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On time and water / Andri Snær Magnason ; translated by Lytton Smith.

By: Contributor(s): Language: English Original language: Icelandic Publisher: Rochester, New York : Open Letter, 2021Description: 345 pages : illustrations ; 23 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 194883023X
  • 9781948830232
Uniform titles:
  • Tímann og vatnið. English.
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 363.738/74 23
LOC classification:
  • QC981.8.G56 A5313 2021
Contents:
May you live in interesting times -- A little treasure -- A future conversation -- A projection -- The all-encompassing silence of God's great expanse -- Writer's block -- Telling stories -- The words we do not understand -- Searching for the holy cow -- A visit from a holy man -- A revelation from the wrong god -- Back in time -- Crocodile dreams -- A mythology for the present -- N 64° 35.378', W 16° 44.691' -- The mother of the universe, white as rime -- Farewell to the white giants -- The god in the steam engine -- Just more words -- See the blue sea -- Maybe everything will be all right -- Interview with the Dalai Lama, in his guest room, Dharamsala -- In a mother's milk -- Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni -- 2050 -- Apausalypse now: Covid-19 postscript.
Summary: "A few years ago, Andri Snaer Magnason, one of Iceland's most beloved writers and public intellectuals, was asked by a leading climate scientist why he wasn't writing about the greatest crisis mankind has faced. Magnason demurred: he wasn't a specialist, he said; it wasn't his field. But the scientist persisted: "If you cannot understand our scientific findings and present them in an emotional, psychological, poetic or mythological context," he told him, "then no one will really understand the issue, and the world will end." Based on interviews and advice from leading glacial, ocean, climate, and geographical scientists, and interwoven with personal, historical, and mythological stories, Magnason's response is a rich and compelling work of narrative nonfiction that illustrates the reality of climate change--and offers hope in the face of an uncertain future. Moving from reflections on how one writes an obituary for an iceberg to exhortation for a heightened understanding of human time and our obligations to one another, throughout history and across the globe, On Time and Water is both deeply personal and globally-minded: a travel story, a world history, and a desperate plea to live in harmony with future generations. Already a massive bestseller in Iceland, and selling in two dozen territories around the world, this is a book unlike anything that has yet been published on the current climate emergency."--Provided by publisher.
List(s) this item appears in: Great Books by Small Presses

May you live in interesting times -- A little treasure -- A future conversation -- A projection -- The all-encompassing silence of God's great expanse -- Writer's block -- Telling stories -- The words we do not understand -- Searching for the holy cow -- A visit from a holy man -- A revelation from the wrong god -- Back in time -- Crocodile dreams -- A mythology for the present -- N 64° 35.378', W 16° 44.691' -- The mother of the universe, white as rime -- Farewell to the white giants -- The god in the steam engine -- Just more words -- See the blue sea -- Maybe everything will be all right -- Interview with the Dalai Lama, in his guest room, Dharamsala -- In a mother's milk -- Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni -- 2050 -- Apausalypse now: Covid-19 postscript.

"A few years ago, Andri Snaer Magnason, one of Iceland's most beloved writers and public intellectuals, was asked by a leading climate scientist why he wasn't writing about the greatest crisis mankind has faced. Magnason demurred: he wasn't a specialist, he said; it wasn't his field. But the scientist persisted: "If you cannot understand our scientific findings and present them in an emotional, psychological, poetic or mythological context," he told him, "then no one will really understand the issue, and the world will end." Based on interviews and advice from leading glacial, ocean, climate, and geographical scientists, and interwoven with personal, historical, and mythological stories, Magnason's response is a rich and compelling work of narrative nonfiction that illustrates the reality of climate change--and offers hope in the face of an uncertain future. Moving from reflections on how one writes an obituary for an iceberg to exhortation for a heightened understanding of human time and our obligations to one another, throughout history and across the globe, On Time and Water is both deeply personal and globally-minded: a travel story, a world history, and a desperate plea to live in harmony with future generations. Already a massive bestseller in Iceland, and selling in two dozen territories around the world, this is a book unlike anything that has yet been published on the current climate emergency."--Provided by publisher.

Translated from the Icelandic.

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