| Title | : | Tales of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 290 |
| Publication | : | First published August 4, 2020 |
In the past five years, John Freeman, previously editor of Granta, has launched a celebrated international literary magazine, Freeman's, and compiled two acclaimed anthologies that deal with income inequality as it is experienced. In the course of this work, one major theme came up repeatedly: Climate change is making already dire inequalities much worse, devastating further the already devastated. But the problems of climate change are not restricted to those from the less developed world.
Galvanized by his conversations with writers and activists around the world, Freeman engaged with some of today's most eloquent storytellers, many of whom hail from the places under the most acute stress--from the capital of Burundi to Bangkok, Thailand. The response has been extraordinary. Margaret Atwood conjures with a dystopian future in a remarkable poem. Lauren Groff whisks us to Florida; Edwidge Danticat to Haiti; Tahmima Anam to Bangladesh; Yasmine El Rashidi to Egypt, while Eka Kurniawan brings us to Indonesia, Chinelo Okparanta to Nigeria, and Anuradha Roy to the Himalayas in the wake of floods, dam building, and drought. This is a literary all-points bulletin of fiction, essays, poems, and reportage about the most important crisis of our times.
Tales of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World Reviews
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Freeman continues to bear witness to the geography of inequality in this anthology, where he assembles some of the best writing under our polluted skies to assess what happens when disenfranchised people meet up with environmental stress. In “The Funniest Shit You Ever Heard” by Lebanese writer Lina Mounzer, the dark forces of greed and resource pilfering are laid bare in this story about real estate developers who overtax the sewer system in Beirut. It’s a metaphor, really, for what we do in our daily lives, like ignoring or obfuscating the logjam of less flashy concerns (like sewers) until they are too late to fix. “All that shit we tried to hide, forget, ignore is out now, flooding the streets for all to see,” she writes. Perhaps it’s not a metaphor at all. From Gaël Fayle’s fireflies of Burundi to Margaret Atwood’s Canadian climes in poetry form, Freeman shores up the “very modern problems” of calamities we have made ourselves and asks, how do we live with such harrowing forecasts as these?
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This book was published a few days ago and I hope it becomes a bestseller. What is the "tipping point" of our species, after which recovery is impossible? When does the "climate change" of yesterday move through the "climate crisis" of today and become the climate catastrophe? Really, the only sane thing to do is for every one of us to reassess our values and reorganize our lives to make the issues discussed in this book a priority. When I was in third grade I stood up in class and interrupted my teacher to deliver a 30 minute speech on how environmental issues are overlooked in our society. She told me that I was right, but that I had taken up too much class time. That day, I felt ashamed of my outspokenness. Today, I don't. I regret only that I lost sight of this focus, which I could have pursued in tandem with everything else in my life.
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Essential reading. All of it.
All of you.
All of us.
Spoiler alert: your destruction of rivers, lands, other animals, and other humans has also destroyed you.
But! The legacy of literature IS the ecology that saves us, or anything.
Just read the damn book, everybody. -
As an anthology, there were some stories I liked in here and many that didn’t resonate with me. About 20% of them I had no idea why they were included in this collection outside of a brief mention of the climate. I struggled to get through this towards the end after reading a few of the more strange short stories (spoiler alert: the one with the woman in a cave who masturbated to a picture of Jesus threw me for a loop...) I did like the concept though of telling the stories about how climate effects people around the world, but I wish it was a bit more curated rather than throwing in some dystopian fictional accounts mixed with non-fiction which made me confused which ones were true and which ones were fiction.
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„Povești despre două planete” coord. de John Freeman și apărută la Black Button Books e o carte de a cărei traducere mă bucur mult - e nevoie de mult mai multă discuție despre schimbările climatice în spațiul românesc, atât în general, cât și în literatură. Fiind proze scurte și eseuri, mi-a luat ceva să o termin, dar aș vrea să menționez câteva ce mi-au rămas în minte și o selecție cu trei must-read la final:
◽ Riachuelo / Mariana Enriquez - Despre râul Riachuelo, unul dintre cele mai poluate din America Latină. Textul vorbește atât despre oamenii ce trăiesc pe marginea lui, cât și despre inundațiile și efectele apariției abatoarelor în zonă. Ordonanțele de a muta abatoarele mai departe de râu n-au avut impact, iar râul a fost poluat atât de resturile animalelor după procesare, cât și de alți poluanți chimici apăriți în urma industrializării zonei.
◽ Supraviețuire / Sayaka Murata - O poveste scurtă, fictivă și distopică despre o lume în care oportunitățile vieții sunt calculate cât se poate de rece pe baza ratei de supraviețuire dată de clasa socială. De fapt, foarte apropiată lumii în care trăim.
