Media and the Myth of the Pristine Night

“This scintillating, lucid account peers through the murk to reveal the convoluted cultural constructions of the rural night. Trenchant critical explorations of manipulated astrophotography, romantic nature documentaries, and the promotion of an astronomical sublime disclose some of the distorted representations of darkness beyond the city. In advancing scholarly thinking about the strange, sensory otherness of the nocturnal rural, Dwayne Avery astutely foregrounds inventive artistic works and time-honored forms of indigenous knowledge and practice.” —Tim Edensor, Professor of Social and Cultural Geography, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. “Avery’s insightful book challenges the urban bias in night studies through rich case studies—from dark-sky tourism to the colonized Arctic. Blending method and analysis, it redefines our understanding of nocturnal light and darkness, making it essential reading for scholars, artists, activists, and anyone concerned with the future of night.” —Will Straw, McGill University, Canada. “Avery’s book provides a much-needed addition to night studies in its specific focus on the rural night. His work provides a friendly critique both of academic attention being overly focused on the night in cities, and of dark sky activism which fails to capture what makes rural darkness important.” —Robert Shaw, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.