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Loading... The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planetby John Green
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I began this book back in January, when I was working more strongly on my 32-books-for-the-year challenge and had already solidly finished three. I intended to finish the book within a couple of weeks, though that never came to fruition as varying motivation took my pace away. Further delay on finishing this read came in the form of being broken up with by my partner one day before our six-month anniversary. It is difficult to write about the ensuing grief, being in the middle of it, but I try just the same; if John Green could write this book in the middle of the Anthropocene, and so many reviews talking about the pandemic while he was in the midst of the worst of it, then I can write this review in the midst of my grief. (And it was my mistake that led to the breakup, anyhow -- I can afford myself no luxuries and no feeling that I am a victim in need of comfort.) In Mr. Green's last review of the book (at least, before the postscripts, which are followed by two more written after the book's first publication), one of an August Sander photograph called Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, he discusses how the subjects of the photo were mere weeks away from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the plunging of their country of Germany into World War I. He explains that the picture is about both knowing and not knowing. "You know you're on your way to a dance, but don't know you're on your way to a war. The picture is a reminder that you never know what will happen to you, to your friends, to your nation. [...] And that reminds us there is also a horizon we cannot see past." In starting this book, I knew that I was on my way to the end of another book, but I did not know that I was on my way to the void that I am now trying to crawl out of. I still do not know when or how I will make it out of this void, yet I know I will not come out of it the same person I was before. Mr. Green mentioned in his review of the photograph that one of the three farmers was killed in the war, and the other two were injured (one three times) but survived the war anyhow, though changed because of it. But I have faith that I will get through this, as I have gotten through so many other things in my life, and this book has been help towards that goal. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed five stars. Listening to this audiobook at work with a toilet brush in-hand, Green's chapter on the now-extinct Kaua’i ō’ō’s had me dissolving over a hotel toilet bowl. Green’s empathy colors even his darker observations with sweet flecks of human connection. How he manages this with chapters on hot dogs, Mario Kart, and a foreign soccer team is exactly why it’s so worth the read.
Taking on the style of a Yelp review, Green assigns a five-star rating to each topic he covers. “Our Capacity for Wonder,” for example, gets three and a half stars (due to humans’ general lack of attentiveness), while Diet Dr. Pepper gets four—Green loves the drink, but finds consuming it feels like “committing a sin.” ...Each short review is rich with meaning and filled with surprises—”Sunsets,” for example, draws on several poems to ask “what should we do about the clichéd beauty” of a setting sun— and together, they amount to a resonant paean to hard-won hope. For most of human existence, things didn't change much within a single lifetime... Now we live in the Great Acceleration, also known as the Anthropocene, where even the Earth gets updates to its apps. Change (like global warming and pandemics) is the hallmark of this new era. How to live in the midst its uncertainty without falling into despair is the open question. In his new book, The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green uses humor, wisdom and a keen sense of connections to offer us something like an answer... What Green is really telling us with these unexpected stories about Sycamore Trees, Canada Geese and Dr. Pepper is how much there is to love in the world and why that love is worth the effort. The bestselling author offers a miscellany of essays on life and letters in an environmentally fraught time.... A grab bag, but one that repays reading and reflection and a pleasure throughout despite occasionally dark moments. The book makes the wondrous small — see his essay on Halley’s Comet — and the small wondrous — like his ode to Scratch n’ Sniff Stickers. The breadth of Green’s musings at times feels like a late-night dorm-room conversation, like his attempt to contextualize just how brief of a period we have been fumbling about the planet. But those conversations were fun, weren’t they? “The Anthropocene Reviewed” is the perfect book to read over lunch or to keep on your nightstand, whenever you need a reminder of what it is to feel small and human, in the best possible way. AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
"The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet-from the QWERTY keyboard and Staphylococcus aureus to the Taco Bell breakfast menu-on a five-star scale. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection that includes both beloved essays and all-new pieces exclusive to the book"-- No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and InstitutionsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Having said that, I suspect most people won’t mind the “bait and switch.” The essays are stuffed with engagingly nerdy trivia (the history of Edmund Halley, the evolution of the QWERTY keyboard, the antecedents of ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ the origin story of teddy bears), funny stories (his brief career as an Academic Dacathalete), and nostalgia (scratch ‘n’ sniff stickers!). And goodness knows Green’s an engaging writer (as sales of his novels would suggest): honest, empathetic, and ultimately hopeful.
Green’s “gimmick” is to end each essay with a kitschy “1-5 star” rating: the city of Indianapolis gets 4 stars; Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, two stars; etc. Works well enough for essays that are about things, but begins to feel strained/labored when applied to essays that are mostly about ideas or emotions (“What’s the meaning of life? How does one find hope in the midst of despair?”) Admit Green’s more philosophical essays left me cold. There’s nothing overtly off-putting about Green’s “how lucky we all are to be alive!” affirmations, but neither did I find them to be particularly original, insightful, or convincing.
Apparently Green penned most of these essays during the height of the pandemic, and that’s the vibe I got: that Green’s basically taking us with him on a stream-of-consciousness journey through months of inactivity-spawned contemplations and reflections, augmented by internet research, more-or-less relevant diversions, and lots (and lots) of literary quotations. The result is a rather uneven collection, and definitely not what I expected based on the title/summary, but ultimately found more here to like than dislike. ( )