For a reader unfamiliar with Rebecca Solnit, this 2018 collection may be the best introduction to her work. Some may dispute this, suggesting that her better-known (and more highly regarded) books would serve as a more appropriate start, but I think the combination of shorter essays and the broad focus on the problems in present-day America make for an easier first read.
Call Them by Their True Names by Rebecca Solnit (April 2019)
The objective of these essays as suggested by the title is to use writing as a tool for calling out the truth wherever it cowers behind the justifications, narratives, and outright lies that seem to have taken center stage in the latter half of the past decade. A name, Solnit notes, is often a start to defeating a mysterious opponent, and throughout these essays she puts names to the vague notions, hunches, and feelings that infuse our daily lives with anxiety, uncertainty, and fear - the internal barriers created by anger and privilege, the legal system's dangerous balancing act between justice and retaliation, or the ongoing collective violence of ignoring climate change.
As I looked back over my notes from a over year ago, the idea that inequality feeds delusion came up a number of times. Inequality makes it easy to forget about the relationship between home ownership and the ability to secure a large bank loan. The imbalances in the status quo create obstacles, some unseen, to examining the role of institutions in various failures of American society. Solnit is not very interested in preserving current conditions; she points out that status quo bias is perhaps the most prevalent bias of all. When societal conditions drive us forward, it's like swimming faster due to an unseen undercurrent, but we sometimes move too fast to notice those being left behind; the way we use and revise language is one way to awaken the world to the reality that not everyone is benefiting from the same propulsion.
Endnotes and admin
0. TOA Rating
Three aliases out of four.
0a. Link to the book notes is here.
