I love clear definitions and explanations. I like information to be contained within a perfect dichotomy and broken down into pieces for better compartmentalization. And I really dig the organization of thought and ideas. So in a way, Wendell Berry is the Trish, Mark and Matt of Essay writing. He writes in a passionate and effective way that is both comprehensible and meaningful.
I’ve been interested by the topic of true community since I moved down to Orlando almost 2 years ago and became part of a church community who wanted the same thing. Berry has a very unique view on the topic, being both a Stegner fellow at Standford University and a Tobacco farmer in a small Kentucky town. (One of my favorite portions is when he devotes a section of the book to arguing with himself about the controversy of tobacco farming in this day and age.)
But along with community, he digs deeper into similarly important societal issues, such as an honest look at human sexuality and a view of the economy and environment that is much more heartfelt and true than most “Go Green” campaigns.
If you want to see the world in a different light, give Berry a try. If you are willing to metaphorically crack your skull, apply spreaders, and take a deeper look into the way you think about yourself and the world around you, get readin’.
a few excerpts:
“Nobody who understands the history of justice or of the imagination wants to be treated as a member of a category.”
“It is not possible to look at the present condition of our land and people and find support for optimism. We must not fool ourselves. It is altogether conceivable that we may go right along with this business of ‘business,’ with our curious religious faith in technological progress, with our glorification of our own greed and violence always rationalized by our indignation at the greed and violence of others, until our land, our world, and ourselves are utterly destroyed. We know from history that massive human failure is possible. It is foolish to assume that we will save ourselves from any fate that we have made possible simply because we have the conceit to call ourselves Homo sapiens.”
“In the name of honesty and sanity we must recognize the limits of politics. It is, after all, much easier to improve a policy than it is to improve the community the policy attempts to affect. And it is also probable that some changes required by conservation cannot be politically made and that some necessary changes will have to be made by the governed without the help or approval of the government.”
“Most people aren’t using or destroying what they can see. If we cannot see our garbage or the grave we have dug with our energy proxies, then we assume that all is well.”
“Sex, like any other necessary, precious, and volatile power that is commonly held, is everybody’s business. A way must be found to entitle everybody’s legitimate interest in it without either violating its essential privacy or allowing its unrestrained energies to reduce necessary public procedures to the level of a private quarrel. For sexual problems and potentialities that have a more-than-private interest, what is needed are common and shared forms and solutions that are not, in the usual sense, public.”
“Most people apparently see the sexual pretension and posturing of singers, athletes, and movie stars as some kind of high achievement, not the laughable inanity that it really is.”
“The ‘conservatives’ more or less attack homosexuality, abortion, and pornography, and the ‘liberals’ more or less defend them. Neither party will oppose sexual promiscuity. The ‘liberals’ will not oppose promiscuity because they do not wish to appear intolerant of ‘individual liberty’. The ‘conservatives’ will not oppose promiscuity because sexual discipline would reduce the profits of corporations, which in their advertisements and entertainments encourage sexual self-indulgence as a way of selling merchandise.”
Filed under: Literature , Books, Community, Economy, Freedom, Human Sexuality, Life, Literature, Quotes, Reading, Sex, Wendell Berry
