Category: Book Review

Joan Francuz is now a resident of Annapolis Royal. She has written and self-published a fascinating memoir of her life as a technical writer, within the context of the history of technological change, or in her terms ‘Scribes from Babylon to Silicon’. Many of us have participated in these technological changes throughout our working lives.

Her research reminds us of the long history of technological change from the earlier industrial revolutions. It offers a sobering moment of reflection, as we experience the current pandemic changes.

Somewhere in her book (I have tried to find the page) she references IDRISI.

Ah! Found it.

“Pockets of knowledge existed even outside the universities. King Roger II of Sicily, for example, gathered scholars at his court, including an Arab Muslim geographer named al-IDRISI (1100-1165) who collected information about the known world. The result was a document whose Arab name can be translated as “The delight of one who wishes to traverse the regions of the world.” The world map and 70 secondary maps that al-IDRISI produced would be the most accurate depicting of our planet for the next 300 years.” p.60.

In my earlier days, teaching the application of GIS technology, there was a software product, developed by Geographers at the University of Edinburgh, of that same name.

This weekend, we went to New Glasgow. We stopped downtown to look at the renovations to the Roseland Theatre. The building has been restored by James MacGillivray. There are murals by Christian Toth commemorating Viola Desmond. Plus artwork by local citizens, including Heather’s sister – Sandra Stewart.
I was impressed by the number of new business developments in the downtown core.

We had the opportunity to walk in the waters of the Northumberland Strait at Melmerby Beach. Stop for Sunday brunch at Pictou Lodge, before driving along the Blue Cycle Route from Pictou to Truro. Then through the Rawdon Hills from Shubenacadie to Windsor, and home.

Last word to Joan Francuz:

“ So what I tell my grandchildren is this: look out for barbarians, build your agricultural surplus, and everything will be all right in the end.” p.155.

I recommend a trip to Endless Shores Books in Bridgetown, and DO pick up a copy of ‘Press Enter to Continue’.

Acknowledgements

Heather for the companionship on our weekend road trip. Edward for his graphics contribution. Joan Francuz for putting the act of writing into such a rich cultural context.

Reference

Joan Francuz, 2018. Press Enter To Continue: Scribes from Babylon to Silicon. 1920 House Press

In Lunenburg, I picked up George Monbiot’s book Feral. It has taken me several weeks to read this well-researched work. There are excellent chapters on his travels in the Amazon, South Africa and Indonesia. His adventures off the Welsh coast in a sea kayak. At the time of writing, Monbiot was living in Central Wales. A major concern was the impact of sheep farming on landscape ecology.

‘The National Ecosystem Assessment states that agricultural land occupied some 1.64 m hectares or 79% of Wales in 2008 and that crops now account for only 3% of the agricultural land area’ p.159.

‘According to Kevin Cahill, the author of Who Owns Britain, 69% of the land here is owned by 0.6% of the population’ p.181.

Monbiot includes chapters on Rewilding the Sea, and the potential for Marine Protected Areas.

From a Nova Scotia perspective, it is interesting to speculate on the potential for Rewilding of the land and sea in Southwest Nova Scotia. Would this change our treatment of the landscape?

Feral was written in 2013. To obtain an update, I went online. Monbiot has written two new books. In 2017, How did we get in this mess? And 2018, Out of the Wreckage.

On the web site fivebooks.com he makes some suggested reading, plus: Jeremy Lent The Patterning Instinct and Martin Adams, Land: a new paradigm for a thriving world.

Postscript

Today, at Endless Shores Books in Bridgetown, I found Joan Francuz, Press Enter to Continue. From the back cover, ‘Like Cicero, she believes that if you have a garden and a library, you have everything that you need’.

I look forward to the day when I can check out some of these books through the services of inter-library loan. Meanwhile, the garden is enjoying the latest rain showers.

