Landscapes of the Mind: Worlds of Sense and Metaphor

Jere D. Turner is Adult Collections Co-ordinator at the Regina Public
Library in Saskatchewan.

Porteous’s stated goal is to revitalize the readers’ awareness of
their sensual and imaginative possibilities and of the natural world
around them. He believes we are “giddy with entertainment, sated with
consumer goods and planned to death.” To reverse this trend, we must
become aware of various “landscapes.”

“Smellscape” and “soundscape” are two examples of internal
“landscapes” that he refers to. An experiment conducted in Victoria,
B.C., shows what has happened to our senses of smell and hearing: we are
more aware of smells and sounds created by humans than of those created
by nature.

Metaphorical “landscapes” make up the major part of the book,
including such topics as “bodyscape,” “inscape,”
“homescape,” “escape,” “childscape,” and “deathscape.”
We have discussions of the body (the “landscape” we first become
aware of), of our mental “landscape,” of our childhood as a
“landscape,” and so on. Interestingly, Porteous refers to the urban
scene as a “deathscape.”

The writings of Graham Greene and Malcolm Lowry are used as prime
sources of examples of all these “landscapes” in literature. Other
literary figures are mentioned, as well as numerous experts in other
fields, especially geography.

This is a thoughtful and well-documented book that deserves a wide
readership for its novel insight into the modern world.