The Teacher and the Tree Man
Book Details
Author(s)Bryan Winchell
ISBN / ASINB00VP2BT8O
ISBN-13978B00VP2BT86
Sales Rank2,577,048
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
In this modern tale of magical realism, teacher Paul Lucas is a family man with a job he’s good at and a house in an area he loves, so why is he often so frustrated? By the world out there, of course!
What is out there in America in the fall of 2001? A non-stop, ever-encroaching social-technosphere, with its 24/7 “news†channels of disinformation, its increasingly confusing, rule-heavy bureaucracies, its worship of and dedication to money and our man-made economy, and what seems to be its "War on" the good things in life: in particular Nature, community, free time, fun times!, relationships, and deep thinking. And more, so much more!
So Lucas often spends time in an old-growth forest behind his house to blow off steam, relax and get in touch with Nature, which seems to imbue him a deeper, yet more whimsical, kind of wisdom. But one day, Nature has a BIG surprise for him: a man’s head living in the side of a tree. A tree man, if you will.
What the heck is this thing? Or, who is it? Where did it come from? Has it always been here? Is it even real?
These questions and more continually distract Lucas from his everyday life, a life that is offering up new asinine roadblocks at the elementary school he works at, communication issues with his marriage of five years and, last but not least, with his on-and-off again relationship with drugs that his society condemns. How to manage all of this and figure out what the meaning is of finding a man’s head living in the side of a tree near his house? It’s all too much!
“The Teacher and the Tree Man†is a modern epic fable of magical realism about life in the United States at the start of the new millenium. Fifteen years in the making, the novel explores many of the deepest issues our culture must deal with: its increasingly bellicose political scene; its struggles with war; its confusion about drugs, legal and non, and how they should or shouldn’t be used; its ability to educate students without needing to control them, especially those students deemed abnormal; its sense of disconnection as we absorb ourselves in the media-saturated technosphere while keeping ourselves too busy in the real world to have time to reflect; and, most of all, its misunderstanding of and war against Nature and the very real impacts this has not only on human life, but on the lives of all things on this planet.
It’s not an easy ride, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fun one! For what is life if you can’t have fun some of the time? So join the Teacher, Paul Lucas and his odd, yet wise friend the Tree Man, as they wrestle with these issues all while trying to get their groove on!
What is out there in America in the fall of 2001? A non-stop, ever-encroaching social-technosphere, with its 24/7 “news†channels of disinformation, its increasingly confusing, rule-heavy bureaucracies, its worship of and dedication to money and our man-made economy, and what seems to be its "War on" the good things in life: in particular Nature, community, free time, fun times!, relationships, and deep thinking. And more, so much more!
So Lucas often spends time in an old-growth forest behind his house to blow off steam, relax and get in touch with Nature, which seems to imbue him a deeper, yet more whimsical, kind of wisdom. But one day, Nature has a BIG surprise for him: a man’s head living in the side of a tree. A tree man, if you will.
What the heck is this thing? Or, who is it? Where did it come from? Has it always been here? Is it even real?
These questions and more continually distract Lucas from his everyday life, a life that is offering up new asinine roadblocks at the elementary school he works at, communication issues with his marriage of five years and, last but not least, with his on-and-off again relationship with drugs that his society condemns. How to manage all of this and figure out what the meaning is of finding a man’s head living in the side of a tree near his house? It’s all too much!
“The Teacher and the Tree Man†is a modern epic fable of magical realism about life in the United States at the start of the new millenium. Fifteen years in the making, the novel explores many of the deepest issues our culture must deal with: its increasingly bellicose political scene; its struggles with war; its confusion about drugs, legal and non, and how they should or shouldn’t be used; its ability to educate students without needing to control them, especially those students deemed abnormal; its sense of disconnection as we absorb ourselves in the media-saturated technosphere while keeping ourselves too busy in the real world to have time to reflect; and, most of all, its misunderstanding of and war against Nature and the very real impacts this has not only on human life, but on the lives of all things on this planet.
It’s not an easy ride, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fun one! For what is life if you can’t have fun some of the time? So join the Teacher, Paul Lucas and his odd, yet wise friend the Tree Man, as they wrestle with these issues all while trying to get their groove on!
