We Are Here, You See. We Are.
John Green's latest masterpiece
Dear wonderful readers,
I would like to say this as EMPHATICALLY as possible: READ THIS BOOK!
THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED: ESSAYS ON A HUMAN-CENTERED PLANET
In this series of essays, John Green rates and reviews specific human experiences and/or things like he would a Yelp Review on a scale of one to five.
For instance, The Academic Decathlon.
When he was a small and miserable, awkward, trench-coat wearing, C-student, Green met his high school BFF, Todd, who invited him to be on the team. It changed his whole life. The essay is called The Academic Decathlon, but it’s really about a relationship:
Looking out at this river reminds me of sitting at the edge of that creek with Todd, and how his love helped carry me through those years, and how in some ways it is still carrying me. I wonder if you have people like that in your life, people whose love keeps you going even though they are distant now because of time and geography and everything else that comes between us…Rivers keep going, and we keep going, and there is no way back to the roof of that hotel. But the memory still holds me together.”
Green gives the Academic Decathlon four and a half stars.
His choices of what to rate and review are sometimes funny, and always insightful: Canadien Geese, Scratch ‘n Sniff Stickers, Diet Dr. Pepper, CNN, Bonneville Salt Flats, Viral Meningitis, the Notes app, and Whispers (have you ever thought about how delicious whispering is?)
Green started writing this book as the pandemic swept the country, triggering his lifelong struggle with depression, severe anxiety and his diagnosed obsessive-compulsivity. His doctor suggested gardening - which he did. And which helped.
What Green is really trying to find is the meaning of life. How much does the “Googling Strangers” contribute to that? And what the heck is “Anthropocene?”
It’s defined this way:
“The Anthropocene is the current geological age in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity.”
And then Green rates those things (the plague didn’t score too highly.)
It’s so smart and thoughtful. He tries hard not to be cynical though I suspect his natural inclination might lean that way. I understand. For a deep-thinking, sensitive person, life hits hard.
He writes of his “old long since” friendship with author Amy Krouse Rosenthal and the famed AULD LANG SYNE song (translated to something like “old long since”).
Before she passed from cancer, Rosenthal wrote in her memoir:
I was here, you see. I was.
Green leans into the vulnerability that is hard to write about. But because he does, we are able to connect with him and his struggles through deep and dark depressive episodes. It almost reads as a love letter to the planet, but he’s also offering a life line: keep going, there is meaning everywhere.
When one of us says, ‘Look, there’s nothing out there,’ what we are really saying is, ‘I cannot see.’” -Terry Tempest Williams
Like Yelp ratings, all of these reviews are based on personal experiences (which made me want to write my own). Green hasn’t had lots of good times with geese, so his rating is low. But Diet Dr. Pepper? He’s found meaning there.
He rates and reviews sunsets (a chapter I loved so much I cried, and then read it to my teenage daughters as their “bedtime story.” Tucked under the covers, they were captive and could not escape me).
I loved this book so much that I wanted to reread it as soon as I finished. I checked it out from the library, but need to own my own copy so I can underline and dog-ear all of the pages. I wrote out dozens of quotes by hand, and am already thinking of all of the people I want to gift this book to.
It’s that good.
If you follow Green on Instagram, you’ll know he can be funny, worried, hopeful, deep, and often annoyed. Because of the way he talks, I’ve sometimes wondered if he’s an atheist, but then I read the chapter on his experiences as a student chaplain. Well, it about broke his heart - and mine. But God and meaning is a concept that he’s felt and just can’t quit. Basically, he’s a human grappling with what it is to be human.
To quote the book jacket: “In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet—from the QWERTY keyboard and Staphylococcus aureus to the Taco Bell breakfast menu—on a five-star scale.”
I loved THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED and give it a book recommendation of four and three quarter stars.
What I really got from it?
We are here, you see. We are.
❤️ Amy
What are you reading now?
Good News and Story Links
PLEASE: add THE MCNIFFICENTS to your Goodreads - it really helps me out!
Let Joy Find You: Such a great read
Obsessed With: Matt Nathanson’s “Blush” Live in Seattle
Watching: Manifest on Netflix
