"Her friend told her to remember that Buddhism is a religion made by men, but mother love is even more ancient and has always been the strongest force in the world. "
Unlike all those other religions?
1
This interview/essay is a type of advertisement for the book, yet there is not one quote from the book.
Does Parul Sehgal and New York Times readers not understand that novels are stylistic experiences; that what they are ABOUT is about 10% of what they ARE?
1
@Anthony The book is quoted at least six times.
4
"Offill has made no concessions, no feints to be taken seriously on anyone’s terms but her own."
The inference here is that the small and the domestic are markers of female authenticity. And that those writers who tackle bigger and more panoramic novels--if those writers are women--are contorting their work to other people's --i.e., men's terms. This is so depressing. it's also not true. Why can't women write about what they want to and still be regarded as true, as having made no concessions? Is it only genuine if it includes "domestic care"? And why would any female critic want to believe this, much less say it?
8
I was hoping for a work that offered something more than clever, theatrical hand-wringing that's characteristic of so much academic fiction associated with the topic. There is real reason for despair. I may read the book to see if the fictional characters take some concrete action against corporate capitalism, even if it's only symbolic, but it's hard to tell based from the reviewer's somewhat overwrought adulation of the author.
5
It’s not a review. It’s an interview.
3
I'm just back from the paper's books pages, where I noticed at least two articles (in addition to this one) on Offill and her books. Why does the Times decide so often to go all-in, albeit not usually for more than a week or so, on particular writers? Is it a response to the PR campaign waged by the writers' publishers or agents?
Of course, it's not just the Times. Offill and 'Weather' are being talked about all over. I'm reminded that, as Ed Abbey once said, book critics are like giant schools of minnows, all turning in the same direction at once.
8
I know climate change is a huge and undeniable problem. After reading this essay/interview, I'm unsure how it fits into? is the underlying theme? is the subject of the novel? by Offill. Is it a work of art or a polemic? The problem is I'm so confused I don't know if I want to read the book.
3
Absolutely loved this piece. This will stick with me for as long as I live.
We are the antagonists in this story.
10
I really loved this piece; what a fine portrait of a novelist. Sehgal comes to understand the essence of the work as the piece moves forward, and illuminates her understanding with the parallel appreciation of the patient work of Vija Celmins. Such a pleasure to read, thank you.
16
Thank you for this. My climate grief is real and I wish solutions would show up in Pop Culture as much as the “Wine Culture”. We have to get serious and show people these ways will matter. Meanwhile after reading The Water Will Come, We Saved an Island and An Uninhabitable Earth I was ready for another book. So this goes on the library request.
8
She admits it - its a white middle class thing to think your kids are gonna be perfect and buy commodities and protect them.
Try this one out - "My kids deserve nothing, they are just people, they'll be ego driven evil doers stepping on someones toes, and I don't care about their future."
You'll feel better.
5
@Ignatius J. Reilly
How about "If I love my children, spend time with them, help them work up to their potential without viewing them as ego-gratifying extensions of myself, and teach them by word and example that there are some philosophies that wear well (e.g., 'Lord, let us not live to be useless' (Wesley); 'If I am not for myself, who will be for me? if I am for myself alone, what am I? and if not now, when?' (Herschel?), maybe I'll become the parent of a kind, self-sufficient human being."
10
The planet is not falling apart.
Offill’s work is derivative.
4
@Elle Roque and of course you've read it? Yeah, I thought not. The ecosystem that supports life is falling apart, not the planet. The moon is a planet, quite together. But I wouldn't want to live there, nor would you, in any sort of weather.
9
@Me sadly, yes, I did read it. And no, neither the ecosystem nor the planet is “falling apart”— did it “fall apart” during the Ice Age? What about 1934 and the heat wave—did the planet “fall apart?”
The nature of Nature is change.
Please stop using the term “planet” in headlines. It’s life - not the planet - that will suffer because of climate change. This is one of the small but enormously consequential shifts we must make in our collective conscience in order to fully internalize the existential threat before us.
11
How many ways do I love this critique!
7
As a survivor of the Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, thank you for teaching me the word 'solastalgia', which sums up exactly the mental condition I, and no doubt many of my friends and fellow citizens, have been living with, given our city centre and much of its surrounds have been so utterly transformed in their wake.
