Isolarion: A Different Oxford Journey
Contents:
The second quality is Attlee's willingness to get involved in shaping the future of the Cowley. In contrast to Iain Sinclair's impotent rage about the way London is evolving, Attlee details his attendance at local visioning and planning sessions on the design and layout of the area. That preparedness to get involved, to influence decisions, elevates Isolarion above works that go no further dilettante-ish dalliances with a place.
There are occasional lapses into grumpy old man territory. Back in the day, students wanted to be Che Guevara, apparently, and now aspire only to be "Ross from Friends, sipping a cappuccino on a sofa in their preppy clothes". Overall, however, Isolarion is a joy to read. It makes you want to explore the Cowley Road or, even better, start a pilgrimage on your own doorstep. As the old saying goes, dig where you stand! Sep 18, Penny rated it really liked it Shelves: Isolarion is a book about Oxford, or more specifically a book about Cowley Road in unfashionable East Oxford.
A road he describes as "both unique and nothing special". Attlee has the advantage of living in the area he writes about so his 'pilgrimage' is a series of journeys from his own front door. His visit to a spa w 4. His visit to a spa where he tries out the flotation tank is very funny, and I loved the description of a furtive visit to a Private Shop too where he always seemed to see someone he knew before attempting to slip through the door.
I love the way his mind flits from subject to subject as his journey continues. I had no idea that we here in the UK publish so many books that thousands lie waiting for pulping. However pulping is expensive so unwanted books are now mixed with bitumen and used to make motorways.
Apparently we might find the road a bit bumpy if we drive over erotic books! However, my interest always dipped when he is reporting verbatim some of the conversations he has. Attlee's voice is always far more interesting. He's a wonderful writer! Apr 28, Rob rated it really liked it.
East Oxford flâneur
Oxford's Cowley Road is without doubt somewhat overstated as a counter cultural enclave and certainly, it's no Prenzlauerberg or Haight-Ashbury. Attlee, however, does for this humble street what Iain Sinclair does for the footpaths and ley lines of East London and the result is highly satisfying.
The author jumps from shop to shop and business to business, emphasizing the small scale, multicultural nature of the locale as well as an alternative history a world away from the Dreaming Spires. Hence Oxford's Cowley Road is without doubt somewhat overstated as a counter cultural enclave and certainly, it's no Prenzlauerberg or Haight-Ashbury. Hence, chapters on the impact of the Cowley car works and immigration from Pakistan are interspersed with a battle to prevent gentrification in the shape of dubious street furniture and control freakery from do-gooders.
That the street is already three quarters of the way towards being fully upmarket is evidenced by property prices and the disappearance of a number of businesses Attlee describes.
Overall, the book is persuasive manifesto for what the Cowley Road and and should continue to be. This is one of the most perfectly executed pieces of nonfiction I have ever read. The structure, which echoes the experience of a traveler or "pilgrim" moving from storefront to storefront on the Cowley Road in Oxford is so masterful, and really elevates the concept of the many journeys that Attlee is chronicling, both through time and physical space. Since Oxford is personally my favorite and chosen space to escape from the rigors of my day-to-day life thousands of miles away, I loved reading This is one of the most perfectly executed pieces of nonfiction I have ever read.
Since Oxford is personally my favorite and chosen space to escape from the rigors of my day-to-day life thousands of miles away, I loved reading about how someone who lives in my idyll can still find a way to explore it like a tourist would. Finally, I loved the quotes from Foucault and Said, like the historical criticism-loving nerd I am. This is the free e-book of the month from UChicago Press for March, so it's a great time to check it out if my review intrigues you.
Synopsis Through the centuries, people from all walks of life have heard the siren call of a pilgrimage, the lure to journey away from the familiar in search of understanding. But is a pilgrimage even possible these days for city-dwellers enmeshed in the pressures of work and family life?
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James Attlee answers these questions with Isolarion, a thoughtful, streetwise, and personal account of his own pilgrimage to a place he though Synopsis Through the centuries, people from all walks of life have heard the siren call of a pilgrimage, the lure to journey away from the familiar in search of understanding. James Attlee answers these questions with Isolarion, a thoughtful, streetwise, and personal account of his own pilgrimage to a place he thought he already knew - the Cowley Road in Oxford, right outside his door.
