Rebecca Solnit On What Disasters Reveal About Hope And Humanity

“What if everything we’ve been told about human nature is wrong?” That’s the question Rebecca Solnit is asking. The author, activist and historian explores whether disasters like pandemics reveal a surprising truth – that human beings are more generous, more altruistic, more hopeful than we commonly believe.

Guests

Rebecca Solnit, writer, author, activist and historian. She is the author of more than twenty books on feminism, Western history, social change and insurrection, popular power and hope and disaster, among other topics. Author of “Recollections of My Nonexistence,” “A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster” and “Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities.”

From The Reading List

The New York Times: “Who Will Win the Fight for a Post-Coronavirus America?” — “The scramble has already begun. The possibilities for change, for the better or the worse, for a more egalitarian or more authoritarian society, burst out of the gate like racehorses at times like these.

“Progressive and conservative politicians are pitching proposals to radically alter American society, to redistribute wealth, to change the rules, to redefine priorities. The pandemic has given the Trump administration an excuse to try to shut down borders and, reportedly, a pretext to try to secure the unconstitutional capacity to detain people indefinitely. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, among others, has made the case for reducing the prison population, whose crowding in poor conditions constitutes a health risk — for freeing people, rather than the opposite, in response to the crisis.

“Other progressives have sought to expand workers’ rights, sick leave and implement other policies that would improve lives even in ordinary times. Social programs long said to be impossible may well come to pass; so could authoritarian measures.

“Every disaster shakes loose the old order: The sudden catastrophe changes the rules and demands new and different responses, but what those will be are the subject of a battle. These disruptions shift people’s sense of who they and their society are, what matters and what’s possible, and lead, often, to deeper and more lasting change, sometimes to regime change. Many disasters unfold like revolutions; the past gives us many examples of calamities that led to lasting national change.”

The New York Times: “How Rebecca Solnit Found Her Voice” — “At dinner one evening in 2008, Rebecca Solnit joked to a friend about writing an essay called ‘Men Explain Things to Me.’ The friend, who was staying with Solnit ‘in flight from an awful soon-to-be ex,’ told her that such an essay was definitely worth writing — younger women needed it.

“So in one sitting early the next morning, Solnit did so, describing her encounter with a man who explained her own book to her at a party, and the silencing of women by men in general. The essay, which surprised her by going viral, ‘poured out with ease or rather tumbled out seemingly of its own accord,’ Solnit writes in her new memoir, ‘Recollections of My Nonexistence.’ ‘When this happens it means that the thoughts have long been gestating and writing is only a birth of what was already taking form out of sight.’

“While ‘Men Explain Things to Me’ introduced her work to a broader audience, Solnit has long been known for a particular style of prose that refracts history, politics, personal experience and criticism through a poetic lens. Her more than 20 books feature wide-ranging yet incisive reflections on time, memory, art, mythology and the American West.”

CBC: “‘In disasters, most people are altruistic, brave, communitarian, generous…’ says Rebecca Solnit” — “Writer Rebecca Solnit’s incessant curiosity drives her to explore everything, from nuclear testing to photography to the hidden conflicts embedded in maps.

“Over the course of her more than 20 books, she has written about atlases, Alzheimer’s, the history of walking, climate change, the desert, fairy tales, the color blue, punk music and contemporary politics.

“In her new memoir, Recollections of My Nonexistence, she writes about how San Francisco and the American West shaped her as a person, how she came to understand the epidemic of violence against women, and how she developed her voice in a world that wants to keep women silent.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org. [Copyright 2020 NPR]