interesting article in the Guardian, Margaret Atwood answers questions on the state of the world. The headline mentions Ai Weiwei and Rebecca Solnit but there are plenty of other people who pose questions. The book she is promoting is called 'Book of Lives'. Hopefully it will come out in audio, though of course one misses the written word and the solidarity of a physical book.
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist who produces assemblages of one type of thing, rather boring in fact. I remember years ago he produced in an exhibition smashed up valuable antiques. Paul was furious with this seemingly vandalising act.
I as usual saw the other side of the question. Which was? you have to make room in the world for new things to take their place. The world seems so full at the moment of things that might happen, people talk of war, and a climate crash, in which we as a country will be importing a 100% of our food......
"On nature, Nathalie Seddon, professor of biodiversity at the University of Oxford, said: “We are facing a national emergency not only because the climate is changing, but because the living systems that protect the climate are breaking down.”
She added: “This isn’t about choosing between the economy and the environment. It’s about recognising that the economy is embedded within the environment, and that the health of the nation depends on the living systems that sustain us.”
But hey-ho lets go on pretending that it isn't happening, much easier that way!
Having delivered the bad news, the good news is the video of the wedding, a month ago between Ellie and Tom finally surfaced. It showed the pair of them totally in love as they went around that busy day. There were a photographer and I suppose a video expert that day and it was such a happy occasion as they vowed their love for life. Love is not always talked about in blog land, we talk of grief when we have lost a loved one but the happiness of belonging to one person is very rarely expressed.
National Emergency Meeting I would suggest you sign the letter and also listen to the experts on the subject of the climate.
Thank you for including the Guardian link. Had just read Atwood's memoir, a tour de force. Take care, Kris in Ohio
ReplyDeleteThat is a good recommendation, and I am glad the link proved helpful. Thelmax
DeleteI am intrigued by Atwood's new book, but I haven't bought it yet. I think we have it in our library. Maybe I'll read it there. I just learned on another blog that she's Canadian, which I hadn't known. I thought she was British!
ReplyDeleteThe only Ai Weiwei piece I remember is his pile of hand-made ceramic sunflower seeds.
I wonder if destroying the antiques was supposed to make us think about our reverence for objects over living things and the planet around us? Just a guess, considering I haven't seen it!
Exactly Steve, you have to think about something to explain a heap of rope or a calf frozen in formaldehyde. To an uneducated visitor it looks yuck to the artist he dreamt it up in the middle of the night ;) Thelmax
DeleteThanks for that article. I don't know if I have read many or any of her work so I may need to change that.
ReplyDeleteI hope the newlyweds will have many, many happy years of fun adventures, lots of laughs, joy and peace!
I must admit Ellen I never read or watched 'Hand Maidens' it sounded to depressing, but to use another word similar. Apparently often her writing is prescient, she predicts the future, which of course in America is happening already ;(
ReplyDeletethelmax of course.
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