Strange Places

the book of It

Posted by Daniela Elza on May 28 2011

This is the home page of the book of It.
Here I will update where the book becomes available. And continue the conversation that arises from It. Maybe you will be inspired to come up with your own definitions, comments, photos. Send them to me. Join the conversation.

THE BOOK OF IT (eBook)
116 pages, $2.99
Published April, 2011
ISBN 978-0-9869441-0-9

THE BOOK OF IT (print)
116 pages, $11.99 now 15% off at $10.19
THE BOOK OF IT (PDF file download)
116 pages, $2.99
ISBN 978-0-9869441-1-6

Nothing can prepare us for what is about to be experienced. In the case of creativity and imagination nothing really should. So what is a description to do? The book of It is a poetic meditation on being, learning and education. It is about that which cannot be named, but can be pervasive in our lives (if we let it).

the book of It is available for the Kindle device, as well as for the free Kindle app for Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Blackberry, and Window phone 7

Here is a photo from Germany of the book on the ipad from Dorothee Lang (editor of the BluePrintReview).

(Yes, please, do send me photos of the book on various devices.)

Thank you Dorothee for featuring the book on the Daily s-Press blog and Rob Taylor for purchasing the first eBook copy and for the comments on his blog. Here it is on the Kindle (courtesy of Rob).

Here It is venturing out into the world. Fascinated with my fig tree sapling. Did I forget to mention it is also very playful and mischievous?

Here It is on the Android. (Thank you Christina for sending this one):

Also you can get it as a print on demand paperback (at present 15% off for $10.19 ) from lulu.com, as well as a PDF version ($2.99) for those who do not want print, or to fiddle with the Kindle app.

Here It is in the process of editing for print:

June 22, 2011: I now have print copies which will be available at readings. I might even have one at all times. If you catch me without one, you might win yourself a free copy.

Here It is on FaceBook. If you like It, you can also like it there. Also you can rate it on Amazon, and on Lulu.

For those of you who have purchased the book, thank you for your support.

Kind Regards,
daniela
You can contact me at:
daniela (at) livingcode (dot) org

Here It is on my iphone:

Reviews, Comments, Views, Awards:

Whistler Independent Book Awards 2016
the book of It took part in the Whistler Independent Book Awards 2016. It was super excited to come home with an Honorable Mention.

Thank you to the judges for their comments and recommendations. They loved the concept of the book. They made recommendations I can embrace and agree with. And they recommended using this book as a starting point for creative writing exercises in schools. I always delight when the book ends up in the hands of young people.

What others have said about the book of It:

• “the book of It speaks up for what gets left out by the obsessive concern with quantifiably measurable outcomes in education. It celebrates the spirit of adventure, play, and imagination, and the receptive openness, curiosity, and wonder at the heart of the passion for learning. It evokes the deep sources of inspiration that make possible the mind’s most transformative experiences. I’m sure I will re-read it often.”

—William A. Welton, Visiting Affiliate Assistant Professor, Loyola University, Maryland, co-author (with Gary Alan Scott) of Erotic Wisdom: Philosophy and Intermediacy in Plato’s Symposium, SUNY Press, 2008.

• “When it comes to the gap between education and learning, Daniela ‘gets it’. She happily explores it with her playfulness and unique poetic forms, writing in and out of the spaces between the brick and block buildings and the playgrounds filled with the ‘petals’ thought,’ the ‘hollows of trees,’ and where you might find ‘a blue guitar with one string.’ The Book of IT hop-scotches its way between poetry and philosophy, and invites the reader to join in its fun.”

—Al Rempel, poet (understories, Caitlin Press, 2010) and alternate teacher

Here It is hiding in the lavender on my patio:



• ‘It’ is that window, that urgent bright day which reminds us of the possibilties that call us, if only we’re willing to step out from our four walls. Each page of ‘It’ is a dynamic meditation, a burning juxtaposition, a study in inner tension. ‘It’ is brave– Elza gently takes the reader’s hand, and, with her trademark sense of humour asks the critical questions in a compassionate, high-spirited way. The result is the reigniting of that fundamental spark of wonder that exists within all of us. Elza is both teacher and student in this beautiful epistemological exploration.

—Christina Shah, freelance writer and editor

• “The Book of It is a tribute to ‘none of the above’ when it comes to the search for meaning and answers—both in life and in education. In this meditative book, Daniela Elza tries to find the It between ‘cash and two pieces of ID’ and ‘a blue guitar with one string (forgotten)’, between a tree trunk that ‘needs more than one person to embrace it’ and a measurement of ‘1000 words (can be more but not less).’ Without doubt, The Book of It is a pleasant surprise even to itself.”

—Arlene Ang, editor of The Pedestal Magazine, and author of seeing birds in church is a kind of adieu (Cinammon Press, 2010)

• “This [poetic phenomenology of it] brings us closer to the experience we know: validating and true. [It pulls us.] Daniela, invites us into the image-as-experience and in her sharp, graceful, playful naming of attributes, does not make ‘it’ or us object. … Instead, we are free to be pulled into the truths that reverberate in it. If ‘it’, sometimes, comes open and leaves closed, in the experience of reading it, I come into it and leave open. I love it!”

—Christi Kramer, poet, teacher, activist

• “‘It’ is the friend of the inarticulate that waters and nourishes the vast world within us: oceans of feelings, mountains of thoughts, valleys of good will, rivers of memory, orchards of creativity… Daniela has befriended ‘it’, and now introduces us to ‘it’- to your ‘it’ that you may have forgotten long ago. Do you recognize ‘the flame that blossoms on white winter walls and like laughter fills us’? Do you remember the time ‘when you enter its house you cannot leave each door opens onto another room within’? Thank you, Daniela, for taking me gently by the hand and leading me to ‘it'”.

—Heesoon Bai, Associate Professor, Philosophy of Education, Simon Fraser University

More responses to It

“AN ANSWER TO IT
But to be amazed is not enough:
Break through wonder’s first door,
that pane of seeing you have been knocking on
for so long.
Brave the shards
until you yourself are glass.”
—Robin Susanto

“A Haiku for It

forget Forms; swerving
approximations meeting
Heisenberg head-on”
—Christina Shah

I found this comment on the book by a Kindle customer on Amazon from April, 2014:

At first, I puzzled over the spacing, but then I slipped into the spacing and started recalling some of my favorite childhood memories. The world was more alive then, dew on wet feet, carrots fresh from the ground with the earth still clinging, late night questions my brother and I pondered before sleep took over. The childhood wonder of being 3, 4 and 5 again that Daniela Elza captured and returned to me. And then returned me to age 68, where I was pondering philosophy, physics and the current world. I read this right after finishing “Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn,” by Amanda Gefter. What a perfect transition. And then, of course, I had to go fix dinner; both worlds would have to wait.

About the Author:

Daniela Elza (Dr.) has released poems (and a few other poetic experiments) in over 50 literary and peer-reviewed publications.

Her inteRests lie in the gaps, rubs, and bRidges between poetry, language, and philosophy. She dWells in the sPaces that call us to attention, to an embodied awareness of the poetry that is our lives. In this process she not only finds that the boundaries between philosophy and poetry blur, but also that writing becomes a way of being, a vehicle for transForming consciousness, where we loosen our grip on the world to invite a more intimate connection with it.

In 2011 Daniela received her doctorate in Philosophy of Education from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.
Daniela’s full length poetry book The Weight of Dew is published by Mother Tongue Publishing, 2012. Her next book is forthcoming with Leaf Press, 2013.