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Summary: We are all intellegent enough to read this book!
Review: This is about something that everyone should be aware of and interested in. It is our life on this planet! He is very honest and raw! I am glad to see more people writing about things that matter and for so long have been ignored. Wake up people! This is the real life!!
Please read this book, and share it!
Carol : )PS Thanks Derrick
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Summary: The Dance of World Destruction
Review: Jensen opens with a series of body blows: "Do we think about nuclear devastation, or the wisdom of producing tons of plutonium, which is lethal even in microscopic does well over 250,000 years?" Unlikely. "Does global warming invade our dreams?" Umm, no. "In our most serious moments do we consider that industrial civilization has initiated the greatest mass extinction in the history of the planet?" I'm not into science. "How often do we consider that our culture commits genocide against every indigenous culture it encounters?" Hey, that's Darwinism at work, right? "As one consumes the products manufactured by our culture, is s/he concerned about the atrocities that make them possible?" Not if one wants to look cool. ... "We don't stop these atrocities because we don't talk about them. We don't talk about them, because don't think about them. We don't think about them, because they are too horrific to comprehend." They are too foreboding and ominous to stomach. They are, in effect, unspeakable. After taking an honest look at the evolution of Western Civilization, Jensen draws the only logical conclusion that can be found: Our culture is insane. We are off our collective rocker. Reason, science, technological advancement and the work-a-day world have only driven us deeper into the carnival of horror and madness. Things are not getting better. They are getting worse with each passing day. Oops, I went and said it. ... As Jensen notes, we are all in this web of destruction together. ... ... ... Don't buy this book. It might affect you. Go to the mall, plop down in front of the TV, or hit the disco and dance away the thought of this pessimistic review - but do keep an eye out for those grenades. ~A glObal MindbOmb Book~
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Summary: Realists beware
Review: I'll try to make this short. This is a wonderful book, but it's not perfect. It comes from the long tradition of idealism born in the American West which includes such figures as Josiah Royce, Ezra Pound and John Steinbeck (though its subect matter is like none of those writers'). It is indiscretely confessional in its personal tone. It is violently radical in its political tone. And it is unapologectically idealistic. Jensen doesn't so much offer any practical solution to the problems he describes as he proposes theoretical responses. It makes the book an interesting philosophical statement rather than a manual for action. Stoics and realists will truly hate it, if they get past the Preface. That reminds me: The first chapter, called "Silencing" is the best in the book and will (or should) knock the breathe out of you. Generally, the writing is lyrical and has the ability to make you swoon. Jensen's creation is so original in that it combines lyricism with propaganda. Most of the world's great revolutionaries were far too scientific to pull off a style even remotely close to this. Read it, but keep your head about you.
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Summary: POWERFUL
Review: This is my favorite book by my favorite author. No way anyone could read this and not be changed in a profound way.
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Summary: Life changing...
Review: There were times when reading "A Language Older Than Words" when I wanted to shout passages from Derrick Jensen's book as loudly as I could. Surely everyone needs to hear this message: we are destroying the planet. We must stop. But beyond this "message" also lies another revelation, one that has changed my life forever: all living things have something to say, we just don't do a very good job of listening. Everyone knows that talking to plants helps them to grow, right? Well, then it should be no great leap of understanding to realize that plants can help us grow, too, and not just by producing oxygen... I recommend this book to anyone who has a desire to increase their awareness about the world in which we inhabit, but to which we pay too little attention.
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Summary: The most honest book I've ever read...
Review: I found this book through Daniel Quinn's book list, and I didn't waste much time in reading it. Although maybe more radical than Quinn and less science based than Richard Dawkins, the emotional cry of this book cannot be denied. Sheer rage, love and honesty that scream out of these pages is so overwhelming you'll have to be hard pressed to put the book down, or like my mother, to read it at all. I was pretty sensitive as a child and I had to make "walls" and "barriers" in my mind to avoid being physically overrun by our culture. So my idol became (except my mom and dad) the coolest and coldest character ever - Mr. Spock. Logic with no feelings. To the max. In doing so, I became the prime mental example of our culture, yelling "I want more and I want it now" although not really believing it. This book is for everyone who suspects there is something more than industrial consumerism that eats away our very planet. I don't agree with all opinions in this book (especially about Richard Dawkins' work), but I began to have converstions with animals and plants. Insane? Maybe, but they said the same for those who said the Earth wasn't flat... This is no easy read! But it is, after all, a very rewarding one.
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Summary: Wake up to the truth, before its too late!!!
Review: Read this book! It has tons of information, many that we would wish we had never known. But the truth is there, and no matter how silent we are about it, it won't change the facts. Rape is out there, child abuse is out there, the destruction of our planet is out there - we must aknowledge what is happening to our culture and fight for changes. This book will serve as guide for understanding who we are, where we are going, and our place in the world. I wish that everyone would read this book, its impossible to be and act in the same way after reading it. Do yourself a favor and buy this book! And lets not sit and wait for changes, lets fight for them. If we listen to ourselves we'll know that changes in our culture are not only necessary, but imperative. Let's begin it NOW!
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Summary: ...chomsky meets quinn
Review: if you think you dont want to be lied to, then read this. if you are interested in environmentalism AND human needs, this unifies them. the only book i've ever read that embraced both anarchist and environmentalist/animist ideals. he's not nice to you. but he's not mad, either....derrick jensen has a lot of love to give. if you are at all interested in that hoaky stuff about communing with nature but arent able to do it yourself yet, then this is perfect for you because derrick jensen is sceptical. he questions whether or not he's really talking with the wolves or if he is just projecting and imagining it. i trusted him because he questioned things scientifically and analyitically but didn't close himself off to the possibility of communicating with non-human beings.
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Summary: Honest, direct, lots of harms, no resolution.
Review: I picked up this book with a nice, delicious interest. I wanted to devour every page and emerge with the secrets of the Earth. What I experienced was far from that! The man is honest, BRUTALLY HONEST, and I valued that. The beginning was so potent that I was crying fourteen pages into it. The book is sort of an extended metaphor as he relates his abusive childhood to the world as a whole and tells how it impacted his future. There is no real storyline; it just sort of drifts from one anecdote to the next. The end, though, is incredibly disappointing. He openly admits that there are no solutions to how to save the world. If there were, someone would have saved it. So why even read the book? Well, the frankness is one plus. I must admit that I see death of creatures differently now. I've always known death is neccessary, but I've feared it. I've been vegetarian over a year, and I've been vegan for around eight months. I still don't think it is right to kill other animals, but I now see how an animal killing another can fit into a consistent system of morals. If nothing else, it provided me with a logical explanation. The best this book provides is a clarification of the problem in the world. The answers must be found within each individual, but Derrick Jensen helps to focus the path a bit more.
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Summary: Cool Book
Review: This is a cool book. I really liked the Dad! What a live wire. The cover is neat but book smelled like old sardines left near a Bosch hotplate on a bleak summer day. You read this book....the guy jensen is smarter then a whip or could be a mensa member. I don`t read books but I did read this one. Two thumbs up for this great story of the trials and tribulations of a wife beater gone crazy.
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