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I have been aware of Rebecca Solnit as the name of a writer for a while, a name which is curiously melodious to my ear - simply another sign perhaps that my hearing is not so good, in addition to my chronic difficulties with my eustachian tubes I had certainly read some book reviews, something about feminism, something about walking, I would not have predicted her wide ranging engagement in political activism and her Bonobo-like joy in strange bedfellows.
This is a book written at the time of the younger US President Bush (with some updates) and pitched at the political left (broadly conceived) as an antidote to despair and hopelessness. Although she thinks of despair as a problem particularly prevalent to the political left, I think you could with one exception read her book inside-out from other political perspectives.
The exception is interesting and the off centre core of her vision, despair and hopelessness she thinks occur because of the Judeo-Christian / Abrahamic element in some cultures - the idea that we live in a fallen world. Perfection was the Eden, that Paradise, that Man and Woman were cast out of due to their disobedience. For Solnit lasting hope comes only through the embrace of other cultural traditions that all the imperfection and perhaps the imperfectability of the world, virtue by itself doesn't triumph and never can, only mutual effort between strange bedfellows based on shared common ground, act local :think global , she says.
Her pitch, reasonably enough, is to the emotions: hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa & clutch...hope is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency; because hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's treasures & the grinding down of the poor & marginal. Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action (p.4)
History she says offers another antidote to hopelessness - look how things have been in the past, consider that everything could be worse, be aware of what changes in attitudes and habits have had to come about to make possible such justice as there is in the world and the long road from the Divine right of Kings to today, it is an an ecological book, full of scattered seeds germinating unexpectedly, curious connecting branches, new ideas and changes becoming so deeply and firmly rooted that we take them for granted. Contingencies, process, change. Here History as a garden, rich with processes of growth and decay.
This is a book which is above all charming and wise, and while I did draw in my breath, sharply at her enumeration of certain election victories and delayed oil pipelines, seeing now some years later that none of these was permanent and maybe not much to celebrate in the first place but from her kinder perspective I had a sense that a change of government due to the content of ballot boxes is itself something huge (and bigger still in certain countries in which this has not yet become an established habit) and considering the advantages that oil companies have at their disposal, even delaying them is an achievement. A hopeful book. 192 I found this a rather disappointing and disjointed book, that depressed me more than it gave me hope. Maybe because it was written pre-Trump and a lot of the hopeful thing she says just seem more and more naive with each day. Yes, she gives some examples of hope campaigning and fighting for the right things can change and move, and how we often can't see the impact our positive actions have right away. But overall it was just a reminder of how big the beast is we're up against. Especially when she mentioned climate change? Boy, I've been so depressed
While the book was depressing, that's not enough to only give it two stars. I also felt it wasn't really informative and kinda all over the place. And I really disliked how she put the bogus Anti-GMO movement next to important human rights & other political campaining. Fearmongering and anti-science is really nothing that gives me hope in the dark... 192 4.5 stars
An imaginative and intelligent examination of the importance of cultivating hope in the midst of social justice movements. This essay collection includes an array of thought-provoking ideas, including viewing activism as a process and not just an outcome, the skill of honoring small victories while acknowledging larger battles, and using hope as a self-aware source of motivation to fuel further action. Though Hope in the Dark first came out in response to the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq, many of its lessons apply to how awful, racist, sexist, etc. our country stands within the hands of Trump. Rebecca Solnit achieves depth by creating a cohesive, inspiring, and urgent argument about the importance of hope, and she achieves breadth by applying this argument to feminism, gay rights, climate justice, Native American activism, and more. One of the passages that stood out to me the most and made my heart soar:
I say all this because hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. I say it because hope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency; because hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal. Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope. To hope is to give yourself to the future,, and that commitment to the future makes the present inhabitable.
