The Void, The Grid & The Sign

Traversing The Great Basin

Nonfiction, Travel, Adventure & Literary Travel, Science & Nature, Nature
Cover of the book The Void, The Grid & The Sign by William L. Fox, University of Nevada Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: William L. Fox ISBN: 9780874174779
Publisher: University of Nevada Press Publication: October 1, 2016
Imprint: University of Nevada Press Language: English
Author: William L. Fox
ISBN: 9780874174779
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Publication: October 1, 2016
Imprint: University of Nevada Press
Language: English

This is a story that few know, but those who do are its disciples. The story, of the highest and driest of all American deserts, the Great Basin, has no finer voice than that of William Fox. Fox’s book is divided into the three sections of the title. In “The Void,” he leads us through the Great Basin landscape, investigating our visual response to it—a pattern of mountains and valleys on a scale of such magnitude and emptiness and undifferentiated by shape, form, and color that the visual and cognitive expectations of the human mind are confounded and impaired. “The Grid” leads us on a journey through the evolution of cartography in the nineteenth century and the explorations of John Charles Frémont to the net of maps, section markers, railroads, telegraph lines, and highways that humans have thrown across the void throughout history. “The Sign” wends us through the metaphors and language we continue to place around and over the void, revealing the Great Basin as a palimpsest where, for example, the neon boulevards of Las Vegas interplay with ancient petroglyphs. In this one-of-a-kind travel book that allows us to travel within our own neurophysiological processes as well as out into the arresting void of the Great Basin, Fox has created a dazzling new standard at the frontier of writing about the American West. His stunning and broad insight draws from the fields of natural history, cognitive psychology, art history, western history, archaeology, and anthropology, and will be of value to scholars and readers in all these subjects.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This is a story that few know, but those who do are its disciples. The story, of the highest and driest of all American deserts, the Great Basin, has no finer voice than that of William Fox. Fox’s book is divided into the three sections of the title. In “The Void,” he leads us through the Great Basin landscape, investigating our visual response to it—a pattern of mountains and valleys on a scale of such magnitude and emptiness and undifferentiated by shape, form, and color that the visual and cognitive expectations of the human mind are confounded and impaired. “The Grid” leads us on a journey through the evolution of cartography in the nineteenth century and the explorations of John Charles Frémont to the net of maps, section markers, railroads, telegraph lines, and highways that humans have thrown across the void throughout history. “The Sign” wends us through the metaphors and language we continue to place around and over the void, revealing the Great Basin as a palimpsest where, for example, the neon boulevards of Las Vegas interplay with ancient petroglyphs. In this one-of-a-kind travel book that allows us to travel within our own neurophysiological processes as well as out into the arresting void of the Great Basin, Fox has created a dazzling new standard at the frontier of writing about the American West. His stunning and broad insight draws from the fields of natural history, cognitive psychology, art history, western history, archaeology, and anthropology, and will be of value to scholars and readers in all these subjects.

More books from University of Nevada Press

Cover of the book The Sagebrush State, 4th Ed by William L. Fox
Cover of the book Bodie’s Gold by William L. Fox
Cover of the book The Yuma Reclamation Project by William L. Fox
Cover of the book The Whole of the Moon by William L. Fox
Cover of the book Sun, Sin & Suburbia by William L. Fox
Cover of the book Nevada's Environmental Legacy by William L. Fox
Cover of the book A Great Basin Mosaic by William L. Fox
Cover of the book American Indian Educators in Reservation Schools by William L. Fox
Cover of the book Crow's Range by William L. Fox
Cover of the book Cheatgrass by William L. Fox
Cover of the book Elvis, Marilyn, and the Space Aliens by William L. Fox
Cover of the book Nevada's Historic Buildings by William L. Fox
Cover of the book Race And Homicide In Nineteenth-Century California by William L. Fox
Cover of the book Monsters In The Woods by William L. Fox
Cover of the book Drought, Water Law, and the Origins of California's Central Valley Project by William L. Fox
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy