From Jason's journal: Sept 29, 08 - The World W/Out Us

Today the House of Reps failed to pass their $700 billion bailout for Wall Street. The Dow dropped 700 points, and the news sites showed pictures of Congressmen looking stricken. Something needs to be done seems to be the consensus among the economic community (including my father, whom I consult on such occasions) and I'm sure something will be done, but for now I don't mind seeing our elected officials look every bit the fool they normally play (and get rich doing so...).

But today was also eventful in that Bookgang met for the 4th time, discussing Alan Wiseman's The World Without Us.

From Book Gang

Stylistically, Wiseman's prose does little to engage the reader. He's not going to leave much of a thumbprint on his sentences, which tend to collect in rather blase paragraphs that offer little in the way of images, figurative language, or salient description. But they do have some serious, mind-fucking content.

The book's central conceit - what would happen to mankind's works and the world at large, should man suddenly disappear - becomes an occasion to discuss mankind's macro environmental impact. A sad story indeed. Strange but appropriate, juxtaposed to the current financial crisis, since the environmental crisis facing us on so many fronts hold far more long-term ills for both us and the planet. Yet, you'd never see the media, much less Congress, make anywhere near the effort to bail out Mother Nature - even though many of the solutions are more readily attainable and predictable. No one knows for certain whether or not a bailout will operate as intended, for example, or if the Gov't would make our money back over time, but banning plastic bags would immediately benefit the environment - though 50+ years of the fuckers will still be swimming in the oceans indefinitely.

The book made for a lively discussion about its intention = whether its intent is to encourage saner, less-damaging lifestyles or simply to make us aware of the fact that our world is fucked.

Reality was tough on us today. I, for one, look forward to going back to fiction.

PS: The next book, TBDiscussed on or around October 26 is Bohumil Hrabal's I Served the King of England.