Comments on: The Rarity of a Jonathan Franzen Appearance

By: Brianc

Brianc — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:22:00 +0000

I’m not sure that it is any less taboo to point out that, generally speaking, economic growth is bad for the environment. A flat rate of growth will get you shown the door pretty quickly, the door of the White House that is.

By: Decatur Metro

Decatur Metro — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:13:30 +0000

Good point. For better or worse, we seem to live in an age of “green consumption” these days.

By: karass

karass — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:50:56 +0000

It wasn’t that long ago when the liberal fashion was to have just one kid to try to keep the population of the earth from exceeding its natural capacity. If folks had two, it was justified as at least keeping the reproductive multiplier at 1.0. It does seem like that aspect of being “green” has gotten less play lately. An awful lot of the families that I see doing walk/roll to school, composting, and community garden stuff have three kids. Maybe some of the #3 kids are “whoopses” but that doesn’t explain the entire trend.

On the other hand, I see in the current news that the birth rate is down in the U.S., reportedly because of the economy. So we may soon seemore single children and fewer families with more than two. Just as we get enough capacity in our CSD schools and get rid of all the trailers, we’ll have to downsize and reconfigure again!

By: Decatur Metro

Decatur Metro — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:39:46 +0000

Actually if I had seen the Franzen video prior to the ArtsCriticATL post, I probably would have highlighted the substance of the book that he paraphrases in the video over his aversion to publicity.

Why? Because I’ve really wanted to bring up “The Last Taboo” for a really long time…especially after Mother Jones did a feature on it a couple months back.

What’s the last taboo? Population!

What’s the least environmentally thing you can do as a member of the American middle-class? Have another kid!

I don’t suggest I have it any more figured out than anyone else, but I find it quite interesting that we have little trouble thinking of ourselves as “green”, but leaving this last taboo unreconciled with the rest of our lives.

I’m thrilled that Franzen decided to tackle this. I really can’t wait to get my hands on this book now.

By: Brianc

Brianc — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:53:49 +0000

I just finished “The Corrections” a few days ago. I found a lot of it funny, but also depressing. There is some brilliant description and insight; here’s a passage I particularly liked, from the perspective of a banker struggling to keep it together at a business function:

“Gary had always enjoyed corporate gardens as backdrops for the pageant of privilege, as metonymies of pamperment, but it was vital not to ask too much of them. It was vital not to come to them in need.”

Somehow the angst in the novel seems prescient now, after the economic collapse. The story isn’t very tight, but I tend to read more for language so the novel worked for me.