Rust Belt Arcana: Tarot and Natural History in the Exurban Wilds - Softcover

Stansberry, Matt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1948742128 ISBN 13: 9781948742122

Publisher: Belt Publishing, 2018

Synopsis

A young bear―The Fool―is cast off from its mother in the spring to wander a fragmented suburban forest, to be harried by dogs and traffic, chased through golf courses and farms. An ocean-going trout climbs industrial, sewage-tainted rivers in the Midwest. The river is both sick and healthy, the trout, understood here as The Magician, is both wild and made. What does the Tarot have to tell us about the flora and fauna of the industrial Midwest? Rust Belt Arcana uses this time-tested structure to explain, juxtaposing the characteristics of the cards of the Tarot's Major Arcana to the creatures and plants around us. The idiosyncratic essays that result connect biology and natural history to the human condition; they are stories of abundance and loss, limning the persistent remnant wilderness of the Rust Belt. Exploring this natural history helps us to see beauty in a beleaguered landscape often dismissed as unremarkable, and to define our remarkable place in it.

About this title

About the Author:

Matt Stansberry was born in Akron, Ohio and graduated from Kent State University. He writes about the intersection of natural history and myth. Matt spent six years in Oregon writing about wild trout and salmon and advocating for sustainable fisheries management. He currently lives in North Carolina with his wife and three sons.

David Wilson is an illustrator from Stow, Ohio who has worked for The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Harvard, The Boston Globe, and many more. He also produces independent comics and films. He currently lives in Ohio with his wife and two daughters. More of his work can be found at workdavidwork.com

Review:

"Rust Belt Arcana is one of the most amazing Tarot books I've ever read, unlike anything else, and instantly important. It brings together the wide-ranging knowledge and commitment to the living world of a true naturalist, the sense of history and working-class culture of a son of Ohio, and the awareness of myth and magic in our daily lives that comes from a true immersion in Tarot. And all this in a style that is clear and lucid, yet deeply felt. It reminds us that in nature, in human tradition, and in the mysteries of Tarot, the world is so much bigger, and more complicated, than it seems." ―Rachel Pollack, author of Tarot for Magical Times and The New Tarot Handbook

"The essays in Rust Belt Arcana are like meditations from a parallel world ― a magical place of nature which persists against all odds alongside the cities and subdivisions and highway interchanges of the Great Lakes region. Read this book to discover the underlying reality of life in this place. Read it for the part of you that howls at the moon." ―David Beach, GreenCityBlueLake Institute, Cleveland Museum of Natural History

"A surprising, delightful book, filled with original insights about the rich diversity of nature in the Midwest. Highly recommended!" ―Kenn Kaufman, originator of the Kaufman Field Guides series, Field Editor for Audubon Magazine, and author of Kingbird Highway

"Original and insightful. A vivid exploration of the beauty and brokenness of life’s community. Stansberry’s writing reveals the many surprising ecological, psychological, and cultural connections among human and beyond-human lives." ―David George Haskell, author of The Songs of Trees and Pulitzer finalist for The Forest Unseen

About this edition

• Publisher: Belt Publishing
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1948742128
• ISBN 13: 9781948742122
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160