This summer I searched for stories that would help make sense of the upheaval we are facing. I read three books that were wildly different, Lydia Yuknavitch’s novel Thrust, Sharon Heath’s novel, The Mysterious Composition of Tears, and Dick Sclove’s nonfiction book, Escaping Maya’s Palace—an analysis of the madness of modern civilization based on a close read of the Mahabharata. What they had in common was to take seriously what Ursula Le Guin calls the “carrier bag of fiction” (and I would add of nonfiction stories). Le Guin says, “I would go so far as to say that the natural, proper, fitting shape of the novel might be that of a sack, a bag. A book holds words. Words hold things. They bear meanings. A novel is a medicine bundle, holding things in a particular, powerful relation to one another and to us.” Nonfiction stories can also be carrier bags of essential medicines…
Sharon Heath’s Mysterious Composition of Tears is a sci-fi/magical realism story set in the future that has physicists grappling with climate change. Heath incorporated…work on the precautionary principle in this fictional setting by describing scientists taking seriously the possible negative consequences of extremely novel technologies. I wonder when some future scientist might read her novel and change her approach to incorporate precaution. Medicine!
The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's #AuthorsHelpingAuthors service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment