The Anthropocene Reviewed – Buddy Read Write-up NINE (of Nine)

That’s it! We’ve done it! We made it right to the end! It has been a journey, for sure.

Look, as much as I’d likely to savour the final write-up of this one, I’m slightly buzzed on some rosé (hello festive season), the bulb just blew in the light above my head so it’s slowly getting darker, and I’m very aware of the dishes waiting for me in the kitchen, so this may well be a short one.

This batch contained:

• The QWERTY Keyboard
• The World’s Largest Ball of Paint
• Sycamore Trees
• “New Partner”
• Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance

and, ultimately, it was more of the same – except, Marie (from Marie Reads Books) and I agree that we didn’t hate them. Weirdly, I feel it’s because we both stopped expecting what John Green initially promised to deliver and started just reading these as ad hoc pieces of writing. The last essay, especially, was wholly removed from what this collection set out to be, but it was a good essay – interesting, captivating and poignant. It also contained some pictures and those created a world within themselves.

To break it down, The QWERTY Keyboard was informative and made me wonder why the letters of the alphabet fall in the order they do. It also made me reflect, for the first time in quite some time, on how fiction writing allows you to hide from yourself and explore yourself simultaneously.

The World’s Largest Ball of Paint was cheesy and American, but contained one of my favourite moments of meaning-making that I’ve come across in recent times:

The ball gets painted again and again until there is no visible remnant of your paint. And eventually, maybe nobody knows about it except you.

But that doesn’t mean your layer of paint is irrelevant or a failure. You have permanently, if slightly, changed the larger sphere.

~ John Green, The World’s Largest Ball of Paint

I just realised, I am woefully bereft of adequate conventions.

Anyway…

AI Art

What stood out most starkly to me about this batch (not including the final essay) was the discussion around depression and the small things that sometimes, finally, pull you out of that dark well.

I recently watched Maid – which I cannot recommend highly enough, though the mood has to be right – and there’s a scene therein that seems to depict depression, and the moment of strengthening resilience, perfectly.

In summary

John Green describes a lot of emotional truths that flicker internally, and continues to press against all things idealistic and bright. I walked down this road with the author, and stepped into a lot of very familiar anxiety-filled puddles along the way.

I maintain that moments within these essays proved what this collation could have been and undermined what it was. I hoped for more, but understand that writing and vulnerability are a world of trial and error. I deeply appreciate the topics explored in some of the essays (though seriously would have cut some others entirely) and hope there will be another attempt at what Mr Green set out to do in the introduction.

That said, the Anthropocene Reviewed gets 2.5 stars from me. I think our (Marie and my) enjoyment of the essays was slightly impacted by our reading these a batch at a time, but ultimately feel that, were these effective in earnest, that shouldn’t have made a difference.

Walking my buzz home now. #itsbeenalongyear

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