◽ El lago / Eduardo Halfon - Experiențe personale de pe marginea lacului Amatitlan, Guatemala, poluat iremediabil de deversările de chimicale de la ferme și de apele menanjere.
◽Ploile / Ligaya Mishan - Despre inundațiile din Hawaii.
◽Fântâna / Eka Kurniawan - O poveste cutremurătoare de familie și iubire, într-un sat a cărui rezerve de apă sunt tot mai puține și mai îndepărtate.
◽Un mormon albastru printre emigranți de rând / Tishani Doshi - Un poem superb despre migrație și refugiu.
◽Hawaiki / Tayi Tibble - Un alt poem superb, selectez „Cred că trebuie să fie un pântec / din care se naște totul / și în care se întoarce totul.”
◽O lume bolnavă / Diego Enrique Osorno - Despre poporul indigen Raramuri și lipsa hranei din cauza dislocării de pe propriile pământuri și schimbărilor climatice.
Dintre toate, cele care m-au afectat cel mai tare sunt:
◽Povestitorii planetei Pământ / Sulaiman Addonia - ”Starea planetei noastre e inscripționată pe trupurile refugiaților”. Așa începe eseul lui Addonia, care povestește despre cum refugiații deja conțin istoria și schimbările planetei înăuntrul lor, în poveștile și experiențele lor de viață. Scrie din experiență personală, și explică propriul parcurs de apropiere de aceste lupte, venind dintr-o zonă în care obișnuia să prioritizeze luptele pentru refugiați în fața celor climatice. Scrie despre discuțiile cu prietena lui, activistă de mediu din vest, din clasa de mijloc, și despre falia dintre ei doi. Scrie despre cum, gândindu-se la casă, realizează legăturile dintre distrugerea recoltelor și suferința propiei familii, și mai ales, despre cum, creând o școală de scriere creativă pentru refugiați, face spațiu pentru ca aceste povești să fie spuse.
◽Cel mai amuzant rahat pe care l-ai auzit vreodată / Lina Mounzer - Despre sistemul șubred de canalizare din Beirut și implicațiile privaților, corporaților și turismului în a-l face și mai falimentar.
◽Bruno / Aminatta Forna - Despre Bruno, un cimpanzeu legendar, sanctuarul în care a trăit în Sierra Leone și viața lui și a colegilor săi, până la evadare. O poveste despre schimbare, despre căutarea independenței, despre război și despre simboluri. Impresionantă într-un fel ce nu pot reda într-o mini-recenzie. -
DU MÅ LESE DENNE.
Det jeg likte aller best med denne boka er at det er en samling med ulike bidrag fra 36 forfattere som forteller/beskriver/deler perspektiv og historier fra hele verden. Alle fortellingene er regarding to klimakrisa, men det er i svært ulik grad denne koblingen er mer eller mindre direkte i alle bidragene. En annen detalj som gjorde at jeg likte helheten godt, er hvordan de ulike historiene er flettet sammen gjennom felles og overlappende tematikk (for eksempel vann, regn, luft osv). Det bidro til en god flyt på tross av de 36 inndelingene.
Jeg har vegret meg for å lese denne boka lenge fordi jeg har vært redd for hva den kom til å vekke av følelser i meg. MEN - jeg opplevde tvert imot at den ga meg flere perspektiver og satte ord på følelser og historier fra helheten av denne krisa som ellers er så kompleks, noe som viste seg å være akkurat det jeg følte jeg trengte. På tross av alvoret som preger tematikken, ga boka meg større forståelse og dermed en større følelse av trygghet i meg selv. Jeg sitter igjen med inntrykket av å ha reist rundt i hele verden og møtt mennesker og hørt historier fra deres liv (som alle er så forskjellig fra hverandre!) og jeg elsker det. -
** Books 85 - 2021 **
This books to accomplish Tsundoku Books Challenge 2021
3,3 of 5 stars!
I am curious about this books since there was Makassar Writers Festival 2021 and also two my favorite author between Sayaka Murata and Eka Kurniawan wrote their short fiction about climate change.
These books consist of short collections, essay and also poets that comes from 36 authors in different country. They really speaking out loud their worry about environment and also climate change that more than we have to think about :')
My favorite is Survival by Sayaka Murata and also The well by Eka Kurniawan! It is so well-written and i just love it their pieces as always! <3
Thankyou Google Playstore! -
What are interludes between crisis events? They are moments for contemplation - for recollection, and for storytelling. Here, Freeman collects voices from across the world at the moment between events generated by climate change. Much is valuable here, in particular for the illustrative dialogue between the politics of equitable development and lifestyle matching and the politics of environmental action that combats climate change. Some pieces are better than others, and some of the poetry is best glossed over than pursued, but on the whole this is a valuable collection of voices.