Overall, a great book I would recommend for those who feel burned out or beaten down within their fights for justice. On a side note, this book helped me process my grief about the cancellation of my favorite TV show, which I write about here. I look forward to carrying this book's lessons into my future, which I will fill with actions and thoughts and hope. 192 Written in response to the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, but rereleased in early 2016 in the wake of America’s deteriorating political climate, Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark puts forth a lucid thesis: hope is “an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable,” and in “the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act.” The book consists of several short essays that survey overlooked environmental, cultural, and political victories over the past five decades. Stressing that change rarely is absolute, immediate, or straightforward, the essayist convincingly argues for approaching civic engagement as a way of life, fueled by the belief that a more just world is always possible. The speed at which Solnit synthesizes disparate ideas is astounding, and her hopefulness is as inspiring and moving as it ever has been. 192 I'm a big fan of Rebecca Solnit — deep and moving essayist, unapologetic feminist and activist, inventor of the term mansplaining, all-around brilliant gal. I cannot recommend strongly enough that you follow her on FB, where she is in the midst of a tireless campaign of resistance, deligitimizing our Horror-in-Chief, and spreading action steps so we can all do the same.
And I'm editing this part of my review, because I do not wish to stop anyone from either reading this book or from feeling hope in general in these harrowing times. For me, personally, I found this to be the absolute wrong moment to read it, because right now, having hope is not something I feel capable of. But if it works for you, please, by all means, grab it and hold on tight.
To clarify my point, though: This is a series of essays about people power and direct action and quiet revolutions and radical upheavals, from Seattle to Bolivia to Berlin, from the Zapatistas to the WTO strikes to the fight for marriage equality. Those are unquestionably great, great moments, beautiful confluences where, by luck or chance or design, people came together to make great strides. But this book was written in 2005, just after Bush was reelected (remember those halcyon days when George fucking W was the worst Republican we could fathom?!), to bolster progressives in the face of the War on Terror and its associated awfulnesses. So, for example, early on you have this passage:
In the past couple of years two great waves of despair have come in — or perhaps waves is too energetic a term since the despair felt like a stall, a becalming, a running aground. The more recent despair was over the presidential election in the US, thought as Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano commented, George W. Bush was running for President of the World. And he won, despite the opposition of most of the people in the world, despite the polls, despite the fact that a majority of US voters did not choose him — or John Kerry; 40% of the electorate stayed home, despite a surge of organization and activism by progressives and leftists who didn't even agree with Kerry on so very much, despite the terrible record of violence and destruction Bush had accrued, despite the stark disaster the Iraq war had become. He won. Which is to say the world lost.
And suddenly I couldn't hear myself think over the sound of history catastrophically repeating itself. I couldn't see these words through my fucking rage-tears. To reiterate: Hope is not something I can feel at all right now, and it's definitely not something I can get from this book today, in the Year of Our Lord 2016, when the walking embodiment of toxic masculinity and inarticulate xenophobia is about to take the helm of this goddamn country.
Fuck hope. Fuck everything.
But, again, if this helps you, by all means read it and love it. And then let's get fucking ready to fight. 192
Hope locates itself in the premises that we don't know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act.... [Hope is] the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand.Rebecca Solnit did a third edition update of this book in the early months of 2016, originally published in 2004 after the re-election of George W. Bush. The audience is clear, people disappointed in his re-election, struggling with burnout and feeling like their work is just spinning their wheels and treading water. It is meant to be encouraging for that group and other activists, pointing out historical events where activism has had a significant impact, from preventing environmental destruction to starting a revolution.
The African writer Laurens Van Der Post once said that no great new leaders were emerging because it was time for us to cease to be followers.For a few days following the presidential election of 2016, the publisher made the eBook available for free. I was grasping at anything, and downloaded it, thinking I might be able to read it in the future.
Despair is ... a form of impatience as well as of certainty.But I was curious. I have liked what Solnit had to say before, from mansplaining to Iceland. So I peeked in and found myself returning to it between other reads. It's funny, while a lot of what she is saying has a lot of relevance, the feeling is still different now. Some of what Solnit points out about how ideas change and become mainstream over time must also be true about racism and sexism if they are true about more liberal leaning ideals. I do wonder what she is thinking, if she's worried about her work being truly undone (she has contributed significantly to environmental activism), if the change in tide is troubling, or if she can still step back the way she is able to in these pages. I suppose I will wait for the fourth edition, or another essay.