18
Lucy Raubertas, RP, T Smith: No, the planet is NOT falling apart. It is "merely" reacting to changes -- chemicals in the air, soil, and sea -- which mankind has brought about.
It's the human race which is falling apart.
Right now, it's "merely" societal, by and large.
But later, well... There's the rub.
6
She sounds like a lovely person, interesting to talk to, intelligent, with a rich curiosity and wealth of interests. Perhaps hers is more a work of visual art: Those slim scrims of text, posted on a bulletin board like collage. I found her last novel unpersuasive and cloying. The emperess is at the least very underdressed.
Maybe Sehgal is indeed the more humanist.
4
@meriboo
Indeed, I wondered if the reviewer is the better (more interesting/satisfying/encompassing) writer in this case.....
2
With all due respect for Offill's artistry, and the complexity of character captured in this interview, the following assertion supplies food for thought:
"She called Millet, crying. Her friend told her to remember that Buddhism is a religion made by men, but mother love is even more ancient and has always been the strongest force in the world."
So what if Buddhism is "a religion made by men." Mother's love that is too attached can easily morph into the dark side of the feminine -- the shadow side. The above suggests that men don't understand this, therefore Buddhism does not make room for it. But perhaps mother's love was taken into consideration. To be too attached to one's love for a child can most certainly become a problem.
Offill is (I say IS, having known her) a 'catastrophizer.' Sees the worst in situations and people... to a fault. It is seeing the worst in men to be soothed by the thought that men created a philosophy that doesn't take a mother's love into consideration, when we all know that this love requires a gentle balance between that love and letting go.
I'll read "Weather" with the hope that there's some redemption in it.
8
I'm an environmentalist, with a masters degree in "environment and (international) development". Climate change is a very serious problem, needing constant and serious responses. That's why this inane hyperbole, which drives us apart politically, also drives me nuts.
The climate is not in "collapse" nor is the planet "falling apart". The climate is changing, and society must change to mitigate and adapt to the most disruptive effects. But, the world will go on, the climate will go on, and society will go on.
Realistic assessments, honestly presented, will build collaboration to adopt realist and reasonable responses to climate change. Crazy divisive hyperbole won't.
18
@Dennis
"Realistic assessments, honestly presented, will build collaboration to adopt realist and reasonable responses to climate change."
I hear you... still, I submit that sentence is hyperbole.
Why?
Because bottom line, fundamental, selected code for relationship interface, conserved across species, is: Fitness Beats Truth.
Sub-codes of Fitness > Truth are: Me > You; Us > Them; Short term > Long term.
That's why lying is fundamental to politics, ubiquitous in ads & our daily interactions.
That's why war & genocide are apps.
That's why there's micro-plastic in our rain, excess sugar in our food, the sky & ocean are being armed with weapons of mass extinction — species going extinct at rates substantially over background rates; &.
Then, there's the efficacy of democracy.
Democracy can't process: Complex global relationship information with exponential dynamics.
Dictatorships can't; socialism can't; i.e., humans can't.
Code Fail
We're not coded — biologically or culturally — to process complex global relationship information with exponential dynamics.
We're coded for relationship interface with local environs, primarily in a short-term manner with incremental dynamics.
Our biological and cultural coding structures do not match, nor can they support, the alien, unprecedented environs we've generated — the dominant (& emergent) phenomenon of our era being exponentially accelerating complexity.
When the petri dish is packed & resources dwindling, collaboration loses.
7
@Dennis
"Realistic assessments, honestly presented, will build collaboration to adopt realist and reasonable responses to climate change."
I hear you. Still, submit, I can argue that statement is wishful hyperbole.
Why?
Because fundamental, selected code for relationship interface, conserved across species, is: Fitness Beats Truth.
Fitness > Truth sub-codes: Me > You; Us > Them; Short term > Long term.
That's why lying is fundamental to politics, ubiquitous in ads & our daily interactions.
&
“Cooperators always have lower fitness than defectors in a well mixed population." Martin Nowak — Supercooperators
That's why there's micro-plastic in our rain, excess sugar in our food, the sky & ocean are being armed with weapons of mass extinction — species going extinct at rates substantially over background rates; &.
Then, there's the efficacy of democracy.
Democracy can't process: Complex global relationship information with exponential dynamics.
Dictatorships can't; socialism can't; i.e., humans can't.
