I first came across this book in 2014, and have a copy on my shelves along with other books on exploration. I was reminded of this recently when exploring some further ideas for walking. It explores how the everyday can be seen by amateurs, but for those with particular points of view, that activity changes. It sits alongside many other books of mine on the theme of walking, including many with a psychogeographical element....
We have all been doing rather more walking close to home in recent months than we would normally have done.
On Looking: Eleven Walks wi... by Simon and Schuster
A new addition to my collection is 'The Walking Man' by Jiro Taniguchi. In this illustrated manga style book, the man goes for walks with (or without) his dog and.... er, well that's it really...
It lies in the Japanese tradition of what is called 'ma' or emptiness
In an oft-narrated anecdote, the late American film critic Roger Ebert spoke of the time he first interviewed Japanese animator, director, and cultural icon Hayao Miyazaki. Ebert told Miyazaki he loved the 'the "gratuitous motion" in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.' "We have a word for that in Japanese," Miyazaki replied. "It’s called ma. Emptiness. It’s there intentionally.” 'He clapped his hands three or four times. "The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness. But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.'
Take time for some ma.....
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