For those of you who prefer to read off paper rather than the screen, I have converted the post into an easily printable pdf file. Remember to come back and share your thoughts and comments! You can access the file here: A room without books is like a body without soul.
I'm downvoting the Monbiot. There's a bait-and-switch Machine thinker if ever there was one. The man will have us all eating fake meat in our pods and lovin' it.
I’m wondering about the lack of women writers on your list. Which leads me to wonder about diverse voices in this conversation. I write from the point of view of art, body wisdom, soul, and justice. I’m on Academia.edu. and study the impacts of industrialization and patriarchy on organic technologies like dance, voice, breath, and story. Is that part of this conversation? I think you have many more unconformists to consider. i could add a link my bibliography if anyone wants to see it.
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein should be on the list. It is all about the hubris of people who pervert nature and come up with a monster. Deadly unintended consequences created by fallen Man pretending to be God. In the end he creates someone as flawed as himself, a monster in the image and likeness of his human creator.
Didn't know Children of Men was a book. You can almost see that playing out now with reduced fertility from tech and wireless radiation. Will pick up the book!
Your book by Monbiot made me think of recommending Chris Smaje, specifically his books "A Small Farm Future" and "Saying No To A Farm-Free Future" which is a response to Monbiot's "Regenesis". Paul Kingsnorth is right to caution reading Monbiot if what you're trying to encourage dovetails with what he, Paul, is trying to encourage. I haven't read anything about "Feral" so for all I know, Monbiot is fine in that book. But by "Regenesis" he'd taken a full dive into ecomodernism which really is the Machine approach to ecological concerns.
I loved reading how much Michael D. O’Brien has impacted you! I have a similar “impact” story. I’ve read all of books at least twice (I’ve read Strangers and Sojourners 4 times!). I have been saying I’m going to write to him for years just to tell him, “thank you, thank you for following the voice of the Lord and sacrificing so much to bring your art and writing to me and to the world.” I consider him a spiritual father of sorts (though I’ve never met him!) and it’s not an exaggeration to say that his writing and iconography have kept me tethered to God in very rough seasons of life. When I read Exogenesis, immediately told my husband that this was like a next generation Michael D. O’Brien novel. Haha!
1) "The Natural Alien: Humankind and Environment" by Neil Evernden
("In using numbers to talk about the world [the environmentalist] forgets that his initial revolt was partly precipitated by people using numbers to talk about the world.")
2) "In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations" by Jerry Mander
3) "Red Medicine: Traditional Indigenous Rites of Birthing and Healing" by Patrisia Gonzales
Walter Ong, "Orality and Literacy", is essential reading. He describes how people's thinking has changed over time and cultures with the introduction of the technologies of writing, and then printing. It's a fascinating read, and deserves a place alongside MacLuhan et al.
E F Schumacher - Small is Beautiful, John McKnight - The Careless Society, many books from Steven Caney (about building, play,...), more from Ivan Illich, Georgi Markov, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas Kuhn, The Invisible Rainbow - Firstenberg, so many more, just off the top of my head. Home Work - Lloyd Kahn, Permaculture - Bill Mollison, Emmanuel Levinas,...
I would like to offer my own humble contribution to this list which I compiled in two separate posts (there is a little over lap with some of your suggestions but also many books not included in your excellent list).
Many of the books I offer in the posts I will link below are on the practical side of using our hands in service of life. While this may seem as dry or inconvenient to some (learning about the mycelium that connect tree roots or the methods and ways in which one can create a forest garden with blood, sweat, tears, patience and love) I feel those pathways of learning (and more importantly physical engagement with the natural world they necessitate) helps to dissolve the illusory veil of separation that “civilization” has trained us into perceiving between us and the wild more than human world.
Firstly, the initial post for my Substack Newsletter that contains a list of a number of books along with other forms of nourishment for the heart and mind (sound, shapes and colors) that I feel can help “keep one human” (or perhaps more accurately invite one to recognize the seed of humanity within, and then nourish it to unfold what it means to be human into increasing layers of beauty, complexity and grace).
This is an incredible resource Ruth! I would add an older essay that I will try and scan at some point, from the book 'The Natural Order' ed. H.J. Massingham. It contains a brilliant essay on 'Work and Quality' which is the best critique of the 'machine' I have read. The whole book is excellent.
And thank you for you for your very kind words and plug for the Wendell Berry Reading Group!
While the Outer Planets trilogy by C.S Lewis is probably not going to top peoples favorite books list, I can definitely attest to That Hideous Strength (1945) being absolutely prophetic in terms of the kind of mindset. I found myself circling more text as I was reading through than any other book last year.
I'm downvoting the Monbiot. There's a bait-and-switch Machine thinker if ever there was one. The man will have us all eating fake meat in our pods and lovin' it.
https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/the-fourth-revolution
Otherwise this should keep up all busy for a few years. Good work.
