After reading this post (
1), I thought about my recent/current reading:
- I picked up “Silent Spring” (Rachel Carson) this weekend. I’m about 1/2 way through and I’m struck by the familiarity of what she writes with current events, even 40 years on. People who object to eating foods treated with pesticide sprays are not always viewed as “fanatics or cultists” but you wouldn’t have to look hard to find some folks who regard such objections as silly or unfounded.
I wonder just how much has changed. I realize we use fewer herbicides/pesticides (biocides, as Carson calls them) and many of the ones written about are now banned. But I can remember using Chlordane dust, just shaking it out of the bag. I’ve used household foggers, and various consumer products whose labels I never read.
- I also read “Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” (Malcolm Gladwell) in about two days. Gladwell’s voice is so seductive and unassuming: one can almost hear his voice as he slowly builds his case through a mixture of fact and anecdote. I found myself wondering how I had survived with what felt like such a limited ability to thin-slice, as he calls the unconscious and intuitive assessments we all make. He finds such extraordinary examples: I find myself wondering how these gifts were distributed through the general population.