Finding North: How Navigation Makes Us Human

by George Michelsen Foy Narrated by Tom Zingarelli

Overview

In 1844, George Michelsen Foy's great-great grandfather, captain of a Norwegian cargo ship, perished at sea after getting lost in a snowstorm. Foy decides to unravel the mystery surrounding Halvor Michelsen's death-and the roots of his own obsession with navigation-by re-creating his ancestor's trip using only period instruments.



Beforehand, he meets a colorful cast of characters to learn whether men really have better directional skills than women; how cells, eels, and spaceships navigate; and how tragedy results from GPS glitches. He interviews a cabby who has memorized every street in London, sails on a Haitian cargo sloop, and visits the site of a secret navigational cult in Greece.



At the heart of Foy's story is this fact: navigation and the brain's memory centers are inextricably linked. As Foy unravels the secret behind Halvor's death, he also discovers why forsaking our navigation skills in favor of GPS may lead not only to Alzheimer's and other diseases of memory, but to losing a key part of what makes us human.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

04/25/2016
Foy (Zero Decibels) ruminates on the primal skill of navigation and its metaphysical links to human nature while investigating the final voyage of his great-great grandfather Capt. Halvor Michelsen, who was lost at sea in 1844. Resolving to reenact Michelsen's final voyage, Foy begins with general research into navigation, traveling to the Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado, which controls America's GPS system, and the Royal Institute of Navigation in London. He visits the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at the University of London, where he learns that the hippocampus, which governs our navigational abilities, also governs memory. This leads Foy to the philosophical revelation that "human identity equals memory; memory equals navigation; human identity therefore equals navigation." He spends some time discussing failures of the GPS system and continually muses on the perils of relying on machine-based navigation. He finally comes to the realization that navigation begins with loss: "Living, no matter how much it hurts, comes down to losing landmarks... and then striving to find where we are again." Deep waters and deep thoughts fill these pages. With skillful prose and insight, Foy's account of the different aspect of navigation packs a powerful punch, especially when he embarks on his own voyage at sea. (May)

From the Publisher

"GPS's cultural and psychological significance is at the core of George Michelsen Foy's Finding North...[and] the questions he worries at are important ones." —The Wall Street Journal

"A well-told tale, one that makes you grateful for what we have to guide us today as well as the power of the great outdoors." —Travel + Leisure

"Foy's strongest moments happen when he taps into the internal map, through his own personal, sensory-based history with a particular place...[a] great storyteller." —Outside

"Deep waters and deep thoughts fill these pages. With skillful prose and insight, Foy's account of the different aspects of navigation packs a powerful punch." —Publishers Weekly

"[Foy’s] exploration of loss leads to a consideration of the process by which we make our way to a stage of renewal and growth…[a] fascinating look at past and present navigation.” —Booklist

"Armchair sailors will enjoy the vicarious thrills of Foy's brief journeys, and even those with no intentions of abandoning their smartphones will find something to ponder in his speculations about the challenges of gadget-free navigation." —Kirkus Reviews

"A fascinating and sobering look at how partaking of the fruit of easy GPS navigation may be changing ourselves in ways we don't fully realize." —Ocean Navigator

"I highly recommend this excellent book." —Bruce Albertson, The Ensign magazine

“Finding North takes readers on a journey around the world and deep into the nature of how humans find their way around. It's a voyage that is both personal and expansive, exploring how navigation works and its meaning in people's lives.” —Andrew Johnston, author of Time and Navigation and Earth from Space

“With engaging and personal prose, George Michelsen Foy explores the history, natural history, and—most critically—the vital importance for us today of navigation. In an age when we too often rely on technology to tell us where we are and where we're going, Foy's compelling story asks at what cost? What do we lose when we allow our skills of navigation—earned through centuries of finding our way in a wild and sometimes foreboding world—to fade? As we careen further into a century of global change, Foy shows how in a world of 'mystery and fear, and the near certainty of loss,' we will need these skills of navigation more than ever. —Paul Bogard, author of The End of Night

“George Foy frames his story of the history and practice of navigation with a hazardous personal sea voyage in a ship that might not be in good enough repair to make the trip. It's a wonderful device which he also uses to chart a difficult navigational path through his inner world—his seafaring ancestors; the tragic loss of his brother; his family; and his fears. And all of this is delivered in sensible, warm, and intelligent prose. Voyagers of all kinds will cherish this book?.” —Paul Raeburn, author of The Game Theorist's Guide to Parenting and Do Fathers Matter?

“Anyone who’s ever charted a course – or dreamt of traveling to the stars – will enjoy Finding North.” —WindCheck Magazine



“Foy takes us on an adventure… Instead of forcing us into a trap of hate and obsession he leads us gently with good humor upon a passage lit by compassion. This is another lesson in navigation: To find our way we cannot succumb to monomania. Navigation incites and inspires us to take everything into account. And, as Foy demonstrates, this requires us to do the difficult thing whenever it resonates with the needle of our compass. At such times what is hard is not a chore. It is a vessel for joy.” —Horizons of Significance
“Informative [and] well written… I recommend [Finding North] to anybody having a bit of interest in navigation, amateurs or professionals; it takes you to places you didn’t expect and at the same time makes your recognize other subjects… Well done!” —Dutch Mariner

JULY 2016 - AudioFile

The author’s frustrating experiences with getting lost are read with hearty, modest humor by Tom Zingarelli. Being lost is frightening, Foy tells listeners up front. Even getting around the house takes a lot of small calculations most people aren’t aware of. Foy is planning to locate the wreckage of a ship off Norway in which an ancestor died. As he considers the trip, he also ruminates on navigation. Zingarelli’s good-natured reading blends well with Foy's exploration of topics like the Air Force's GPS secrets and the London cabbies' renowned memory test. Foy's journey is personal, entertaining, and informative; listeners will enjoy coming along for the ride. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2016-02-28
Novelist and amateur sailor Foy (Creative Writing/New York Univ.; Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute Silence, 2010, etc.), who sees technology as a distinctly mixed blessing, chronicles his journey up the New England coast in a rickety boat without satellite guidance. In a poetically written, occasionally fragmented account, the author traces his attempts to emulate with more success his great-great grandfather, who died when his ship went down in the frigid waters off Norway. Before taking off on the brief sail from Cape Cod to Maine described in two chapters, in which the author nearly falls off the ship during high winds and reluctantly uses GPS to navigate to shore through the fog once he has reached his destination, he undertook some other navigation-related adventures. He got lost in "a casual sort of way" on his way to NYU's biology lab to explore how cells make their ways to their proper positions; encountered "the dark heart of GPS" at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado; and hitched a ride with a Haitian boat captain who steers by the stars. Later, he headed off to Norway to try, with questionable success, to find the spot in the ocean where his ancestor's ship went down. Attempts to work in his feelings about the recent death of his brother take the book off course, and speculations about the connection between the increase in the number of Alzheimer's cases and the more frequent use of GPS are far-fetched. The author's work is most successful at its most visceral: the feeling of "slaloming around lobster trap buoys, like a plane lost in clouds," or the sight of life jackets, "hung like orange fruit in the rigging." Armchair sailors will enjoy the vicarious thrills of Foy's brief journeys, and even those with no intentions of abandoning their smartphones will find something to ponder in his speculations about the challenges of gadget-free navigation.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171013066
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	05/10/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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