Book Recommendations (part 2)

Here we continue with the book recommendations that we have read and used for reseach for our next play. If you haven't read the first part here is the link to it.

4. The Great Derangement - Climate Change and the Unthinkable

Amitav Ghosh

How we chose it: Amitav Ghosh is one of the great greatest Indian writers. This book brings literature, history and climate change all together. We didn't find any other this kind of book.
What is it about: In this book he examines our inability at the level of literature, history and politics to grasp the climate change. Today's climate events seem resistant to the contemporary imagination. There is need to change how humanity thinks for it's own survival.
What we got out of it: It is not the job of the politicians to imagine the unthinkable future for humanity. It's the job of the creative people. If looking back the last century's revolutions were ignited by mind of writers.
Quote: "And if the urgency of a subject were indeed a criterion of its seriousness, then, considering what climate change actually portends for the future of the earth, it should surley follow that this would be the principal preoccupation of writers the world over - and this, I think, is very far from being the case?"

5. Learning to Die in the Anthropocene - Reflections on the End of Civilization

Roy Scranton

How we chose it: We heard that this is the most honest and no bullshit book about climate change that there is.
What is it about: Writer of this book draws on his experiences in Iraq to confront the realities of climate change. He shares his view that this civilization is over. And calls for a reimagined humanism that will help us meet our stormy future.
What we got out of it: It made to think again what it means to be human. It also showed that despite the disastrous future humanity is facing there is no reason to give up. Accepting the worst case scenarios can make us strong fighters for a better future to others to come. Reminder how important memory is.
Quote: “Likewise, civilizations have throughout history marched blindly toward disaster, because humans are wired to believe that tomorrow will be much like today — it is unnatural for us to think that this way of life, this present moment, this order of things is not stable and permanent. Across the world today, our actions testify to our belief that we can go on like this forever, burning oil, poisoning the seas, killing off other species, pumping carbon into the air, ignoring the ominous silence of our coal mine canaries in favor of the unending robotic tweets of our new digital imaginarium. Yet the reality of global climate change is going to keep intruding on our fantasies of perpetual growth, permanent innovation and endless energy, just as the reality of mortality shocks our casual faith in permanence.”

6. This Changes Everything - Capitalism vs. The Climate

Naomi Klein

How we chose it: This is the basic book to reveal how climate crisis and capitalism are connected.
What is it about: Explaining how capitalism has fueled climate change and that there is no salvation from it in free market ideology.
What we got out of it: Basic knowledge how we ended up into this climate situation and that minorities are already fighting for the clean environment. Also sad truth about why millionaires and big corporations can't save the climate.
Quote 1: “our economic system and our planetary system are now at war. Or, more accurately, our economy is at war with many forms of life on earth, including human life. What the climate needs to avoid collapse is a contraction in humanity’s use of resources; what our economic model demands to avoid collapse is unfettered expansion. Only one of these sets of rules can be changed, and it’s not the laws of nature.”
Quote 2: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”

7. The Falling Sky - Words of a Yanomami Shaman

Davi Kopenawa, Bruce Albert, Alison Dundy

How we chose it: Recommended by artist who works with and for trees. In this book majority of our common cultures are seen through the eyes of representative of minority.
What is it about: The life story and ecological thought of Davi Kopenawa, shaman and spokesman for the Yanomami of the Brazilian Amazon. The devastating processes and consequences of Western contact are addressed through his unique perspective. His travels constitute a shamanic critique of Western industrial society, whose endless material greed, mass violence, and ecological blindness contrast sharply with Yanomami cultural values.
What we got out of it: Got to know entirely different world view than our own. Excellent contribution to the world.
Quote: "The white people's way of thinking is other. Their memory is clever but entangled in smoky and obscure words. The path of their thought is often twisted and thorny. They do not truly know the things of the forest. They contemplate paper skins on which they have drawn their own words for hours. If they do not follow their lines, their thought gets lost. Our elders did not have image skins and did not write laws on them. Their only words were those pronounced by their mouths and they did not draw them. So their words never went far away from them and this is why the white people have never known them."

Last but not least, I would like to remind all Estonians that our book "Kirju kodust" is still available from the bookstores and would be a perfect Christmas present for your loved ones. This book too has influenced our next play.

8. Kirju kodust

Siim Maaten, Kaisa Roover

How we chose it: We lived and wrote it.
What is it about: It's a book about our travels from our homes from years 2013-2015. It's a book about thoughts, knowledge and love.
What we got out of it: Our planet is the most amazing place and it's worth fighting for!
Quote: "Ka meil on kodu, kuhu me kogu aeg kibeleme. Ainult et meie kodu ei ole ühe- või mitmekorruselises või üleüldse majas. Meie kodu on teineteise juures. Me oleme kodus siis, kui me oleme koos."

Here is the link to buy "Kirju kodust" online.