden; and stroll garden.Detailed explanations of basic design concepts identify and interpret the symbolism of various garden forms and demonstrate these principles in use today in Japanese landscape architecture. Topics include: Design Principles Design Techniques Design Elements Godspirit in Nature Poetry in Paradise The Art of Emptiness Spiritual Passage Private Niches A Collector's Park