Month: December 2023

BG: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, David Greaerber and David Wengrow – A few notes*

December 2023

*The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, David Greaerber and David Wengrow

My book group is reading this. While I find it overly polemical, and prone to rather sweeping statements about what is “commonly” believed, it has interesting material in it, and provokes some interesting perspective shifts. I looked at a couple of reviews, and one concluded by calling it “a glorious mess.” I’d say “interesting mess” is more apropos.

Here is an excerpt that captures a good bit of what I think is correct:

In short, there is simply no reason to assume that the adoption of agriculture in more remote periods also meant the inception of private land ownership, territoriality, or an irreversible departure from actual forager egalitarianism.[…]
It turns out the process was far messier, and far less unidirectional, than anyone had guessed; and so we have to consider a broader range of possibilities than once assumed.
[…]
Experts now identify between fifteen and twenty independent centres of domestication, many of which followed very different paths of development…

David Graeber & David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything, p.251-252

At the same time, it feels to me like the authors have raised an army of straw men which they are chopping down one by one. It only seems accurate if we go back to the conception of history that I learned in grade school… now, and for the last many decades, I think they paint with far to broad a brush when depicting what most historians believe.

Here are some more impressions, mostly jotted down in passing as I read

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LS* – Finding the Forest, Peter Bundy

December 2023

* This is part of a small project of reading essays that focus on landscape and natural history, the idea being to familiarize myself with this genre, and to develop a better sense of what I like and do not like.

This is a short book about the author’s journey into forestry. I’m ambivalent about it. The first part of the book focuses on his own story, which I don’t find particularly interesting or inspiring. I also have to say that the writing is a bit precious – he is fond of invoking Mother Nature, and personifying the forest; he also tries to be lyrical in what seems to me a clumsy and prosaic way. However, once he becomes established in his career as a forester, I find the book more worthwhile: it is a good survey of the today’s thinking in forestry, about both its past shortcomings and its current approaches. But the combination of preachiness, romanticism and clumsy attempts at lyricism will keep me from recommending it to others.

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LS*–The High Sierra: A Love Story, Kim Stanley Robinson

November 2023

The High Sierra: A Love Story, by Kim Stanely Robinson. 2022.

* I was reading this for other reasons, but nevertheless it fits well into my project to read essays that focus on landscape and natural history.

TL;DR: I love this book. But it is not for everyone. On the other hand, it is organized in such a way that readers interested in particular topics — geology, history, etc. – could skip through the book attending to one or a few themes that interest them. It has great pictures, too.

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I’m a big fan of KSR, and think it likely that I’ve read everything he’s written, although it is possible that that omits a few early science fiction novels that were retroactively published after he became better known. I like the complex characters he develops, the intensely developed worlds he portrays, and especially his attention to geology, climate, economics, politics, and the role of large institutions – themes that are uncommon in much science fiction. Also unusual is that he sometimes ventures beyond the borders of SF, as with his novel Years of Rice and Salt, and especially with this book, which is multi-threaded work the interweaves memoir, geology, natural history and history.

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LS* – A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson

November 2023

* This is part of a small project of reading essays that focus on landscape and natural history, the idea being to familiarize myself with this genre, and develop a better sense of what I like and do not like.

While, overall, it was an enjoyable read that managed to keep my interest, I was not that keen on it. It is an example of what I am expecting is a subgenre of writing where the author sets out on an ‘adventure’ with little or no preparation (and often with an even less prepared companion), and then recounts his misadventures. Amusing, but to someone who believes research and preparation, a bit difficult to engage with.

Bryson is, in fact, a good writer, and when he actually turned his eye on the environment around him managed to craft some nice phrases. The phrases I tended to like often fell into a few rhetorical categories.

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LS* – Writing Landscape, Linda Cracknell

December 2023

Writing Landscape: Taking Note, Making Notes, Linda Cracknell, 2023

* This is part of a small project of reading essays that focus on landscape and natural history, the idea being to familiarize myself with this genre, and develop a better sense of what I like and do not like.

This is a small book of essays, both in form (easy to tuck into a pocket), and length. The essays follow a pattern: the author sets out on a journey — either to camp out for a few days, or to attend some kind of writers’ retreat or workshop – and reflects on the place where she finds herself. Her focus is on nature, and occasionally on the history or people associated with the place; she occasionally discusses brief encounters with people, but we learn nothing of her friends or companions.

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