References

George Monbiot, 2013. Feral: rewilding the land, the sea and human life. University of Chicago Press.
From fivebooks.com Monbiot recommends:
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Thomas Piketty, Capital
Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine
Paul Verhaeghe, What about me?
Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics

Joan Francuz, 2018. Press Enter to Continue: Scribes from Babylon to Silicon. 1920 House Press.

As promised, I have read Bertha Damon’s book, shared by Jane Nicholson.

At the beginning of Chapter 9.

“The importance of humus in human economy seldom receives sufficient emphasis. Suffice it to say that it probably represents the most important source of human wealth on this planet” p.95.

Damon published the book in 1943 during the Second World War. It is a collection of twenty-two chapters. Besides Humus, other topics include Spring Doings, Plowing and Planting, In Defence of Weeds, Apples Old Style.

“To have a sense of humus is to have an appreciation of the past, to realize that to discard the achievements and virtues slowly built up through long periods of human society and to attempt to live solely in the present is like throwing away humus and trying to exist in more or less inorganic hardpan.”

“One who works much with humus sees it to be a symbol of democracy, in which many work for the good of one, and one works for the good of many.” p.101.

From Apples Old Style, Chapter 21.

“I have found that at least twenty two different varieties, well enough known to get into books, originated in New Hampshire.” p.230.

This compares with the four varieties in our small orchard: NovaMac, NovaSpy, Liberty, MacFree.

After my earlier blog post, Brian Arnott made the comment.

“Is the mind a kind of compost pit? Do we break down ideas to create more potent matter? Yes, probably.”

On Friday afternoon, I had the opportunity to meet with both Roger Mosher and John Wightman. John kindly lent me two books by Thomas Raddall, “The Dreamers” and “Halifax: Warden of the North” as well as Will Bird’s, “Off-Trail in Nova Scotia”.
In these COVID times, books serve as a medium for sharing ideas, to add to the ‘compost pit’.

Postscript

Having a sense of humus, reminds me of the important role of elders in our society, without them, we are left with the inorganic hardpan. I also think of the work by Maria Popova and her web site, Brain Pickings. Check it out.

This led to the following exchange with Edward Wedler.

”If society sees elders as simply ‘old people’ then we are missing out on the opportunity to harvest/apply this mental humus.”

Edward replied “There exist many cultures that value elders (Japanese and Canadian indigenous communities come to mind). David Suzuki once co-authored a book ‘Wisdom of the Elders’ where he explored this question.”

Acknowledgements

Brian Arnott, Roger Mosher and John Wightman for their contributions. Jane Nicholson for sowing the seed. Heather for her help in the garden. Edward for his feedback.

References

Bertha Damon, 1943. A Sense of Humus. Simon and Schuster.
Thomas H. Raddall, 1986. The Dreamers. Pottersfield Press.
Thomas H. Raddall, 2007. Halifax, Warden of the North. Nimbus Publishing.
Will R. Bird, 1956. Off-Trail in Nova Scotia. McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
David Suzuki and Peter Knudtson, 1993. Wisdom of the Elders. PenguinRandomHouse.

This week, I picked up the book ‘A Sense of Humus’ from the post office in Bridgetown (Lawrencetown is closed). It had been sent to me by Jane Nicholson. She thought that I would enjoy it. Written in 1943 by Bertha Damon.

“It describes the pleasures of living in the country, the vicissitudes of gardening, the small lovable satisfactions of working on one’s own land.”

“If the reader’s own personal soul is winter-chilled, war-torn, tax-parched or just plain tired, ‘A Sense of Humus’ will do it considerable good.”

The book is set in New Hampshire. Written during the Second World War, there are parallels to COVID-19. I will offer a proper review, once I have finished it.

Meanwhile, Saturday, we went for a drive to Annapolis Royal and Victoria Beach. At Great Expectations Books and Cafe, I was able to pick up John Prebble’s Book, “Landscapes and Memories: an intermittent autobiography“. I am familiar with Prebble because of Heather’s Scottish heritage. Prebble wrote The Highland Clearances, Glencoe and Culloden.