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My personal favorite:
N64 35.378, W16 44.691 by Andri Snær Magnason
A chilling journey to explore her grand-parents “legacy”.
“The glacier vanishes slowly, like a silent spring. It just melts, retreats slowly, calmly.”
😢
Survival by Sayaka Murata
A thought-provoking black mirror-ish dystopian fiction.
The Funniest Shit You Ever Heard by Lina Mounzer
It’s provocative and hilarious (?)
And of course!
The Well by Eka Kurniawan
Nuff said. It’s what you expect from Eka Kurniawan! -
3.5-some of the stories in this book were really shitty and had no depth at all. Cheers to Atwood, Danticat, and the international authors that truly gave me some perspective.
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A month after reading “Tales of Two Planets”, a collection of 36 texts on climate crisis (change sounds neutral, or even positive, but in this day and age we are talking about a crisis) and inequality edited by John Freeman, my opinion about this book is less positive than it initially was. Probably due to connections, Freeman was able to engage world known authors to contribute - sadly many delivered mediocre essays, stories or poems (especially poems are very weak) with no point whatsoever.
The book lacks structure and the best part of it is Freeman’s introduction. He asks brilliant questions about how we should talk about climate, what moral issues climate crisis poses, how we see ourselves (as individuals, each fighting for oneself, as citizens of a nation or citizens of the whole world) and what obligations we have towards those living on the other side of the globe. The problem is that very few authors challenge these issues in their texts and attempt to move the conversation further or even engage in it. Sulaiman Addonia wrote a very good essay on his own growing understanding regarding his lifestyle choices made in Belgium (e.g. eating meat) affecting those living in his home countries Ethiopia and Eritrea. Eka Kurniawan’s wonderful allegorical short story talks in microscale about the politics regarding water and climate migration in Indonesia - certainly we’ll see this happening on a larger scale in the next decades. Thoughtful essay on air pollution in Bangkok by Pitchaya Sudbanthad addresses the problem of urban development, so pressing in many parts of the world.
I wish there was some clearer message emerging from reading “Two Planets”. We already know the world is in a terrible state. We know we all need to do something. We need to focus on possible solutions, on a macroscale. What I found lacking was a stronger voice appealing to governments, lobbyists and industrialists to tackle the crisis, next to discussing implications of various strategies, instead of focusing on simply describing problems in several countries or cities. This book is a nice introduction to the discussion on climate crisis but nothing more. -
A must-read. A kaleidoscopic look at climate change throughout the world through a very human lens. I loved how all encompassing this was not only in the places it looked at, but the styles of writing. Poems, short stories, essays, journalistic pieces, even photography. Highly recommend.
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Freeman, as always, does an excellent job curating. I was hoping for a bit more optimism in this one, or at least some surprises--Tahmima Anam's being the rare exception, and probably my favorite in the collection--but it's still a worthy addition/extension to the "Tales of Two" series.
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TALE OF TWO PLANETS
I read this book (like so many others) because Kate said it was important and accessible + she was (of course, unsurprisingly, unflinchingly) correct.
To be honest, climate change often feels unfathomably menacing. Here are some stats:
- The UN projects ~200 million climate refugees by 2050. Do I know what a crowd of even 10,000 looks like? Can I multiply that image by 20,000? Our brains aren't capable of picturing it + that makes it hard to grasp.
- The current goal to “limit warming to 1.5 degrees celsius” is popularly shared but again, hard to fathom, because its implications affect hundreds of millions of people in varying ways across the country.
The reason why I bring these statistics up (I’d like to thank @treatyourshelvess + also NASA) is not because they’re not important—THEY ARE SO FUCKING IMPORTANT—but because this book tries to make your interaction with the climate crisis intimate, accessible + ‘easier’ to grasp (I put easier in quotes because none of this is easy or getting easier, but this helps your brain digest the facts better).
The chapters are short + the genres are varied (some are dystopian stories, portraits of childhood, or filled with stats) + it made the climate crisis not only intimate + personal but understandable in a way that makes it more horrifying. This book scares you not because you can suddenly picture what 200 million people without homes look like but because you have been armed with a collection of ways that the crisis is already wreaking havoc and ruining lives around the world. Read about an orangutan named Bruno in Sierra Leone, a sprouting slum on the banks of the Nairobi River, a Pandora’s box that grants wishes, + a spoiled American who doesn’t recycle.
