Confusing, short, but still interesting
4 stars
It's a bit of a strange book and I have mixed feelings.
It starts with a very powerful message: climate crisis is here, it is unavoidable and we won't stop it. Now, here's what will happen. We need to stop having illusions.
I think that's the most important part of the book which actually changed me. You can actually leave out the rest. It would be a good manifesto because not much is added after.
But the book goes on for some (actually very short) time. After each chapter I was confused on what the underlying message actually is. Even in super dry info dumps like Year 501 I could see where author leads, here it feels like facts. That might be how I myself write, train of thought, not really shaped.
This might make you think that I just disliked it but this would be not true, it's just …
It's a bit of a strange book and I have mixed feelings.
It starts with a very powerful message: climate crisis is here, it is unavoidable and we won't stop it. Now, here's what will happen. We need to stop having illusions.
I think that's the most important part of the book which actually changed me. You can actually leave out the rest. It would be a good manifesto because not much is added after.
But the book goes on for some (actually very short) time. After each chapter I was confused on what the underlying message actually is. Even in super dry info dumps like Year 501 I could see where author leads, here it feels like facts. That might be how I myself write, train of thought, not really shaped.
This might make you think that I just disliked it but this would be not true, it's just after the initial shock I expected... more.
I actually spent of the time formally reading the book on the linked "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism" by Bookchin which I have whole heap of mixed feelings about as well but I think it complements it nicely as kind of an "opposite" view. Author of Desert lets themselves romanticize about actual deserts and nomad life which feels kinda weird because the rest is fairly dry. I don't appreciate such a mix anyway but that's might be because I don't really agree with primitivism.
It has also good linked bits about surveillance towards the end which feel surprisingly up-to-date although I again disagree that "abandon technology" is the answer.
I don't think it's a good intro into Anarchism thought and I think the book itself is pretty honest about its target audience being people who already share anti-authoritarian views. But if you are in that demographic or, I don't know, just read Anarchy Works and you think all this social change thing sounds too optimistic this might be a good place to counterbalance it and give you some new perspectives.