We Need Some Wendell Berry About Now
Lordy, I feel like we all need some Wendell Berry about now.
Here’s a quote from the nonagenarian’s latest novel. (Which, truth be told, reads like one of his essays, but in novel form. If you’re familiar with the one-time NYU instructor’s impassioned return to his birthplace in Kentucky to both farm the land and write prolifically about our care for the earth, technology’s displacing qualities, and — my favorite — his constant use of the phrases “membership” and “place” to convey a deep sense of belonging that people yearn for…then you’ll get the gist of this slim novel that treats 20th-century tobacco farming as its foil.)
“The point is that if the puzzle of a community in place is put together and kept together long enough, it will work out on its own the terms and conditions of its coherence through time and change. It will need no outside help, no expert advice. Of this the human past furnishes plenty of examples, all of them no doubt imperfect, but instructive even in their imperfections.” (p 112, Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story.)
I’m working on my next newsletter which will pretty much be a Wendell Berry fest. About a month ago, I curled up during an ice storm to watch a documentary about his life called Look & See, and it was so inspiring that I actually took notes. And I’ve been reading a book he wrote about the poetry of William Carlos Williams that mentions Wallace Stegner. (Now THAT is a triple-W for the W.) And since I spread some mulch today I’m basically a farmer too? But for real, my last newsletter went heavy on the AI analysis; it feels good to surround myself with the words and thoughts of someone who is daringly — and maybe even stubbornly — a proponent of the analog. You can subscribe @ alifelyread.com/subscribe
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