The Anthropocene Reviewed - Tumblr Posts
13.08.21
Well, technically the 14th since I got up at 2am. Pictured above are Cassiopeia, Perseus, probably part of Andromeda, Triangulum, and part of Auriga. Listened to Claire de Lune; Moonlight Sonata (1st Movement); Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Op. 20, Act 2: Scene (Moderato); Nocturne No. 2 in E-Flat Major; Near Light; Gymnopédie No. 1; and the episode entitled Capacity for Wonder in John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed. In the hour that I was out, I saw at least 42 meteors: a number obtained through a bit of selective counting. At one point I just stopped to take it all in.
“That, then, is loveliness, we said,/ Children in wonder watching the stars,/ Is the aim at the end.” —Dylan Thomas, Being But Men
23.08.21
“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.” —The Catcher in the Rye, J.D Salinger
I love CrashCourse and Vlogbrothers, but—as I’m not a fan of non-sci-fi-fantasy-adventure fiction—this is the first novel of John Green’s I’ve read. It may end up being the only one, but it holds a special place in my heart. “Sycamore Trees” and “Capacity for Wonder” are my favourites, but it’s beyond that. This book bleeds humanity. It keeps me afloat on bad days. It reminds me that we’re not alone. This book means everything to me. I give John Green, as a human being, 5 stars.
Ok… 6 stars.
10.01.22
“From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won.”
The prodigal bastard returns. I finished last semester with a 93 average, including a 99 in Spanish. I crashed hard for Christmas break, but now I’m back at it again, the antecedent dubious at best. This semester’s lineup: Intermediate French II, Beginner Spanish II, Introduction to English Grammar, Indigenous Languages of Canada, and History of Theatre.
“And whether I come to my own to-day or in ten thousand or ten million years, / I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness I can wait.”
I haven’t studied for my LSAT nearly as much as I’d have liked, but my chances of getting in are decent. I write in less than a week, and I’m aiming for 160 or more.
“I exist as I am, that is enough, / If no other in the world be aware I sit content, / And if each and all be aware I sit content.” —Walt Whitman
Listening to:
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road—Elton John
Sports are so fucking weird, and the ONLY thing that keeps them from being a religion is the lack of a higher power or an afterlife.
You’ve got: rituals, sacrifices, superstitions, gatherings, songs, festivals, pilgrimages, fellowship, celebrations, talismans, idols. You’ve even got miracles.
These things seem to be more present in certain leagues than others—NCAA basketball and the English Football League come to mind for having teams, coaches, and fans who will go to extremes AS A COLLECTIVE, not just as individuals. They treat their local sports bar like a parish. They have their cathedrals and their songs and their holy-war rivalries.
I understand the inclination to not care. And in many ways, I don’t care either. (American football is a drag at ANY level, and all they’ve got by way of ritual is TAILGATING.) But if you’ve never celebrated a victory—one you truly cared about, one you prayed for—by dancing and singing in the streets with a couple thousand strangers, I recommend it.
The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green
“We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”
- John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed
Books that changed the way my brain works:
Psalm for the Wild Built, Becky Chambers
The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
Underland, Robert Macfarlane
The Once and Future Witches, Alix E. Harrow
Beartown, Fredrik Backman
A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman
There’s definitely more, these are just the ones I could remember in a few minutes
More on these to come I’m sure