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liliacea

liliacea@bookrastinating.com

Joined 6 days, 18 hours ago

Mostly reading in German and English. Languages I am trying to learn/improve: French, Russian, Spanish

Interested in climate and ecology, philosophy, science-fiction and poetry. And a lot else.

Mastodon: liliacea@climatejustice.social

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Learning to die in the Anthropocene : reflections on the end of a civilization (2015, City Lights Books) 3 stars

Coming home from the war in Iraq, US Army private Roy Scranton thought he'd left …

We still need to learn how to die in the Anthropocene I guess

3 stars

Not so sure about this one. I fail to imagine how it would have been to read this when it was first published in 2015. Now, ten years later, some of it felt quite prophetic, but other parts rather shallow and some of it just proved to be wrong and is outdated now. The challenge to learn how to die, not as individuals but as a civilization, is on point, though. But the language of the book mystified this endeavour for me more than being able to clarify the path.

The Great Derangement (Hardcover, 2016, University of Chicago Press) 5 stars

"Are we deranged? The acclaimed Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh argues that future generations may well …

The Great Derangement

5 stars

This was very interesting to read and definitely gave me a lot to think about. I liked the focus on how fiction is unable to speak about the climate crisis meaningfully, and the emphasis on power relations (and disparities) apart from pure economical ones, later on. The comparison between the texts of the Paris Agreement and Pope Francis's Laudato Si was genius.

Post-Apocalyptic Environmentalism (Hardcover, 2022, palgrave macmillan) 4 stars

How to act when global catastrophe cannot be averted?

4 stars

This was a very nice read! The book presents a useful framework of three meta-narratives present in environmentalism: green progress, the apocalyptic, and the post-apocalyptic narrative. I found the respective characterizations to be insightful. The relelvance of emotions like grief and anger is mentioned, but might be a little underdeveloped, and I would have liked to read about the role of shame and guilt as well. The concluding remarks about the future and the utopian vision needed were maybe a bit too brief. Still, a very nice, well-researched and well-written book. I especially liked the focus on how hope is not the only motivating force towards climate action and how a post-apocalyptic reckoning with the catastrophe need not be a passivizing or depoliticizing narrative!