Code Fail
We're not coded — biologically or culturally — to process complex global relationship information with exponential dynamics.
We're coded for relationship interface with local environs, primarily in a short-term manner with incremental dynamics.
Our biological and cultural coding structures do not match, nor can they support, the unprecedented environs we've generated, e.g., the dominant (& emergent) phenomenon of our era: exponentially accelerating complexity.
You live in Vermont . How warm is it this winter ?
Philadlephia has barely frozen and no snow. My flowers are coming up in Jan/ feb.
5
I love kids and all too - but that all encompassing love a Mother feels for her kids is mostly chemicals science tells us. Without it there would be a lot of abandoned kids. She may well be mistaking chemicals for enlightenment or truth.
It's not some great all knowing force that can be equaled to knowledge gained and perspective changed through free will. It's instilled by nature for better or worse. It causes just as much harm as good. Is the basis of competition and consumption.
It is the force that causes Mothers to defend sons who raped on college campuses knowing full well they are guilty.
Remember - many an evil person in history had a mother that protected and unconditionally loved them- Adam Lanza et all.
Just something to mull over.
13
What an elegant essay about a writer whose work I now want to get to know. Regarding the observation about climate scientists and biologists, expressing optimism in public but a sense of hopelessness in private, I concur. In "A Sand County Almanac," Aldo Leopold wrote "One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on the land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that sees itself well and does not want to be told otherwise." --Aldo wrote that in 1949. How much more painful are the consequences of human action (and especially, inaction) on the living world today? "Solastalgia," indeed.
147
Thanks for adding such a moving statement of truth. From the book to the profile of the author and her work, to your comment, what a chain of inspiration!
40
@Trish Marie Wow! Thanks for sharing this quote from Leopold; I am only faintly acquainted with him, but it is remarkable how prescient, aware and thoughtful he was about the state and fate of the planet, way back in 1949, no less.
I am reminded of William Wordsworth poem "The World is Too Much with Us." It was written in 1805, and still very meaningful today, sadly so.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45564/the-world-is-too-much-with-us
23
I was an artist in residence through the Aldo Leopold Foundation for the celebration of the Wilderness act that he fought for. I loved working and talking with biologists. One of the best experiences in my life.
We need more science and art collaborations. They have always gone hand in hand.
A wonderful catalog is Art, science and the spiritual about this long relationship.
17
Nothing will induce me to believe that that was the most flattering image taken of the author that day.
She does sounds like a lovely and interesting person, deeply dedicated to her work. It's a tricky thing to try to write without a plot. Interesting that more women than men seem to be doing it lately. I wish there had been more of that kind of talk in this article and less about socks in the bathroom etc..
3
James Joyce? Automatic writing, Beat poets- etc. ?
Many men write this way as well. Perhaps they are not traditionally structured but then in itself, it has become a way of approaching writing that is, and has been broadly used.
I like hearing about the mundane and how women balance domestic life with making art work.
I personally want to hear more about this. Little acknowledged are the artists throughout history who had women taking care of them so they could explore their genius. It’s different for women- believe me.
9
Sounds a bit Virginia Woolf-like: stream of consciousness, mirroring the subjectivity of her characters’ meandering and erratic thoughts. Plotless? This sort of prose style enables narrative that shows characters’ development/internal evolution. Sounds rich in plot to me!
1
Amazing article. Thank you.
I feel much of the same but don’t have children. I lamented this and still do at times. As time marches on and Australia burns the most unique wildlife by the billion, I am relieved I don’t have children to explain this to.
Often times, daily, I have to remind myself to be present to the beauty that is still here. To care for it - fight for it. I cannot yelp but feel religion is responsible in that it separates God from Earth: the most spiritual i feel is in the ocean and the coral reefs, in the forest with the trees and in the garden- in love with plants.
How did we get so lost ? To think money and industry mattered more than these previous and fragile things. To destroy what gives us life. We are the only species who do this. We lost sense of our interconnectedness. The aboriginal people had it right, and still, all over the world, they are being pushed out for the money. Activists are killed: a man trying to protect monarchs was just killed in Mexico. Aboriginal activists regularly killed in the Amazon. Dire times indeed.
I really appreciate her comment on Buddhism: I spent time in Nepal and women are still abused but Buddhists - it’s no different in its hierarchies and the rest - we idealize it.
