Underland: A Deep Time Journey

 

 　　地底世界存在於神話、文學，乃至人類的共同記憶。地底世界無處不在，近的如此熟悉以致我們日復一日踏於其上而鮮少留神，卻也同時幽深至底，層疊繁複，如此難以洞悉，而今，麥克法倫在多年研究之後，帶我們一虧究竟，帶我們探索我們與黑暗、地表下的世界間的關係，而這又如何影響著我們的內心。

 

　　麥克法倫以詩意的筆觸勾勒出廣袤的地球樣貌，橫跨遠古時期，那無法以人類存有作為尺度的地質年代，直至後人類時代。踏過自然的珍貴寶藏，挪威的海蝕洞、昆士蘭冰原；又或是人類留下的痕跡，青銅時代墓地遺址、繁華的巴黎城市之下複雜的地道墓穴；以及那些我們平時無法窺見的隱蔽之處，樹木用以彼此溝通的地下真菌生態鏈，乃至十萬年也不會分解的核廢料儲存地。在引領讀者一層一層往底處走去的路途上，我們看見了獲贈的奇蹟與不慎的失去，而不僅有著麥克法倫自己的旅程紀錄，也包含了歷史上其他人物留下的精采故事──拓荒者、藝術家、送葬者、謀殺者、夢想家──為了不同的理由踏上殊途同歸的探究之旅，追尋背向光之處有的東西。在結尾，麥克法倫留下了一個值得深省的問題：「對於未來的地球來說，我們將會是流芳後世的祖先嗎？」

 

　　宏大綿長的地理與科學發現佐以同樣傑出的文筆與力量──喚醒靜躺在我們體內對於地景、自然那樣純粹的憧憬、敬意與驚嘆。《Underland》無疑是麥克法倫又一部精彩絕倫的作品，無怪乎尚未出版已俘獲各家書評之心。循著其詩意而讓人沉迷的文字，離開地表，走向地底深處窺看大地埋藏的秘密，也將是我們直視自我與存在的省思之路。（文/博客來編譯）

Hailed as ＂the great nature writer of this generation＂ (Wall Street Journal), Robert Macfarlane is the celebrated author of books about the intersections of the human and the natural realms. In Underland, he delivers his masterpiece: an epic exploration of the Earth’s underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself.

In this highly anticipated sequel to his international bestseller The Old Ways, Macfarlane takes us on an extraordinary journey into our relationship with darkness, burial, and what lies beneath the surface of both place and mind. Traveling through ＂deep time＂--the dizzying expanses of geologic time that stretch away from the present--he moves from the birth of the universe to a post-human future, from the prehistoric art of Norwegian sea caves to the blue depths of the Greenland ice cap, from Bronze Age funeral chambers to the catacomb labyrinth below Paris, and from the underground fungal networks through which trees communicate to a deep-sunk ＂hiding place＂ where nuclear waste will be stored for 100,000 years to come. Woven through Macfarlane’s own travels are the unforgettable stories of descents into the underland made across history by explorers, artists, cavers, divers, mourners, dreamers, and murderers, all of whom have been drawn for different reasons to seek what Cormac McCarthy calls ＂the awful darkness within the world.＂

Global in its geography and written with great lyricism and power, Underland speaks powerfully to our present moment. Taking a deep-time view of our planet, Macfarlane here asks a vital and unsettling question: ＂Are we being good ancestors to the future Earth?＂ Underland marks a new turn in Macfarlane’s long-term mapping of the relations of landscape and the human heart. From its remarkable opening pages to its deeply moving conclusion, it is a journey into wonder, loss, fear, and hope. At once ancient and urgent, this is a book that will change the way you see the world.

Author
 
　　Robert Macfarlane is the author of best-selling, prize-winning books about nature, place, and people, including Mountains of the Mind, The Old Ways, Landmarks, and (with Jackie Morris) The Lost Words. In 2017 he was awarded the E. M. Forster Prize for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Cambridge, England, where he is a fellow of Cambridge University.