I have spent many, many years ignoring anthologies because they didn’t seem like “real” books + this year has forced me to eat my words. Anthologies are a beautiful opportunity to read the works of many in fewer pages, introduce yourself to varying perspectives, + make for GREAT recommendations + gifts because they contain something for everyone.
CW: one essay deals heavily with fertility -
Finished this great anthology of climate destruction when a storm is hitting the coasts of Mozambique.
As the Author says in his introduction, we can dither, argue and be in a denial mode but it is ( The Climate Change) happening all around us. With the tipping point reached we can only try to mitigate the evils so that our next generation ( No future for the forthcoming generations) can live peacefully. It is a poignant collection of 36 pensive and factual literary pieces including fiction, essays poems and reportage. Another window it opens and thank you the Author John Freeman, these are pieces from some of the leading writers and journalists, poets and it makes available the list of the books from these great writers. A treasure trove for continuous reading.
To sum up quoting from one of the article by Mr. Sjon , celebrated Iceland Author
“ what will finally bring mankind to see clearly that global warming caused by climate change is neari a point of no return, compelling it to raise its defended and do everything in its power to slow down the changes and respond compassionately to the plight of those suffering the consequences of those changes?
A large part of the problem is, of course, that the societies most responsible for the changes are still the ones least affected by them. People living in the peripheral areas of the Earth , the so called indigenous peoples, or in places where survival is so dependant on the sea level , precipitation levels during the rainy season, or the life ( and death) of such essential entities as coral reefs or forests, are already wrestling with the consequences as they are manifested in wars, hunger and refugeeism.”
A must read for everyone who wishes to know more about the climate change. -
As someone said below, some stories are damn good, others are just meh. But the 4 stars are because overall, the collection is filled with a variety of tales and styles that make you see climate change through the lenses of people who live not only in first world countries, but in places that are being the first affected by this. Getting to know the day-to-day life and the environmental struggles in lands like Argentina, Burundi, Lebanon, Bangladesh and Libya (just to mention some) was both fascinating and terrifying. But I'm optimistic, and I do feel that with more literature like this, we can raise awareness to make a change.
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This book was recommended by Genevieve Padalaski's Book Club.
This book is a collection of articles from different authors from around the world. Most of us live in a very nice bubble. We are aware of the disparities between "3rd World Countries" and our modern countries, but I don't we really give it much thought. Now, I know there are those that due, some more than others, but in general when it's out of sight, it's out of mind. These articles show that other side, and it is eye opening to read them. There is climate change and these authors tell how it affects those in less fortunate countries. Some articles will make you sad, and others will make you angry. -
“We are swimming in facts, but a fact does not fully obtain the depth of a fact….until it becomes part of a story.”
It's tricky to generalise about this bleak, eclectic mix of stories, essays & poems from around the world on the effects of climate change on - usually the most vulnerable - individuals. The quality and relevance vary wildly but the overall effect is overwhelmingly depressing with a (on some occasions quite literally) shit stream of drought, famine, disease, pollution, pestilence, desertification, floods, corruption, exploitation and waste focussing on individual experience and with no tiny glimmer of hope.
*sigh* -
A collection of short stories, poetry, and essays about climate changes. I love the essays, wish there are more from the POVs of first world countries that, you know, are the main culprits of this phenomenon, just saying...
The essays are heartbreaking and relatable, the stories are amazing (I love Daisy Johnson's story but can't think of the connection with climate change XD in his intro, Freeman said it had the theme of 'greed' lol).
"I developed an early kind of kinship
with all the ways the earth hurt."
(That House - Tayi Tibble p.225) -
I loved this book of essays, but it wasn't entirely what I expected. It may have been my own misunderstanding, but I went into it thinking there were going to be facts and citations from literature, etc. etc. What it ended up being was arguably quite better. The whole notion of this book giving voices to people all over the world describing the impact climate change is already having on their lives is immeasurably powerful. There was plenty variety within the essays, as well. It never felt like you were reading the same story twice. I'm definitely hoping to read Freeman's other books.
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This book consists of multiple essays and poems, so it would be difficult to write a comprehensive review. I will say that my favorite stories were "Dusk" by Lauren Groff and "The Well" by Eka Kurniawan. As the title of the book suggests, most of these stories pertain to climate change and/or inequality in some way, although many of them are fictional.
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A well-told narrative can inform the reader in a way close to being there. The author achieves this.
The stories bring home the experience of the shattering impact of environmental degradation on the lives of vulnerable people throughout the developing world. -
I really appreciated the mix of stories, poems, and essays in this anthology from authors all around the world. It was interesting to read how climate change is affecting life in these different places, in real and profound ways.
