Name: Q's review of The Unreality of Memory by Elisa Gabbert
Item: The Unreality of Memory
Rating: 4
Author: Q

Elisa Gabbert

"Terror, disaster, memory, selfhood, happiness . . . leave it to a poet to tackle the unthinkable so wisely and so wittily."* A literary guide to life in the pre-apocalypse, The Unreality of Memory collects profound and prophetic essays on the Internet age’s media-saturated disaster coverage and our addiction to viewing and discussing the world’s ills. We stare at our phones. We keep multiple tabs open. Our chats and conversations are full of the phrase “Did you see?” The feeling that we’re living in the worst of times seems to be intensifying, alongside a desire to know precisely how bad things have gotten—and each new catastrophe distracts us from the last. The Unreality of Memory collects provocative, searching essays on disaster culture, climate anxiety, and our mounting collective sense of doom. In this new collection, acclaimed poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert explores our obsessions with disasters past and future, from the sinking of the Titanic to Chernobyl, from witch hunts to the plague. These deeply researched, prophetic meditations question how the world will end—if indeed it will—and why we can’t stop fantasizing about it. Can we avoid repeating history? Can we understand our moment from inside the moment? With The Unreality of Memory, Gabbert offers a hauntingly perceptive analysis of our new ways of being and a means of reconciling ourselves to this unreal new world. "A work of sheer brilliance, beauty and bravery.” *—Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less

And Other Essays

The Unreality of Memory

Jackie Luo

I like it. Ditulis dengan baik, topik-topiknya menarik dan relatable, dan pembahasannya komprehensif dan mendalam. Lumayan well researched juga, kecuali bagian referensi ke Robbers Cave experiment yg udah di-debunk Rutger Bregman di Humankind. Cukup page turner, tapi rada cape sih bacanya karena tiap esai cukup panjang, materinya lumayan menohok, dan referensinya banyak. There's a lot to digest. Bahasan yang paling memorable buat aku adalah tentang bencana, compassion fatigue dan evil. Yang menarik, kayanya Gabbert ada di level empati/apati yang mirip dengan aku. Kek, sama-sama capek dan ga yakin what to make of how we feel in response to everything happening in the world. How she explains things from that state kinda helped me putting things into perspective. Jadi banyak momen ngangguk-ngangguk.

Jackie Luo &
The Unreality of Memory by Elisa Gabbert

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Jackie Luo &The Unreality of Memory by Elisa Gabbert

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Jackie Luo &
The Unreality of Memory by Elisa Gabbert