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  1. The New York Times CompanyDwight Garner5 min
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    The New York Times Company
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    • erica5 years ago
      1. Can't believe this article was written almost 10 years ago!
      2. Rebecca Solnit has been a big deal for a long time.
      3. I completely believe the premise of her book. It's reminds me of how, when people are old and closer to death, they look back on their lives and regret not treating others better. Why does it take things like disaster and death to bring out the best in us?
      • bill
        Top reader of all time
        5 years ago

        Here, now, I'm holding a copy of Men Explain Things to Me that I yanked off my parents bookshelf. I think I put it there. As far as I'm concerned, Solnit is the living heir to Susan Sontag, who I also need to read more of. Until just now, I completely forgot that Men Explain Things to Me is an essay and that the book (of the same name) is a collection of essays about all kinds of topics. I'm going to read that (again, I think?) asap. So much to readdddd, so little time.

        • erica5 years ago

          I want to read it as well. Remember when we picked it up and read the introduction in a radical bookstore in New York? I'll never forget her description of a man at a party telling her about a book she wrote.

          • bill
            Top reader of all time
            5 years ago

            Finished the second essay this morning. So so good.

    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      5 years ago

      Smart stuff:

      These [hurricanes, earthquakes and even terrorist attacks] are clearly not events to be wished for, Ms. Solnit writes, yet they bring out the best in us and provide common purpose. Everyday concerns and societal strictures vanish. A strange kind of liberation fills the air. People rise to the occasion. Social alienation seems to vanish.

      the news media and other factors have conditioned those in power to believe that people tend to behave badly in times of crisis

    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      5 years ago

      I've only read parts of A Paradise Built In Hell (in the same way that I only actually read parts of Men Explain Things To Me, also written by Solnit) in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which decimated the community I grew up in - literally, economically, culturally, etc. As wildfires rage across California, the state I now call home, I'm thinking that now's the time to really read the book.

      It's a fascinating topic. I can relate to "the fleeting, purposeful joy that fills human beings in the face of disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and even terrorist attacks," something that's more than just a silver-lining. Only when we're literally watching everything burn can we imagine what a new world and a new life might be like.