The Tyranny of the Great White Page
The Tranny of the Great White Page:
Writing Beyond the Edge
By: Ann Dale
The Tranny of the Great White Page:
Writing Beyond the Edge
Many writers face the tyranny of the blank page, but we write because we believe our words can matter. Beyond the Edge emerged from that belief as a response to the climate and biodiversity crises that shape our world today.
Many writers face the tyranny of the great white page when you begin a new book, a new article, or sometimes even a blog. Then why do we write? We believe we have something important to communicate and hence my new book, Beyond the Edge: Reconciliation, (Re)Connection and Regeneration was started, to try and make a difference to the climate and biodiversity crises. I originally thought I would just revise my earlier book, Edging Forward and once I began, quickly realized I had to update all the stats and then began to rewrite many of the chapters, believing I had to communicate the numerous solutions for responding to the planet through reconciliation, reconnecting and regeneration.
Still believing how the stories we tell ourselves, and are told, influence our agency to believe we can make a difference, every chapter describes solutions, individually and collectively, that we can make to change our current life destroying pathways. In addition, the book contains the wonderful original landscape paintings my collaborator, Nancyanne Cowell made illustrating each chapter. Why? Because we believed that integrating art, beauty and research will lead to greater action, engaging both the heart and the mind.
Since 1995, my colleague John Robinson and I have argued that we have enough information, enough science and knowledge to respond to our modern challenges and I am more convinced than ever, that it is now a question of political will and each of us to make a difference now. It is up to us to convince our political leaders that they must act now and urgently before it becomes too late in the following decade. This book, based on 25 years of research, is my plea to each of us to change our current pathways and leap to more regenerative communities everywhere in Canada.
