Lights Out

Our world is unnaturally bright. Over eighty percent of us live under night skies polluted with light. Scientists are concerned about the impact on nocturnal creatures; researchers worry about the effects of our screens on our circadian rhythms.

Ever since the Enlightenment we have associated light with reason. In this groundbreaking book, Lauren Collee defends darkness and argues that we need to learn to understand and appreciate it.

Throughout history, conversations about dark and light have been entangled with other binary systems, such as gender and race. Now the discussion is about excess: saturation, media overload, endless consumption, incessant speed. The search for darkness is also the search for a lost world: for the authentic self in an age of artificiality, and the search for rest in an age of overstimulation.

Through reportage, interviews and personal stories, Lauren explores what a transformative relationship with darkness and light might look like. With its profound appeal to the mystery of the human spirit, this extraordinary debut will appeal to fans of Annie Dillard, Jenny Odell and Robert Macfarlane, to everyone who cares about our relationship with technology, nature and culture.