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hatsworth's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Oh my, Wendell Berry just exploded onto my radar. He is an American writer, poet, and farmer, born just as the last of the old-timers was dying and he has lived his life trying to carry their fading torch. Those old values imbue his writing, his lifestyle, and his work. While reading his essay I was stunned by a realisation that we, the consumers, have sacrificed a *lot* in the name of technological innovation. Not just in the products we buy, but the industries we’ve roped ourselves to and the wreckage we have allowed the planet to be made into.
In so few pages you can read about using old values for work, art, family, and their application in so many modern contexts. It is genuinely refreshing to hear some one talk about the world in this way and I’m scared that this mindset will be lost before long.
“I knew a man who, in the age of chainsaws, went right on cutting his wood with a handsaw and an axe. He was a healthier and a saner man than I am. I shall let his memory trouble my thoughts.”
Absolute ripper of an essay whose recommendation becomes more vehement the less you think you need to read it. 5 stars.
In so few pages you can read about using old values for work, art, family, and their application in so many modern contexts. It is genuinely refreshing to hear some one talk about the world in this way and I’m scared that this mindset will be lost before long.
“I knew a man who, in the age of chainsaws, went right on cutting his wood with a handsaw and an axe. He was a healthier and a saner man than I am. I shall let his memory trouble my thoughts.”
Absolute ripper of an essay whose recommendation becomes more vehement the less you think you need to read it. 5 stars.
robert_zaniewski's review
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
The main commentary in this essay is the implications of owning a computer or technology in general such as a car or using other appliances which are meant to 'make life easier, faster, or more efficient'. However, many times these technologies do not achieve that and also detach humans from the goal of being close to ones true self and expression of that onto the world through human trial and error. This will ultimately bleed into your relationships and your career as well as the ability to keep a happy and sustainable home. Also the point of collaboration of ones passions with your partner or others within the home which then adds to the conversation of feminism was a thought process I had never had and it was interesting to read Berry's take. The way he is able to deconstruct arguments brought on by his readers while clearly explaining why their thought process might be biased was perfect! Also, the thought of writings of people being more personified by being written in the authors handwriting stuck out to me specifically since writing with a computer is very sterile and dehumanized which is something I've never thought of before.
rosietakesonliterature's review
5.0
Consumption, as a concept, has occupied my mind for a long time. I overconsume, just like most Americans do in the modern age. For the sake of what, I am not entirely sure. It does not make my life better, most of the time. Like most in our country, so deeply rooted in capitalist ideals, I own multiple computers. There is my laptop, which I am typing this on, my iPad, my phone, my unnecessarily fancy graphing calculator, and probably others that I don't even realize are computers. As predicted, we are slaves to the machine—that has not changed but only worsened since the 80s. Do I think my life would be better without my computers? No. I am diabetic. I would literally be dead. However, there is a lot to be said about the chase of efficiency that computers are a part of. How many of us replace something that works perfectly well before it has given out?
Also, I never thought I'd care about what a man has to say about feminism, yet here we are. Why has it become normal to devaluate the work done at home? Is it not the root of unequal labor? Why is it shameful for a woman or a man to spend time in the home with their family? I am a feminist and a careerist myself, but I understand the importance of the home as a central place in one's life.
This also ties into the current discourse on the death of favor culture and communities. Capitalism has crept into our homes and streets, slowly crumbling everything that makes us human. Nothing is done out of the goodness of the heart anymore, everything is a chase for profit and efficiency.
Maybe I should start writing my manuscripts on paper. That way they will have a body, too.
Also, I never thought I'd care about what a man has to say about feminism, yet here we are. Why has it become normal to devaluate the work done at home? Is it not the root of unequal labor? Why is it shameful for a woman or a man to spend time in the home with their family? I am a feminist and a careerist myself, but I understand the importance of the home as a central place in one's life.
This also ties into the current discourse on the death of favor culture and communities. Capitalism has crept into our homes and streets, slowly crumbling everything that makes us human. Nothing is done out of the goodness of the heart anymore, everything is a chase for profit and efficiency.
Maybe I should start writing my manuscripts on paper. That way they will have a body, too.
bentrevett's review
2.0
wendell berry is a luddite, and he's proud of it! you use a computer and watch television? Berry doesn't do either of those things because he uses a pen and paper and runs a farm and lives on the land and prays to God every night and doesn't harm the environment. you should do that too. you can't because you were brought up in an urban sprawl with technology and find it too hard to put your phone down? well, you should feel bad because you're a bad person. just buy a farm and throw away all of your technology, it's easy because Berry can do it, why can't you?!
this book also contains a second essay where he goes off on the handful of people who didn't like the first essay that starts by telling everyone he isn't a misogynist because his wife loves helping him out and then turns into some rant about how bad capitalism and consumerism is (just in case you couldn't tell this from the first essay). i'm sure Berry wrote this second essay whilst being completely stoic but it's funnier to imagine him writing it whilst frothing at the mouth, seething, in his damp farmhouse with his paper and pencil illuminated by a dim oil lamp as i sit in my prefab flat, reading his works on my kindle, waiting for my 17 amazon packages to arrive, blasting my heating on full.
this book also contains a second essay where he goes off on the handful of people who didn't like the first essay that starts by telling everyone he isn't a misogynist because his wife loves helping him out and then turns into some rant about how bad capitalism and consumerism is (just in case you couldn't tell this from the first essay). i'm sure Berry wrote this second essay whilst being completely stoic but it's funnier to imagine him writing it whilst frothing at the mouth, seething, in his damp farmhouse with his paper and pencil illuminated by a dim oil lamp as i sit in my prefab flat, reading his works on my kindle, waiting for my 17 amazon packages to arrive, blasting my heating on full.