What sort of course? I can only imagine the power that book might hold in a college class. It certainly wasn't covered in my land-grant university agricultural studies, but I wish it had been.
It’s an odd course on 21st century environment philosophy, but I wanted to ground it through a sense of the local in the American tradition, so we read Thoreau, Leopold, and Berry as background. I’m have fun (and incidentally reading Jayber Crow right now— he’s walking back to Port William in the flood)
Beautiful! There's no better way to ground in a sense of local than Thoreau, Leopold, and Berry. I need to go back and re-read Walden. It has been a few years and I suspect I will get a lot more out of it now.
Jayber crossing that bridge amidst the flood, risking his life to get back to the only "home" he has and then encountering Burley Coulter happily fishing is such an amazing set of place-centered imagery.
I read Jayber Crow a few months ago and while this is a very strong statement, I now consider it my favorite book of all time–it impacted me that much. As an urban girl from the Pacific Northwest who is now firmly planted in rural Montana, it has already shaped my way of thinking in such a monumental way. I also read The Need to Be Whole, and I think a lot of the pushback against that book would be silenced by reading Jayber Crow! Wendell's heart and integrity is such an inspiration for all of us, urban or rural.
I was actually just discussing the critiques of The Need to Be Whole with a friend of mine. When Berry spent years launching broadsides at industrial agriculture, it was fine and commendable to many in the mainstream left and eco-conscious movements. But the minute that he openly suggests that the industrial North had complicity in creating a divisive and fractured society, people got reallyyyy uncomfortable. I find life-changing his premise that our failure to follow the two greatest commandments (Love God, Love Your Neighbor) is the source of all our ills. It's true.
Absolutely. Wendell's unwavering commitment to hold the tension of two things being true (like war being bad, including/especially the Civil War, and also the North not being entirely the heroes our history often teaches us they were) is why I think he is such an important voice for our time–and it seems like one of the last to stand firm in truth and avoid extremes, even when it makes him unpopular. Your comment reminded me of one of the quotes from the book I loved, and I think this one is particularly beautiful: "Only the established and honored practice of love can give us things so difficult as wholeness or goodness or beauty or truth or freedom, let alone that 'sustainability' that is on everybody's tongue."
I’m a huge fan of his essays and some poetry but haven’t ventured into the fiction. Thanks for the recommendation. Have you read his 2021 book, “The Need to Be Whole”? It’s phenomenal.
I just finished it, actually, though I spend months reading, re-reading, and parsing chapters that held me up from getting to the end. It is moving, phenomenal, difficult, and powerful.
I had a very similar experience with it. I want to read it again and/or write about key points for myself. I read it right after Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the U.S.", and I wish both were required reading for all U.S. citizens. Just finishing Ron Chernow's excellent bio of U.S. Grant ("Grant"), which beautifully echoes and complements Berry's book.
The old line from Scripture that "no prophet is accepted in his hometown" comes to mind. Wendell is certainly not ignored in his own land, but more need to listen to him. When I first read "The Unsettling of America," I was shocked to see just how many of his warnings in the 1970s proved accurate in the 21st century.
I was close to heartbroken when Jayber Crow was released only a couple of weeks after I had submitted my completed dissertation to UTDallas-Humanities. My subject was "Living Responsibly in Community: Wendell Berry's Port William Fiction." I started with Nathan Coulter and continued through all the novels and short stories available up to year 2000. Then I had to stop and write the thing!
If only I'd had Jayber's "autobiography" to add to the mix. He was a recurring character in the earlier fiction, but the Membership of tobacco farmers was the real focus for my study of what made for a strong community (or community-within-a-community). Jayber was a barber, not a farmer, and until the novel bearing his name came out, I saw him as something of an outsider, but valuable in giving insight and perspective to Port William and the Membership within it. Jayber Crow--the novel--would have added a wonderful dimension to my analysis of what made for a strong and responsible community. Wendell Berry is a great social critic, whether by means of essays, novels or poetry. Can't recommend him highly enough.
What terrible timing for you! "Jayber Crow" was the first Berry fiction that I read, so when I started reading, I viewed Jayber and his barber shop as a central fulcrum of sorts in Port William society. You start from there and then learn about the Coulters, the Feltners, the Catletts, and more. But I suppose when you start elsewhere in the fiction, he is seen with a different lens. How fascinating. There is such depth and complexity in that fictional universe that I sometimes have to remind myself that it IS fiction.
Tomorrow I walk into class to teach The Unsettling of America, thanks for reminding me of Berry’s fiction
What sort of course? I can only imagine the power that book might hold in a college class. It certainly wasn't covered in my land-grant university agricultural studies, but I wish it had been.