What Attlee presents instead is a thoroughly modern, impressively cosmopolitan, and utterly organic collection of shops, restaurants, pubs, and religious establishments teeming with life and reflecting the multicultural makeup of the surrounding neighbourhood. Residents of East Oxford can be proud to have this eccentric advocate and eloquent explorer in their midst - Guardian A gem James Attlee's scholarly, reflective and sympathetic journey up the Cowley Road I really enjoyed this meandering book.
It is travel without leaving your own street. Cowley Road in Oxford. I don't live on a street with nearly so much history or diversity, but this author does and explores the past and present, which proves to be quite interesting.
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- Isolarion: A Different Oxford Journey by James Attlee;
Attlee shows that you can travel in your own backyard, although he considers his exploration a pilgrimage. He saunters around related topics and spends quite a bit of time with an old, large book The Anat I really enjoyed this meandering book.
Isolarion: A Different Oxford Journey
He saunters around related topics and spends quite a bit of time with an old, large book The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton. This book was one that made me stop and contemplate, either what he was writing about, or about my own surroundings. All in all it was a pleasure to read, and I let out a satisfied sigh when I read the last paragraph. Mar 09, A. I enjoyed this book very much.
It's an exploration of the past and present of an area of East Oxford that has been neglected in comparison to its more famous neighbour. It's a study in multiculturalism, urban art and landscaping, and human interaction with our environment over the centuries. In some ways the book is more of a meander than the pilgrimage Attlee promises us at the beginning, but that's OK - it's a fascinating journey, nonetheless. Apr 16, michelle rated it really liked it Shelves: Very excited about this book recommended by the Economist. Depicts Oxford's changing urbanism on one very popular street.
It goes beyond the Oxford intellectualism and reveals a more ethnically diverse and eclectic persona. Garret rated it really liked it Jul 29, Katie rated it really liked it Sep 19, For my taste these bits of the book, the parts lending it substance and narrative cohesion, were something of a detour from the authorial digressions to which I became increasingly impatient to return.
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- Isolarion: a Different Oxford Journey.
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Most Oxford books may, as Attlee claims, be about the university, but he is not the first writer to venture up the Cowley Road. He is alarmed at the speed with which the area has changed in 10 years, but his own observations chime with Amit Chaudhuri's impressions in Afternoon Raag As seen by an Indian postgrad, the exotic and familiar get oddly inverted: As Attlee immerses himself - literally on one occasion - more deeply in his research, so he gets drawn into citizenly activism, participating in consultancy sessions with town planners whose ideas for the future are at odds with his own.
Enjoying the haphazardness of the street, he wishes to preserve exactly those aspects of the area that others want to tidy up. There is much comedy as he rants on at meetings and drafts a diatribe without being clear to whom it is addressed. The sad thing - for all of us - is that Attlee should, by now, be pushing at an open door; all he is doing, after all, is rehearsing an argument that had been definitively won by Jane Jacobs in The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
But, half a century on, the death by homogenisation of shitty English towns continues apace. At a neighbourhood street festival Attlee is slightly scornful of the worthy banner urging everyone to "Celebrate Diversity", but this, of course, is one of the aims of Isolarion. The logic and style of the book mean that he keeps coming back to the idea that whatever it is that we are trying to achieve in contemporary Britain can be found, in microcosm, on the Cowley Road.
It lacks the rhetorical appeal of places with names like New York's Alphabet City and Spanish Harlem, but one takes the point. Residents of east Oxford can be proud to have this eccentric advocate and eloquent explorer in their midst. Finally, a couple of little, possibly related, ironies insist on making themselves heard. First, this book is published by an academic press. All credit to the University of Chicago for taking on such a determinedly off-the-wall project and stealing a march on the literary publishers whose business it is to seek out high-quality, original non-fiction.
Second, what are the chances of work of this quality and originality being produced within the colleges for which the town is famous?
In his case the great river ends up being the homely Cherwell. I had no idea that we here in the UK publish so many books that thousands lie waiting for pulping. He saunters around related topics and spends quite a bit of time with an old, large book The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton. Refresh and try again. Jerome into a Cowley Road porn shop deserves our attention and admiration.