Books: August 2024

Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1) — Kim Stanley Robinson

⭐⭐⭐⭐ This book threw me off my reading streak. For parts it felt like the best science fiction I’ve read. The focus on the relationships and politics of Mars colonization is interesting, and the book never lets you forget Mars is there – it is not Earth, it has its own challenges. This gives the interpersonal conflicts a sense of weight and realism.

But I don’t understand why classic genre sci-fi has to be this long or why these stories need to stretch across whole series. It hurts the writing: as the book goes on the seams become visible, you can see the structure and the patterns the author is repeating. It feels tedious.

Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century — J. Bradford DeLong

⭐⭐⭐ Slouching Towards Utopia is a grand narrative about the economic history of the global north from roughly 1870 to 2010. The book is surprisingly rosy and makes a simple point that often gets lost: the quality of life in the world has improved dramatically over this period, although much more in some areas than others. The emphasis is on the improvement, and the technological and political factors that contributed to growth in productivity and standards of living.

On the technology side, there are interesting details about things I’d never thought about, such as shipping containers, or microprocessors. On the political side, DeLong thinks the market is responsible for this growth, but that it alone will not produce socially good outcomes – the market must be tamed and guided. He does a convincing job of threading this needle. The writing is engaging and lively.

Where it falls short is that it engages with macroeconomic theory in a loose way that leaves too much unexplained. The book also gets lost through long portions that don’t feel like economic history at all; there’s a chapter that goes on and on about Hitler’s military errors during WW2.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants — Robin Wall Kimmerer

⭐ Braiding Sweetgrass is equal parts memoir and popular science exploration of indigenous cultural practices, especially with regard to conservation and ecology, and where those practices overlap and diverge from modern ecology. In broad strokes, Kimmerer makes the case that indigenous practices got ecology right, and earlier, than modern Western science and that we might live better if we learned from these cultures.

Kimmerer is persuasive, especially in the memoir parts. Her connection to the land and her use of the land to produce things for her family reads as a mindful, grounded way to be in the world. I felt motivated to grow something after reading.

In other ways, though, the ideas can feel like well-worn tropes about Native American culture that I have never found fully convincing. For one, which culture are we talking about? She speaks in general terms, but her own indigenous background is obviously one group (Potawatomi). Do all indigenous cultures share this perspective on nature? How do they vary? These would be interesting questions, maybe not fair to pose of her book since that’s not its goal.

One thing I find less satisfying is that she takes indigenous cultural beliefs and principles as what make these cultures so effective at ecology. To think of nature as providing us gifts is beautiful, and you can imagine how that worldview would lead you to treat nature more gingerly. The problem is you can do something analogous with the major world religions or other belief systems. “Turn the other cheek,” “love thy neighbor” – these also sound great. But no one actually lives out these principles fully, not even their adherents. So: sure, indigenous cultures have praiseworthy belief systems. But do they actually live them consistently? There, I am less sure.

My gripes come down to a framework where indigenous cultures are painted in the best possible light and contrasted with the worst elements of Western culture. I get why she’s doing this, given how these cultures have been devalued historically. But a more nuanced description would be more interesting and useful.