THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED
“I don’t believe we have a choice when it comes to whether we endow the world with meaning. … We will build meaning wherever we go. But to me, while making meaning isn’t a choice, the kind of meaning can be.”
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The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human Centered Planet is John Green’s brilliant, addictive collection of musings on our current era of dramatic change and unprecedented (though he might object to that word) uncertainty. The book is structured by starred reviews of places, objects, music, art, natural phenomena, or times in history that have affected the author’s conscience, a clever wink at the ubiquitous five-star rating system people give to anything and everything. Written during the early stages of the pandemic, these essays are a vulnerable, deeply moving look at the magnificent and the mundane, through Green’s unabashedly introspective mind. If you’re not sure this one sounds like your cup of tea, owing to my description or the unpronounceable title, just trust me: this book is BEAUTIFUL.
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It’s difficult to articulate in a caption’s length what this book is “about.” Because it’s not about diet Dr. Pepper (four stars), our capacity for wonder (3.5 stars), auld lang syne (five stars) or plague (one star, but “our response to it need not be”). Rather, it is about the way these and all of Green’s subjects offer clarity as we contemplate the full range of human emotion and experience. Joy, sorrow, laughter, grief, embarrassment, curiosity, empathy, … can they be found through nostalgia for scratch ’n’ sniff stickers, or a tenacious garden hedgehog, or Super Mario Kart? Yes! They can. And they can give us reason to move forward, no matter what, if we look at them closely enough.
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John Green, you made me do it: a hot dog BBQ for the first weekend of summer! This book has a full chapter on The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest AND one on the hot dogs of Baejarin Beztu Pylsur in Iceland. So here are my own Memorial Day weekend hot dogs, served with a side of humanity and heart from this book. Happy summer, everyone!
