The Vast Extent : On Seeing and Not Seeing Further

by Greenlaw, Lavinia | The arts
Published 04/01/2024 by FABER & FABER in the United Kingdom
Hardback | 320 pages
145 x 224 x 34mm | 480g

'Remarkable . . . People will be inspired by it to look again at the world and its mysteries.' CELIA PAULAn expansive, wonder-filled collection exploring art, science and travel From the celebrated poet, novelist and memoirist, The Vast Extent is a constellation of 'exploded essays' about light and image, seeing and the unseen. Each is a record of how thought builds and ideas emerge, aligning art, myth, strange voyages, scientific scrutiny and a poet's response so that they cast light upon each other. Ranging across caves, seasickness, early photography, boredom, wonder, mountains, mice, the body and its shadow, from the Arctic at midwinter to a shingle spit in Norfolk at midsummer, Lavinia Greenlaw invites us to travel such questions as how we might describe what we have never seen before or what helps us to see more clearly or persuades us to see what's not there. Art, science, technology, vision and memory inform one another in this original and illuminating work.

'[Greenlaw] wields her erudition lightly.' Sunday Times