I’m wondering about the lack of women writers on your list. Which leads me to wonder about diverse voices in this conversation. I write from the point of view of art, body wisdom, soul, and justice. I’m on Academia.edu. and study the impacts of industrialization and patriarchy on organic technologies like dance, voice, breath, and story. Is that part of this conversation? I think you have many more unconformists to consider. i could add a link my bibliography if anyone wants to see it.
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein should be on the list. It is all about the hubris of people who pervert nature and come up with a monster. Deadly unintended consequences created by fallen Man pretending to be God. In the end he creates someone as flawed as himself, a monster in the image and likeness of his human creator.
Didn't know Children of Men was a book. You can almost see that playing out now with reduced fertility from tech and wireless radiation. Will pick up the book!
Your book by Monbiot made me think of recommending Chris Smaje, specifically his books "A Small Farm Future" and "Saying No To A Farm-Free Future" which is a response to Monbiot's "Regenesis". Paul Kingsnorth is right to caution reading Monbiot if what you're trying to encourage dovetails with what he, Paul, is trying to encourage. I haven't read anything about "Feral" so for all I know, Monbiot is fine in that book. But by "Regenesis" he'd taken a full dive into ecomodernism which really is the Machine approach to ecological concerns.
I loved reading how much Michael D. O’Brien has impacted you! I have a similar “impact” story. I’ve read all of books at least twice (I’ve read Strangers and Sojourners 4 times!). I have been saying I’m going to write to him for years just to tell him, “thank you, thank you for following the voice of the Lord and sacrificing so much to bring your art and writing to me and to the world.” I consider him a spiritual father of sorts (though I’ve never met him!) and it’s not an exaggeration to say that his writing and iconography have kept me tethered to God in very rough seasons of life. When I read Exogenesis, immediately told my husband that this was like a next generation Michael D. O’Brien novel. Haha!
Thanks for this list!
Three more:
1) "The Natural Alien: Humankind and Environment" by Neil Evernden
("In using numbers to talk about the world [the environmentalist] forgets that his initial revolt was partly precipitated by people using numbers to talk about the world.")
2) "In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations" by Jerry Mander
3) "Red Medicine: Traditional Indigenous Rites of Birthing and Healing" by Patrisia Gonzales
(A book on birthing outside industrial systems.)
Walter Ong, "Orality and Literacy", is essential reading. He describes how people's thinking has changed over time and cultures with the introduction of the technologies of writing, and then printing. It's a fascinating read, and deserves a place alongside MacLuhan et al.
Please add “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin, the precursor to Brave New World and 1984.
E F Schumacher - Small is Beautiful, John McKnight - The Careless Society, many books from Steven Caney (about building, play,...), more from Ivan Illich, Georgi Markov, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas Kuhn, The Invisible Rainbow - Firstenberg, so many more, just off the top of my head. Home Work - Lloyd Kahn, Permaculture - Bill Mollison, Emmanuel Levinas,...
Thank you very much for this exquisite list!
I would like to offer my own humble contribution to this list which I compiled in two separate posts (there is a little over lap with some of your suggestions but also many books not included in your excellent list).
Many of the books I offer in the posts I will link below are on the practical side of using our hands in service of life. While this may seem as dry or inconvenient to some (learning about the mycelium that connect tree roots or the methods and ways in which one can create a forest garden with blood, sweat, tears, patience and love) I feel those pathways of learning (and more importantly physical engagement with the natural world they necessitate) helps to dissolve the illusory veil of separation that “civilization” has trained us into perceiving between us and the wild more than human world.
Firstly, the initial post for my Substack Newsletter that contains a list of a number of books along with other forms of nourishment for the heart and mind (sound, shapes and colors) that I feel can help “keep one human” (or perhaps more accurately invite one to recognize the seed of humanity within, and then nourish it to unfold what it means to be human into increasing layers of beauty, complexity and grace).
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/food-for-the-soul-and-medicine-for-the-earth
I hope you enjoy and i`ll share another comment below this linking more books.
I haven't read it yet but I've heard amazing things about Digital Liturgies by Samuel James.
This is an incredible resource Ruth! I would add an older essay that I will try and scan at some point, from the book 'The Natural Order' ed. H.J. Massingham. It contains a brilliant essay on 'Work and Quality' which is the best critique of the 'machine' I have read. The whole book is excellent.
And thank you for you for your very kind words and plug for the Wendell Berry Reading Group!
Thanks for this carefully compiled list! From some that I’ve read so far, the rest look promising.
Great list.
I would suggest possibly including:
William Morris' News From Nowhere and/or Useful Work versus Useless Toil
James Howard Kunstler's World Made By Hand series
Ernst Yunger's The Forrest Passage
Possibly GK Chesterton's The Outline of Sanity
While the Outer Planets trilogy by C.S Lewis is probably not going to top peoples favorite books list, I can definitely attest to That Hideous Strength (1945) being absolutely prophetic in terms of the kind of mindset. I found myself circling more text as I was reading through than any other book last year.