I love that she said women are different and Buddhism preaches detachment while we need attachment to survive. I always thought Buddha was worshiping the tree - or finding a way to be one with it- humans built temples to him- not trees.
14
@Lule Let's not fall into the trap of idealizing aboriginal people. It is easy to try to be in balance with nature when technology is not advanced -- there isn't really a choice! It seems to be human nature to be interested in things that are new and to try to develop useful skills. Those traits generate good consequences and bad consequences. The bad consequences for future generations having to adapt to a changed climate may seem insignificant to people whose lives have been saved by medicines that could not have been developed without industrialization.
2
beautifully written review. and it made me want to read the author's books. beautiful writing and nails her points. from a former journalist. you have the gift.
24
So much is here, particularly if you combine the book described, the review, the authors of each, their interactions, climate change and what it's doing to our psyches among other things, and the comments, including some who are even now in denial.
First, the reviewer is quite a writer, as many of the comments say.
I recently compiled a list of fields which are going to have to step up to meet the multi-generational challenges of climate change. I had not thought of literature; I'll have to add it.
I've separately been looking at the do's and don'ts of writing for the social sciences. I've been struck by how much has changed, with the researcher/author allowed, even encouraged, "to be in the story." I'm struck by how far we've come from the strict requirement to keep a wall between researcher and subject/interviewees. I see the same here in fiction, including it's OK now for critic and author to go to museums together, and even for the former to wash the latter's dog. I'm not complaining, but just a bit dazed as I try to sort this out. It is so different!
But I guess if it leads to the insights in such a review there's a lot to be said for it.
Wish I had time to read the book. But hopefully I'll run across the audio version. I would play it while driving and perhaps while stopped at a light, look for squirrels trying to figure us out.
20
The planet is not "falling apart."
6
A billion animals killed in Australia. A billion. Ecosystems that were wet for a million years burned. 250 species go extinct per day.
The ocean is warming and reefs are rapidly dying: the ocean is full of plastic.
Go to Kathmandu and try to breathe . Now trump will end our clean water protections- perhaps our rivers can smell like they do there - you have to hole your nose. You cannot handle the stench. This is their sacred river.
The rate of deforestation?
You won’t accept it - it must be kind of nice to be decidedly and stubbornly unaware and unaccepting of facts. And this is why we did nothing fifty years ago when we could.
12
The planet the country and much of the world is falling apart. It’s actually something real to also see that humans are creative and incessantly make beautiful meaningful things. May be the saving of us all, soul and body
14
“The planet is falling apart?” Really? I think this type of hyperbole is one of the reasons serious people with serious concerns have a hard time gaining traction. It is analogous to Greta’s “how dare you” comments before the UN. Her supporters love it but those on the fence are rightly offended.
6
Why is it that self-described "on the fence" people are allowed to justify thier inaction simply by stating how offended they are by words such as "How dare you!l as though that threat - the one to their sense of self - is greater than the ecological threat happening all around us.
9
Haven't artists always created during times of crisis? During Fascism, Depression, Wars, Civil strife? That's what artists, including writers, do.
15
Those have been human-centric stories. The challenge now is telling stories about the nonhuman forces of climate systems.
3
Through my gushing for the author I forgot to add in a previous comment what a fabulous piece piece of writing this article is. It really kindled a fire quickly and achieved inspiration as it went. All in a digestible package. Great work and thanks. Okay that’s enough...Now I’m off to the library to find some work by this kaleidoscopic soul!
31
So inspiring ! The author of the article is a fantastic writer as well. I love how she trails in and out of conversation with visual and physical observations.
I also love watching squirrels.
It’s true many people are not aware. My neighbor cut all the trees - homes to so many species- in his yard for a green lawn.
There is something really backward about what we learned is normal in American society.
6
Dukkha does in no way mean - "life is tolerable, but barely so." in any translation
It means "life is suffering" or at very least is "stress" or has a
"drag" on it.
It's the basic Buddhist tenet.
9
I wish they would also promote life is joy- exaltation- passion.
Passion makes the world go round- makes us reproduce - sing and dance.
Buddhism is so limiting.
2
I prefer life is beautiful.
I spent time with Geronimo’s grandson, he was 103 living on the edge of saguaro national monument , he wouldn’t leave when they formed the park.