It’s an odd course on 21st century environment philosophy, but I wanted to ground it through a sense of the local in the American tradition, so we read Thoreau, Leopold, and Berry as background. I’m have fun (and incidentally reading Jayber Crow right now— he’s walking back to Port William in the flood)
Beautiful! There's no better way to ground in a sense of local than Thoreau, Leopold, and Berry. I need to go back and re-read Walden. It has been a few years and I suspect I will get a lot more out of it now.
Jayber crossing that bridge amidst the flood, risking his life to get back to the only "home" he has and then encountering Burley Coulter happily fishing is such an amazing set of place-centered imagery.
You might enjoy this— from a class about a decade ago: https://youtu.be/xVTZ0Kf2rXY
I read Jayber Crow a few months ago and while this is a very strong statement, I now consider it my favorite book of all time–it impacted me that much. As an urban girl from the Pacific Northwest who is now firmly planted in rural Montana, it has already shaped my way of thinking in such a monumental way. I also read The Need to Be Whole, and I think a lot of the pushback against that book would be silenced by reading Jayber Crow! Wendell's heart and integrity is such an inspiration for all of us, urban or rural.
I was actually just discussing the critiques of The Need to Be Whole with a friend of mine. When Berry spent years launching broadsides at industrial agriculture, it was fine and commendable to many in the mainstream left and eco-conscious movements. But the minute that he openly suggests that the industrial North had complicity in creating a divisive and fractured society, people got reallyyyy uncomfortable. I find life-changing his premise that our failure to follow the two greatest commandments (Love God, Love Your Neighbor) is the source of all our ills. It's true.
Absolutely. Wendell's unwavering commitment to hold the tension of two things being true (like war being bad, including/especially the Civil War, and also the North not being entirely the heroes our history often teaches us they were) is why I think he is such an important voice for our time–and it seems like one of the last to stand firm in truth and avoid extremes, even when it makes him unpopular. Your comment reminded me of one of the quotes from the book I loved, and I think this one is particularly beautiful: "Only the established and honored practice of love can give us things so difficult as wholeness or goodness or beauty or truth or freedom, let alone that 'sustainability' that is on everybody's tongue."
I’m a huge fan of his essays and some poetry but haven’t ventured into the fiction. Thanks for the recommendation. Have you read his 2021 book, “The Need to Be Whole”? It’s phenomenal.
I just finished it, actually, though I spend months reading, re-reading, and parsing chapters that held me up from getting to the end. It is moving, phenomenal, difficult, and powerful.
I had a very similar experience with it. I want to read it again and/or write about key points for myself. I read it right after Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the U.S.", and I wish both were required reading for all U.S. citizens. Just finishing Ron Chernow's excellent bio of U.S. Grant ("Grant"), which beautifully echoes and complements Berry's book.
Well said. Wendell is the prophet among us, we would do well to listen to him more.
The old line from Scripture that "no prophet is accepted in his hometown" comes to mind. Wendell is certainly not ignored in his own land, but more need to listen to him. When I first read "The Unsettling of America," I was shocked to see just how many of his warnings in the 1970s proved accurate in the 21st century.
I was close to heartbroken when Jayber Crow was released only a couple of weeks after I had submitted my completed dissertation to UTDallas-Humanities. My subject was "Living Responsibly in Community: Wendell Berry's Port William Fiction." I started with Nathan Coulter and continued through all the novels and short stories available up to year 2000. Then I had to stop and write the thing!
If only I'd had Jayber's "autobiography" to add to the mix. He was a recurring character in the earlier fiction, but the Membership of tobacco farmers was the real focus for my study of what made for a strong community (or community-within-a-community). Jayber was a barber, not a farmer, and until the novel bearing his name came out, I saw him as something of an outsider, but valuable in giving insight and perspective to Port William and the Membership within it. Jayber Crow--the novel--would have added a wonderful dimension to my analysis of what made for a strong and responsible community. Wendell Berry is a great social critic, whether by means of essays, novels or poetry. Can't recommend him highly enough.
What terrible timing for you! "Jayber Crow" was the first Berry fiction that I read, so when I started reading, I viewed Jayber and his barber shop as a central fulcrum of sorts in Port William society. You start from there and then learn about the Coulters, the Feltners, the Catletts, and more. But I suppose when you start elsewhere in the fiction, he is seen with a different lens. How fascinating. There is such depth and complexity in that fictional universe that I sometimes have to remind myself that it IS fiction.