Malcolm Harris was born in Santa Cruz, California, which is where I live, and where I have now lived for over fifty years. Harris has written a book, Palo Alto, which is named for the city in which I grew up.
I mentioned Palo Alto back in the middle of last year, and I noted then that I hadn't yet read it. Well.... I still haven't read it - or, at least, I haven't finished reading it. It's over 700 pages long, which is a lot, but I can report that I am more than halfway through, and I am now operating on a full head of steam. I'll be done soon! As it turns out, Palo Alto is focused not only on the city of Palo Alto itself, but on "California, Capitalism, And The World." Click that link just provided for a review in the "Los Angeles Review of Books." I want to recommend that you, too, should undertake your own odyssey through the 700+ pages of Palo Alto. It's worth it, even if you didn't grow up there.
Based on having read over half of Harris' Palo Alto, I am already planning to read Harris' most recent book, What's Left: Three Paths Through The Planetary Crisis. According to the publisher, that book is only 320 pages long! I am fully expecting it to be just as thought-provoking as Palo Alto.
If you'd like to get an idea about what would be in store for you, if you do decide to read What's Left, here is a link to a recent review in The New York Times. You might also want to click right here. That link will take you to a discussion between Adam Lowenstein and Harris, published online by "Drilled Media." Drilled Media describes itself as "a global multimedia reporting project focused on climate accountability," and Lowenstein is "a journalist and writer covering corporate power and political influence."
Here is the end of that discussion just mentioned, between Lowenstein and Harris, in which they talk about our planetary crisis:
[Lowenstein] I feel like in this moment in particular, being hopeful and despairing in useful ways is a pretty worthy aspiration.[Harris] I think so. I think people are trying to figure that stuff out. It’s hard. It’s a hard environment in which to think. I don’t fault anyone who feels completely overwhelmed by even just the task of thinking critically in this moment. But we’ve got to do it. There’s no other choice.
We need to think? Think critically? There's no other choice? Sounds right to me!
Harris' latest book is RECOMMENDED on that basis!
Image Credit:
This guy is brilliant. At 37 to have already written all he has! Glad to hear about the new one.
ReplyDelete