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tim flannery

1971

June 11, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

‘The world is too small for the kind of localism that leads to wars. We can have special pride in our country, our language, and our literature, our customs and culture and tradition, but it has to be the abstract pride we have in our baseball team or our college – a pride that cannot and must not be backed by force of arms.’

I read a ton of science fiction as a teenager and continued well into my twenties. My father seemed to be reading almost nothing else, though he also introduced me to Neville Shute and lots of WWII memoirs. SF was fully normalised in our home and I took years to understand how rare it was for households to be looking into possible futures. I am so grateful, with hindsight, that ‘what if’ was the mantra rather than ‘once upon a time’.

[Read more…] about 1971

Filed Under: Anchoritism, Fake Memoir Tagged With: booklink, climate change, david mcwilliams, david pimental, der spiegel, douglas adams, economics, irish times, john carey, pandemic, science fiction, tim flannery

Future Imperfect

April 25, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

You may have noticed the spine of Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist in a recent photo I posted. There’s a line in it that advises that ‘The best advice is not to write what you know, it’s to write what you like.’ And with such confirmation I feel encouraged to meld it with an Anne Lamott aphorism that’s infected the web: ‘Every thing that happened to you is yours; people should have behaved better.’

Are these observations deserving of reflection and expression? They certainly contributed to my rereading an older walking commentary blog to see if I’m repeating themes close to my heart and of course, create an opportunity to steal from myself. Which led me down some old paths this morning and a return to a personal favourite theme which is that one’s point of view depends on the view point. Mountain tops become islands if you are looking down from a peak above a cloud filled valley.

[Read more…] about Future Imperfect

Filed Under: Anchoritism, Fake Memoir, ManRom2021 Tagged With: albert einstein, anne lamott, austin kleon, booklink, brian cox, david moore, georges lemaïtre, jean-jacques rousseau, mark o'connell, mary robinson, Maslow, pankaj mishra, tim flannery, walking

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