He lived frugally - no running water - no kitchen. We ate over a fire- canned food. We talked that evening and he let me camp my truck and sleep on his little patch of land.
This is what the great keepers of wisdom were reduced to- the people who knew it is Mother Earth- father sky. Nothing is owned in reality. The land has a spirit.
He told me everything is energy- he told me there is never a reason to be bored or sad- you can look at the sky/ the plants / the birds. To never forget the pulse of life. I don’t need religion- any religion.
Buddhism is full of hypocrisies like the rest of male dominated traditions. I use it as needed- but it doesn’t make my heart and soul soar like watching an octopus change colors while it’s swimming.
The first time I swam in a Coral reef I just kept saying , in my mind, I love you- I love you.
Destroying this breaks my heart over and over again.
8
I'm automatically skeptical of the work of any writer who is featured in the magazine, and I didn't really encounter anything in this article to cause me to wonder whether my automatic skepticism was perhaps unwarranted.
4
Scurvy was around in the 1940s as well.
My father was a Marine in the South Pacific in WWII and my mother told me when I was a mere stripling growing up in the 50s that he had had it.
He never spoke of its effects or anything else he experienced on Guadalcanal, Saipan or Bougainville.
1
I liked this book--moving and oddly disturbing, if much less linear and direct than my forthcoming political thriller about the forced obsolescence of of ICE vehicles, or my first novel about the collision of Homeland Security and civil rights in lower Manhattan, "Lion at the Door." But Offil's prose is unlike anything I've ever read. "Weather" is definitely worth a read.
17
God Bless the creative writers who can help us contend with what is happening in the world.
I read a headline on Yahoo news feed that quotes Rex Tillerson saying he doesn't think there is any thing the world / people in it, can do to change, or limit much less stop, what is going on with climate change, global warming, and green house gas effluence.
Given that Rex has access to the hard science associated with the problem of pumping tons upon tons of carbon dioxide gas / pollutants into the atmosphere, he has obviously developed a pretty thick skin for what Exxon and all other petroleum companies have contributed to the global climate predicament.
Perhaps if Rex were to read some literature on the topic he would be moved to break out of his technocratic view of the world, life, and human destiny.
Alternatively, I wonder if it is too late for literature and what we really need are ranting screeds about how to stop the global warming train, bow to limit power held by the likes of Rex, and how to rebuild and restore an ecological earth, so we may all live with some semblance of hope for a better world.
30
Don’t just preorder Jenny’s new novel, order the previous two as well! She’s a brilliant writer and I’m surprised none of the commenters have read her work. Her books deserve widespread appreciation. I was in that Unhinged Narrator class she taught at Columbia, and can verify that she’s a wise and compassionate old soul crammed with knowledge and bursting with curiosity.
44
From David Griggs, former head of the IPCC science working group secretariat, in a conversation with four Australian climate scientists discussing their fears for the future and where they are moving their families to to minimize coming impacts:
“You can say you don’t believe in gravity, but the apple will still hit you on the head.
You can say you don’t believe in climate change, but that’s not going to stop it getting hotter.
I think we are headed to a future with considerably greater warming than 2 degrees C. … that means a lot of people will suffer. A lot of people will die.”
https://youtu.be/jIy0t5P0CUQ
34
@Erik Frederikse It sounds horrible you can't help relieve the pain knowing and believing genuine cause of that weather symptom. I try to use as little water on flushing toilet as possible and recycle all empty plastic and glass bottles and so on. I think something more bigger and effective solution idea would be given to me in 2020. I would be really grateful if it happens to me.
3
Try not to use plastic - the recycling is not getting recycled in many places. People need to stop.
Whole Foods and other health food stores are just as guilty as the big chain supermarkets.
5
“Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.” ~ William Wordsworth
Since the first spark appeared four billion years ago, life has raged through almost 30 billion species. Humans built complex civilizations and spectacular works of art and science while deluding themselves they were somehow exempt.
15
Yes - I often wonder why there are not more songs about what is happening.
The only people who sing about climate change are the roots, public enemy- coco Rosie -
I just don’t understand where the love songs are for the planet. Pop music bores me so much. I want to hear about the reality not the surface.