It was wonderful to discover that the town is reopening. We stopped at Lola’s cafe and were able to purchase Cornish pasties and a roast lamb dinner for Sunday night.

The drive gave us a well-deserved break from the garden. With the black flies, the best time for planting is 6 am in the morning. After the heavy rain, we were able to transplant the tomatoes from the greenhouse and sow seeds: beans, carrots, beets, spinach and lettuce.

After the rain, the apple trees in the orchard were in full, white splendour accompanied by the sound of the bees.

Congratulations to Jane and Adele on the fourth anniversary of AIRO!

Sad news, writer Silver Donald Cameron died on Sunday night. He will be remembered for his Green Interviews.

Acknowledgements

Jane Nicholson for sending along the book. To Great Expectations for opening up the bookstore and cafe. To Lola for delicious food. Heather shared the road trip. Edward for his artistic talent.

References

Bertha Damon, 1943. A Sense of Humus. Simon and Schuster.
John Prebble, 1993. Landscapes and Memories. Harper Collins

Turtle Talk is a slim collection of ‘voices for a sustainable future’, published by New Society Publishers. It includes interviews by Christopher and Judith Plant with Gary Snyder, Peter Berg, Murray Bookchin and others. First published in 1990, with a Foreword by Kirkpatrick Sale. I found it hiding between Simple in Means: Rich in Ends and The Ecology of Wisdom (see the references, below). Deep Ecology is a large topic and won’t be discussed in this blog.

Sale tells the Lakota Sioux story of the creation of ‘Turtle Island’. Discussing the contributors:

“ What makes them special is that they are people not merely thinking but doing, despite the weight of the forces ranged against them – people who, it could be said, are sticking their necks out on behalf of all endangered species, including the human, including the living Earth itself. And it is the great lesson of the turtle, of course, that you can get ahead only when you stick your neck out.”

From Gary Snyder,

“The bioregional undertaking is to learn our region; to stay here and be at home in it, and to take responsibility for it, and treat it right.” p.14.

“ …you have people who say, “I’m not going to move” That’s where it gets new. People say “I’m going to stay here, and you can count on me being here in 20 years from now”. What that immediately does is make a politically-empowered community possible.” p.17.

From Peter Berg,

“The greatest shared value for the necessary upcoming ecological era is wilderness. Because wilderness already embodies systems, designs, purposes that are workable, are demonstratively eco-energetic – efficiënt in terms of energy and resources.” p.25.

“I think our working together to discover our own wildness, the wild Homo sapiens being within us, is very liberating, very exciting. It is the future from my point of view, and it’s pivotal in terms of human civilization.” p.29.

Finally, from Murray Bookchin:

“There’s a long tradition in New England and other parts of the United States, in which the town or the village is merely the nucleus of a much larger area, bringing the country and the town together.” p.130.

“We can decentralize our cities, we can use our land intelligently, ecologically, we can have people create new kinds of communities”. p.131.

It is a sobering thought to find this thin book, hidden away on the shelf. Also to realize that these interviews were recorded over thirty years ago.

What has changed? What is their relevance to today’s global predicament? Is there a sustainable future?

Many of those voices are no longer with us.

PS. Given that the libraries are closed. Please contact me, if you want to borrow any of these books.

Acknowledgements

Heather for her turtle talk, whether Blandings or Wood turtle.
Edward who has chosen Turtle Island (North America) as his home too. Plus his graphics contribution.

References

Christopher and Judith Plant, 1990. Turtle Talk: Voices for a Sustainable Future.
The New Catalyst Bioregional Series.

Bill Duvall, 1988. Simple in Means, Rich in Ends: Practicing Deep Ecology. Gibbs and Smith.
Alan Drengson and Bill Devall (Ed.), 2008. The Ecology of Wisdom: Writings of Arne Naess. Counterpoint Press.