Casting a Spell: The Bamboo Fly Rod and the American Pursuit by George Black
By George Black
In Casting a Spell, George Black introduces readers to rapt artisans and the final word talismans in their uncompromising fascination: home made bamboo fly rods. yet this narrative is greater than a narrative of imprecise gadgets of wish. It opens a brand new vista onto a century and a half glossy American cultural background. With daring strokes and deft touches, Black explains how the ingenuity of craftsmen created a novel enforce of leisure–and how geopolitics, economics, know-how, and outrageous twists of fortune have all come to target the exquisitely crafted bamboo rod. we find that the hobby of fly-fishing intersects with a mind-boggling number of cultural traits, together with conspicuous intake, environmentalism, industrialization, or even chilly conflict international relations.
Black takes us around the globe, from the hidden trout streams of western Maine to a distant valley in Guangdong Province, China, the place grows the singular species of bamboo often called tea stick–the very stuff of a great fly rod. He introduces us to the lads who created the instruments and strategies for crafting remarkable rods and those that proceed to hold the torch within the pursuit of the chic. by no means faraway from the skin are such overarching issues because the pressure among mass construction and person excellence, and the evolving methods American society has outlined, skilled, and expressed its courting to the land.
Fly-fishing could appear a rarefied pursuit, and making fly rods could be a quixotic profession, yet this wealthy, attention-grabbing narrative exposes the soul of an real a part of the US, and the nice importance of little issues. George Black’s newest excursion right into a hidden nook of our tradition is an completely captivating, illuminating, and enlightening experience.
From the Hardcover edition.
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