Where is paradise on earth? Somewhere far from the maddening crowds, the cold, the politics, work, of course. People have been searching for their paradise for centuries, even before taxation was invented. The stories of those who wrote about their exploits often reveal more about themselves than the nature of the paradises they sought and sometimes found. Did you know that Sir Walter Raleigh was the world’s first pusher of paradise real estate? Or that among the explorers of tropical paradises, the infamous Captain Bligh of the Bounty was quite humane and considerate? Or that Captain James Cook was the first westerner to get a tropical, full body massage—and was pretty coy about describing it? That the original Shangri-La paradise was a mix of ascetic monks on top of a Tibetan mountain and a tropical village of loose women at its foot? That Thor Heyerdahl and his first wife honeymooned for a whole year in a remote tropical paradise, leading to his Polynesian migration theory and the Kon Tiki expedition?
Found, Lost, Paved and Sunk: Paradise explores the mind set of artists, beachcombers, colonial administrators, developers, explorers, hermits, missionaries, mutineers, philosophers, scientists and writers, not to mention the native residents who were already living in the paradises they sometimes describe. Learn about the mechanics and problems of living in a paradise, dealing with neighbors both onshore and offshore, housing, water, and health. Learn about the fate of paradises under colonialism and climate change. Learn also about the opinions of other animals and plants; where is their paradise?
The world is changing irreversibly. Where and how does paradise fit into its future? And finally, what does it all really mean?
Found, Lost, Paved and Sunk: Paradise tells all. The book is punctuated with tongue-in-cheek tips for paradise seekers but is entirely factual and extensively referenced with about 200 sources, from exploits of early explorers and travelers to the writings of prominent philosophers.