4
@M. Bruce - And convincing that we are the epitome, the final glorious success, of the process of evolution. Hail, homo sapiens! And we had such promise as a species…
1
@Lule Because the music industry no longer welcomes reality, that's why. Who can make a living in music (or writing, or literary translation, for that matter)? No one, that's who.
A fabulous and enticing portrait of a fascinating soul. I can’t wait to dig into her musings via these fascinating characters. Funny how the voice of inner dread can give springs to a counter-intuitive will to live and fight for collective (of not just neighborhood, workplace, family or barstool) survival. I really can’t wait to discover how she weaves it all.
21
What a delightful portrait of one of my favorite contemporary American fiction writers. I'm glad the Times is putting a well-earned spotlight on Jenny Offill, who should be a household name!
24
I knew Jenny as a child; I taught with her parents in Indiana. I remember her as a delightfully insightful young friend, and spending time with her and her parents were some of my fondest memories of that time. I am so thrilled that she became such a wonderful writer, but then, knowing where she came from and the nurturing and inquisitive home she grew up in, I am not at all surprised. Best wishes, Jenny.
49
This book review—and it's so much more than that—is one of the most delightful, inspiring reads I've had of late.
65
@Todd it really is a remarkable essay. I didn't want it to end,
19
@Todd I think we all second that. Me too. What a phenomenal read.
4
We should not worry so much about climate change since it is merely an effect of the inexorable growth of the human population. In that sense climate change is built into our genes and is as natural as any weather phenomena. And it is certain that when it needs to get our attention it will and a new state of the world will commence. It is only when we grieve for our species that we feel loss. But the coming era of depopulation is just part of a natural order in which we are not the center and it reveals that we never have been. The planet will cleanse itself of our influence after we are gone and establish its next state of being for its next state of life. We should accept our limitations and make the best of our time while we have it.
19
@Bobotheclown - Do you have any statistical facts to back your statements? Most environmental writers won't talk about "overpopulation" because is is a statistical canard and a cover story for bigotry. When 10% of the world's population cause 80% of the problems, the number of people overall is not the problem.
9
@Bobotheclown In other words, we should accept that we are killing ourselves, with the most innocent (the non-industrialized poor) dying first, pushed to this horror deliberately by the fossil fuel interests for their short-term profits when, in just a couple of decades, we could reduce carbon emissions to a safe level if we could muster the political will to oppose those interests? If there is a more perverse way to turn Zen acceptance on its head, I would be pleased to see it.
13
@Bobotheclown
If you really want to be taken seriously, perhaps a better screen name than "Bobo the Clown" would have been a good bet.
6
Well, you sold me. First time I’ve pre-ordered a novel in my 50 years.
35
The planet is not "falling apart". It's getting warmer, slowly, about 1/100 of a degree C per year.
3
@Jonathan Katz When people say "falling apart" they mean over several generation. Global temps are actually rising about 1°F every 50 years, and at an increasing rate. As NASA's web site describes, most of the warming observed since the late 1800s has occurred in the last 35 years, and the rate of Antarctica ice mass loss has tripled in the last decade. New NASA satellite data show the Arctic warming at 4.5°F per decade. How soon will we be rising 1°F every 25 years? How would that look in 100 years? We don't want to find out - we need collective action to reverse current trends.
39
@Jonathan Katz
The planet's not falling apart?
Tell that to the Great Barrier Reef or the Blue Mountains in Australia or mountain glaciers feeding the Ganges or land disappearing under the water along the Louisiana coast or the shrinking rainforests or .......
It's clear that the climate is becoming dangerous and poses a long-term civilizational threat because the demand for more and more and more has made it so.
So you see, Mr. Katz, you're wrong on the facts, as any climate scientist could tell you.
29
There is a phenomenon in which the degradation of the natural world experienced by one generation becomes the next generation’s baseline, its “normal” experience. The planet is indeed greatly degraded by human activity and it gets worse every year. If you don’t think this is true, it’s likely because you literally cannot see it. What I know to be the ever-expanding destruction of everything natural that I learned to love when growing up 60 years ago, is just the normal reality for a millennial. Forests are being destroyed at a great rate and many species are going extinct. It’s not going to go away, or stop, just because some folks are, willfully or existentially, blind to the changes.
26
the Planet Is Falling Apart, really chicken little?
4
@Steve If you lived on the water in New England you'd think so, given that the water has risen a foot and a half in the last century. Not that there's flooding in Florida, tho...
