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"Is it really sane to follow one's ideals and dreams and race alone in today's world? Is it really reasonable to insist on holding to one's visions against all odds, and after many trying years?" The newly published year 2,000 edition of this acclaimed classic chronicles how to sustain a quarter century of quest and inspiration through the arts, architecture, and personal transformation. Published by Cal-Earth Press in beautiful leather-tooled hardback with photographs from the author's original journey. Reviews: “ Khalili’s unusual, lyrical odyssey, rich in poetry and observation, is also a moving meditation on the human costs of technological progress and the quest for harmony with nature.... When he writes about the soul alive in the clay, he makes you believe it” - Publisher’s Weekly “He is an exceptionally graceful, even poetic, writer. His book is delightful as well as informative. It is, in fact, downright exciting” - Atlantic “Many cogent observations on some of the negative aspects of contemporary society, loneliness, materialism, the bureaucratic morass” - The Library Journal “Racing Alone is not just a book about architecture. It is also a stunning expose of the limits of Western ideas and technology when they are applied to largely rural cultures.” - San Francisco Chronicle “Evocative book. An appropriate gift.” - Los Angeles Times “Architect Nader Khalili spent five years of his life searching for a method to fire mud houses and turn them to stone... the book documents not merely Khalili’s architectural achievements, but also his inner discoveries: the divinity of creativity, the power of beauty, and perhaps most of all, the truth of simplicity.” - Arts & Architecture Excerpted from Racing Alone: "Midway in my life I stopped racing with others. I picked up my dreams and started a gentle walk. My dreams were of a simple house, built with human hands out of the simple materials of this world: the elements - Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. To build a house out of earth, then fire and bake it in place, fuse it like a giant hollow rock. The house becoming a kiln, or the kiln becoming a house. Then to glaze this house with fire to the beauty of a ceramic glazed vessel. I touched my dreams in reality by racing and competing with no one but myself. Horses don’t race on their own; we make them race. They simply gallop to the speed of the wind when free and exalted. Bees don’t compete, yet they all get to taste the flower; and they produce nothing less than sweet honey. Wings don’t run a contest to elevate a bird to the heights, neither does a flock of birds, and yet they all achieve the sky. We too are created not as masses to race, but as individuals to live and transcend. There is an endless reserve of strength in every human to reach his goal, if only this strength is spent in achieving rather than racing and competing. I was born and raised in the Eastern world and lived and worked in the West. I have had a chance to feel the sweet and bitter taste of the contrasting cultures. During the five years of racing alone, following my dreams and aspirations and writing this book, I discovered that: * The joy of discovering and the ecstasy of creating brought with them a greater sense of achievement than any success I had gained before by racing and competing; * My potential for coping with the struggles and agonies surpassed any limits known to me before; * My quests became more meaningful when my goals met with others’ needs and goals. And I became important, in my own heart, only when I reached the others, as a drop of water becomes important only when it reaches the sea. I also saw that there is a greater message in the Air than what the wavelengths bring us; a greater power in the Water than the floods; a greater wealth in the Earth than diamonds; and a greater sense to the Fire than what we touch. And if we could see what magic lies in the Fire alone, this age could once again become the age of fire." |