A timely and disturbing study of flawed, dangerous thinking.
A Daily Beast reporter probes the relationship between flat Earth beliefs and the rise of modern conspiracy theories.
Before the pandemic, the 2020 presidential election, and civil unrest changed the world, Weill regarded flat Eartherism as “something close to a joke.” Yet as the Trump administration and its penchant for “alternative facts” fed social and political turmoil at home and abroad, Weill was “stripped…of [the] smugness” she felt for believing that most people were grounded in reality. She looked more closely into the flat Eartherism she derided and discovered social parallels that intrigued as much as they unsettled. As the author notes, anti-globalism emerged out of the ashes of a failed socialist experiment—itself intended as a form of rebellion against the Industrial Revolution—in 19th century Britain. Weill attributes the persistence of this anti-scientific belief less to the delusions of crackpots like flat Earth movement founder Samuel Rowbotham and more to the idea that the conspiracy thinking in which flat Eartherism is grounded results when humans are faced with the incomprehensible and uncontrollable. Turning her attention to contemporary history, the author suggests how the internet—in particular, social media—has wrought havoc on truth by helping to disseminate disinformation. In turn, this has helped create a paranoid culture and “conspiratorial melting pot” in which Rowbotham’s flat Eartherism has not only flourished, but also “cross-pollinated” with everything from anti-vaccination advocates to QAnon conspiracy theories. Perhaps most unnerving of all of Weill’s observations is that conspiratorial movements and cults are “cousins”—both have dogmatic followers that not only “keep each other in line,” but also keep themselves “away from the outside world.” This provocative book is sure to inspire debate about conspiracy theories as well as how citizens of a fractured world can learn to overcome their fear of radical planetary change.
A timely and disturbing study of flawed, dangerous thinking.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64375-068-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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