17
Steve in Florida. Try standing at the beach down there for the next fifty years and let’s see where you’re at in relationship to water then.
14
having not read the book, or likely to...Im hit by some anxiety by the description....in that I know too many depressed people, who can not hold a good conversation because they cant string coherent thoughts into a meaningful pattern. they are all over the place, inserting random ideas and facts where they dont belong. getting side tracked. and they all seem to suck up everyone else's problems. which is what ths book sounds like. I want to run from the room and them.
5
@Boregard Do run from the room. That will make more room for the rest of us who are adults who can entertain a full range of feelings and ideas.
22
mary sojourner. lol. I feel 'em. just not one of them all the time. being depressed these days is the new standard of living. seems if you dont feel it, and often, you're not really living. to which I say, "phooey!" and I'll gladly leave the depressed room . why would ayone want to be in there...?
3
You don’t know many artists do you?
Peoples brains are different. We connect many disparate thoughts - in art.
I’m amazed at how dismissive these comments are - all from men- not surprised.
2
It's hard to imagine that the novel is better than the review itself. "She is endlessly curious; her probing leaves you feeling pleasantly browsed." Great stuff. If a writer as good as Ms. Sehgal likes the novel, it's a must-read.
90
@Ray Welch I loved that sentence, too! Brilliant.
11
Jenny Offill is so great. Books like "Weather" are my doomstead.
8
Thank you both.
6
Parul Sehgal,
I just want you to know how much I appreciate everything you write and appreciate the TImes for giving you this platform. This essay on Jenny O is remarkable, not just for what you convey about her, her passionate devotion to craft & climate and the uncovering of the human condition, but for what you show about yourself — your ability to help us know what we should be reading, writing, thinking, and aspiring to as humans on a planet too many of us are too myopic to save. I loved 'Dept. of Speculation' and look forward to 'Weather.' I once tried to write a novel in fragments (40 years ago), and while I didn't file it away as a bad novel, I waited so long to do anything with it, that the form fell out of fashion and I tucked it away. Jenny's wall inspires me to pull out my own fragments, figure out what works and what does not. She helped me get there, but so did you.
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@Susan D
I couldn't agree more. Parul Sehgal is a literary treasure.
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Eager for the latest one here in Hove. A splendid article, the result of much work.
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although our new zeitgeist of climate change bores me to the grating bare bones, what an excellent, captivating review.
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@darius molark If you are bored by the vast majority of peer-reviewed science telling us that the planet is warming at an increasing pace, expected to rapidly accelerate as the arctic absorbs more heat and the tundra thaws, leading to rapid climate changes that will severly impact 100s of millions if not billions of people within a few generations, leading to mass migration, water shortages, and disrupted agriculture, coupled with emerging social media that lends itself to the spread of misinformation and propaganda with great appeal to the disenfranchised, turning back decades of democracy-driven social progress and threatening a socio-cultural-natural collapse of a scale hardly imagined by sci-fi writers, then please - tell me what interests you.
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@Steve Bower oh Yes this. Thank you.
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@darius molark That the masses are much like you is apparently a key point... until there's a fire raging outside the door, only then will it capture the attention of most. And sadly... well, you know. The End.
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What a delightful piece of writing. Thank you! My next binge-read will be Jenny Offill.
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Good review. Thank you. Can’t wait to read it and yes, about time climate change is written from a psychological perspective. Wake up.
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Thank you for the outstanding article--how wonderful to get to know a little about the life and ways of the writer Jenny Offill. And thank you also for including the photo of some of her "rescued" manuscript fragments. How lovely to have this insight into her process of writing and rewriting!
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What an outstanding article! How fine Offill's books must be to justify such a wonderful celebration of her work and the heroine's journey she's taking for all of us.
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I can't wait to read this new novel. I just wish I could walk around with Jenny, and become her friend. She sounds fascinating and lovely--warm, kind, interested in the world, in both the larger and smaller sense of what the world encompasses. What we need right now--to separate ourselves from the toxicity and look at the beauty of our small, domestic lives, at our children, and appreciate with gratitude, what we have. Thank you for this article--why I read the NY Times.
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@Eva Lockhart I was thinking the exact same thing; that Jenny would be wonderful to know and spend time with!
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