[History] is a crab scuttling sideways, a drip of soft water wearing away stone, an earthquake breaking centuries of tension.... It will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal... Hope calls for action.As always, Solnit is impeccably researched, and I appreciated her very thorough and engaging endnotes. Her concepts near the end of the coyote created world, and being willing to step past doctrine and engage with new partners and new ways of thinking is really where I think we should all be focusing right now. 192 I really needed this. I've been listening to this book sporadically over the past month or two on my commute and it left me with a lot of new ideas that are really helping me get through a lot of the crap going on right now. It's a great book.
Biggest takeaway was that we shouldn't be afraid to celebrate small wins, even if the fight isn't over. The fight is never over. We can always improve, there's always going to be more causes to fight for, but we have to celebrate progress - and then keep fighting. It's what will keep us from losing that hope we need to keep going.
I also loved this:
Despair is a form of certainty, certainty that the future will be a lot like the present or decline from it. Optimism is similarly confident about what will happen. Both are grounds for not acting. Hope can be the knowledge that reality doesn't necessarily match our plans.” 192 2.5 stars. Unfortunately 'Hope In The Dark' spends most of itself talking about what it's going to be and do, and then runs out of time in which to be and do it. There are scattered snatches of insight and inspiration, but these are completely overshadowed by overall disjointedness and lack of content behind the bluster. If you're going to give your book such a promising title, you've got to back it up! 192 Its hard for me to exaggerate how important I feel this book is and how personally relevant it was for me to read it right now.
Rebecca Solnit's prose, per usual, is a pleasure to read, but more than that, she hits home with her message for anyone who feels overwhelmed, terrified, discouraged and desperate about the current state of affairs in politics, the environment and social issues.
Over and over again, her retelling of a story allowed me to reframe a story of my own, personal and public.
We live at a critical moment in history - at a time when its easy to look around and say, I can't do anything about this mess. That's the easy answer. The more complicated and hopeful answer is to do the thing that life is demanding of us anyway, with no guarantees, and to do it with faith that it will have some far reaching impact of which I may never be aware. This applies in private life as well as public. There is no certainty to be had. That which we work for today may never come to pass, but our job is to join with others and do the work anyway - with courage, creativity, passion and pleasure - and never stop believing no matter what the news says.
And if I wasn't clear before - this way of looking at things is just as important in personal life as public. The darkness is full of possibilities. I'm only lost if I give up and stop believing and acting with hope. 192
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DNF @ 40%
Rebecca Solnit is one of my favorite feminist essayists and when she's on her game, she is on her game. But sadly, I did not like HOPE IN THE DARK at all. First of all, disclaimer. I'm a California liberal, exactly the variety that so many people in the rest of the U.S. find so obnoxious, and to be honest, I don't really care. I was raised to treat all people with respect, to view people as people and not tokens, and to not hold everyone to the same creeds that I live my own life. I believe in free elections and democracy, and I think that foreign policy shouldn't stop at the Northern border, and if that makes me controversial, then I guess I'm controversial.
That said, I really didn't like HOPE IN THE DARK. Not only is it dated and depressing, I just don't really believe in the hope anymore. I honestly believe that the conservative party is keeping us from progressing as a society, socially, politically, and technologically, and I no longer share her optimism. Maybe I did once, but you know what they say about fooling someone twice. After three stolen elections, I don't have a lot of faith in the system anymore. I do what I can with my platform and try to raise awareness and do good, but I no longer hold much faith in a unification of the two party system.
1 star 192
With Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit makes a radical case for hope as a commitment to act in a world whose future remains uncertain and unknowable. Drawing on her decades of activism and a wide reading of environmental, cultural, and political history, Solnit argues that radicals have a long, neglected history of transformative victories, that the positive consequences of our acts are not always immediately seen, directly knowable, or even measurable, and that pessimism and despair rest on an unwarranted confidence about what is going to happen next.
Originally published in 2004, now with a new foreword and afterword, Solnit’s influential book shines a light into the darkness of our time in an unforgettable new edition. Hope in the Dark