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samdalefox 's review for:
I'm With the Bears: Short Stories from a Damaged Planet
by Mark Martin
adventurous
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book is a collection of short stories from different authors about the climate crisis. The score 3/5 is an average taken from the individual ratings, given below. My favourite story by far was 'Hermie'. It was absolutely heartbreaking and yet insightful and critical too. It shows how even those who care about nature and dedicate their life's work to it (e.g., a marine biologist) can become detached and unconnected. 'Hermie' demands that we don't make excuses from self-imposed human limitations. We must protect and connect with nature again as an imperative. If you seek out only one story to read, I would recommend this one.
The other stories were a little hit and miss. My main disappointment from the collection is that the vast majority of the stories were anthropocentric. Maybe this was deliberate. Maybe the authors thought the only way they could resonate with readers about the climate crisis is through the eyes, desires, and likes of humans. However, after reading 'Fox 8' by George Sanders I completely disagree with this approach and think the stories were not as impactful as a result.
The introduction states that "one task...is to provide sense of what life might be like in a world past fossil fuel. Not just a bleak sense, but a bright one; a glimpse of what a future might look like where community begins to replace consumption". In this respect, the collection failed totally and wholly, there was exactly one (small) instance where this aspect of community was achieved. Themes explored: various dystopis caused by the crisis and how humans survive (or don't) in it, water inequality and inequity, capitalism and militarism, climate activisim, what we can learn from older generations, displaced people (climate refugees), humans' relationship with wild animals.
List of stories in the collection:
The other stories were a little hit and miss. My main disappointment from the collection is that the vast majority of the stories were anthropocentric. Maybe this was deliberate. Maybe the authors thought the only way they could resonate with readers about the climate crisis is through the eyes, desires, and likes of humans. However, after reading 'Fox 8' by George Sanders I completely disagree with this approach and think the stories were not as impactful as a result.
The introduction states that "one task...is to provide sense of what life might be like in a world past fossil fuel. Not just a bleak sense, but a bright one; a glimpse of what a future might look like where community begins to replace consumption". In this respect, the collection failed totally and wholly, there was exactly one (small) instance where this aspect of community was achieved. Themes explored: various dystopis caused by the crisis and how humans survive (or don't) in it, water inequality and inequity, capitalism and militarism, climate activisim, what we can learn from older generations, displaced people (climate refugees), humans' relationship with wild animals.
List of stories in the collection:
- The Siskiyou, July 1989, T C Boyle - 3.5⭐
- Zoogoing, Lydia Millet - 4.25⭐
- Sacred Space, Kim Stanley Robinson - 1.75⭐
- Hermie, Nathaniel Rich - 4.5⭐
- Diary of an interesting year, Helen Simpson - 3⭐
- Newromancer, Toby Litt - 2.25 ⭐
- The siphoners, David Mitchell - 3.5⭐
- Arzéstula, Wu Ming 1 - 2.25⭐
- The tamarisk Hunter, Paolo Bacigalupi -3.25⭐
- Time capsule found on the dead planet, Margaret Atwood - 3.25⭐
[Average score = 3.15⭐]
Favourite quotes:
"He had wanted the old wolf to come close to him, head down, softening. As though all wild animals could one day be tamed - as though this was an aspect of all of them, this one-day-tamable quality, and their widlerness was nothing but coyness or a mannerism. As though animals should not only submit to people but behave like them, comport thamselves with civility.... Privately he thought, at the heart of it, you wanted animals to turn to you in welcome. It was a habit gained from expecting each other to do this."
"Capitalism cared more about it's children as accessories and demonstrations of earning power than their future."
"The ruins of a language of heart-wrenching. Every word that dies out is a house that gives up, sags and sinks, becomes buried in the sand. These words were inhabited, human beings filled them with life and stories."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Violence
The themes explored are emotionally very sad.