Escapism

Acclaimed cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan considers humanity's enduring desire to escape reality -- and embrace alternatives such as love, culture, and Disneyworld.
"Escapism... is not so much an argument as a tour -- sometimes a tour de force -- of cultural escapes with exotic stops and unexpected twists and turns. And such a convivial tour guide! Tuan is chatty, engaging, unpretentious and charming." -- Francis I. Kane, New York Times Book Review
"A reader could hardly ask for a more congenial guide, as Tuan's discussion ranges from Christ's last supper to chimpanzees copulating, from African bushmen barbecuing a turtle to diplomat-author Harold Nicolson bathing in a lake... Through this unusual perspective, Tuan is able to realign things usually considered opposites -- 'fantasy' and 'reality,' 'travel' and 'home,' 'work' and 'private life' -- until they converge in fruitful new combinations... His playful treatment of life's glum realities feels at times as tonic as a leisurely Sunday morning... An original work to be read for both intellectual profit and pleasure." -- Jeffery Paine, Washington Post Book World
"Writing in a deeply thoughtful style, Tuan, a leading cultural geographer, examines the wonders and atrocities that stem from the human impulse to deny the brutal realities of earthly existence." -- Utne Reader