9th out of 122 books
—
28 voters
What Are People For?
In the twenty-two essays collected here, Wendell Berry, whom "The Christian Science Monitor "called ""the "prophetic American voice of our day," conveys a deep concern for the American economic system and the gluttonous American consumer. Berry talks to the reader as one would talk to a next-door neighbor: never preachy, he comes across as someone offering sound advice. He...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
April 1st 1990
by North Point Press
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Although I don’t always agree with Wendell Berry, his essays are written with such grace that they are a pleasure to read no matter what his opinions are. Berry sees his writing as a craft, a calling, and it is obvious that he writes with great care.
This craftsmanship is shown in Berry’s writing process. Berry writes out his essays by hand, then reads them aloud so that he can experience them with the ear, not just the mind. As he goes through this process, he keeps revising and rewriting. The r...more
This craftsmanship is shown in Berry’s writing process. Berry writes out his essays by hand, then reads them aloud so that he can experience them with the ear, not just the mind. As he goes through this process, he keeps revising and rewriting. The r...more
gotta love this farmer-philosopher.
“When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be -- I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought or grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the...more
“When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be -- I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought or grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the...more
This is a good book. It represents a view that is unfamiliar to most people, especially people that grew up in the city or the suburbs. I cannot say that I think that it is all truth, but I think it touches on truth occasionally. Whatever he writes about, he writes beautifully and powerfully. I believe that all men and women should think about the issues raised in this book: issues of meaning, beauty, waste, competition and our economic principles. This book is not a finely nuanced discussion. I...more
Though I technically haven't finished this, it's already among my favorite books. I read the first two essays almost every morning on the bus to work and get something else out of them each time. Wendell Berry says all the things I need to hear about how we should be on the planet, and what we need to connect to our place, the planet, and especially each other.
Wendell Berry is my new hero. Most people don't know who this guy is, so I tell them he is like the wise old man of the mountain or something. He writes about rural life, agriculture and culture, but from a farm in Kentucky where he has spent most of his life. He is detached enough to be able to speak prophetically back into culture. And by that I mean he can speak some truth and perspective into our blind areas.
This book is a mix of some really great essays and some others that aren't so releva...more
This book is a mix of some really great essays and some others that aren't so releva...more
I read this book after hearing a radio program in which one of the guests said "Wendell Berry is one of the most influential living American writers"--and I'd never heard of him.
This collection of essays and reflections cement the careful observations and musings of a man who loves nature and farming, a man who is a friend of the Earth and who enjoys the kinship of those who labor in agriculture or fight to protect the land. Whether describing how soil is formed in an old bucket, analyzing poetr...more
This collection of essays and reflections cement the careful observations and musings of a man who loves nature and farming, a man who is a friend of the Earth and who enjoys the kinship of those who labor in agriculture or fight to protect the land. Whether describing how soil is formed in an old bucket, analyzing poetr...more
Aug 13, 2012
Kerri
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who daydreams about starting their own cul-de-sac-opia.
Recommended to Kerri by:
Matt
Shelves:
true-stories
Where has Berry been all my life? I suppose the answer to that question can be as simply stated as the bulk of Berry's interesting and impassioned essays: on his farm in rural Kentucky.
What are people for, then? They're for thoughtful discourse, intelligent exposition, ecological stewardship, sleeping under the stars, responsible eating, true-pleasure-seeking, words penned after long traipses underneath tall trees.
[Four stars for a(lliteration, and) consistent community-centric collection, and...more
What are people for, then? They're for thoughtful discourse, intelligent exposition, ecological stewardship, sleeping under the stars, responsible eating, true-pleasure-seeking, words penned after long traipses underneath tall trees.
[Four stars for a(lliteration, and) consistent community-centric collection, and...more
What can I say - classic Wendell Berry. This collection of essays deals as much with personal relationships as it does with agriculture, making it an excellent little toilet reader for the Wendell Berry fan. Here, his essays are sharply critical of the American economy and the way we treat each other and creation. As always, Berry presents himself as one who can't be reduced and pigeonholed into any label other than his own.
Incidentally, this also includes his infamous essay on why he won't buy...more
Incidentally, this also includes his infamous essay on why he won't buy...more
In the first half, we have the farmer of letters as literary critic, celebrating the values of honesty and community found in famous and not-so-famous works of literature. In the second, Berry throws it down in a scathing look at industrial society, especially its effects on rural communities. Don't pass him off as a curmudgeon though. Why, even MIT inventors are now praising the superior virtues of simple technologies produced before the industrial revolution came around:
http://www.newyorker.co...more
http://www.newyorker.co...more
I can't get enough Wendell Berry essays. This is a great collection that shows a slightly different side of Berry in the first half (literary criticism) and what I think of as "Classic Berry" in the second half (essays on farming, food, culture, economy, and God). Note that many of the essays in part 3 are the same as you'll find in "The Unsettling of America" but, honestly, they're so good that I didn't mind reading them a second time.
The back of the book says that Berry is THE American prophet...more
The back of the book says that Berry is THE American prophet...more
Wendell Berry has a perspective, and it contrasts with much of what passes today as common sense or regular living. Berry, a farmer, novelist, and poet, cares deeply for the land. He holds a long view, not looking to increase the land's productivity for short-term gain, but to care for it in a proper fashion, one borne out of generations of experience, leaving both land and the creatures that live upon it healthier than they would otherwise be. Berry's concern for the environment (from Kentucky,...more
This was another of the books my husband got for me from the library for Christmas. I put it on my list about a year ago when I was reading back through the materials from Northwest Earth Institute's Voluntary Simplicity discussion course, which my husband and I took more than a decade ago. Two of Wendell Berry's essays were reprinted in those materials, one---"The Pleasures of Eating" from What Are People For?---made such an impression on me, I decided to pick up the book. And am I glad I did.
B...more
B...more
This is my second time through this one more or less. The man preaches quite a beautiful gospel about his attempt to relocalize himself and live what good old Thoreau would call the simple life. Both "In Defense of Edward Abbey" and "Why I am not going to buy a computer" stood out to me. The former lays down Mr. Berry's thoughts on the enigma, Edward Abbey. The man reflects Berry's own desire to create the independent individual which seems to be gradually disappearing in this country. Abbey ref...more
This is the first and only book of Berry essays I have read from beginning to end. Still, without hesitation I announce this is the one book of Berry essays any Berry student MUST read. Go ahead. Ask me a question on any topic and I think I have a chance of giving a Berry-like answer. Here's why: What Are People For? ranges from poetry to literary criticism to essays on agriculture, economics, and technology, and yet the beauty of it is that each topic is informed by the same core values; I feel...more
What's not to love about Wendell? The man can write an essay. These topics may not be for everyone, and certainly Berry is writing from a place that no doubt seems alien to most postmodern people (i.e., agrarian, traditional, Luddite), but it is precisely because of that that he is so interesting and important. In an essay such as "Feminism, the Body, and the Machine" he quite simply hacks up our bourgeois sensibilities and outlines an even more radical alignment of our relationships between the...more
Several great essays here. Style and Grace, Writer and Region, The Responsibility of the Poet, What are People for?, Economy and Pleasure, The Pleasures of Eating, Word and Flesh, and Nature as Measure all stood out for me. It is tough for me to write a lot on each, but corporately this being the first book of his essays that I worked through, it was seminal in my grasping his view coming over from all of his fiction which I had read prior to reading this (which included almost all of his fictio...more
A wonderful, somewhat eclectic sampling of some of Wendell Berry's essays, unified by a focus on community, pleasure, and opposition to enormous, profit-driven businesses. I particularly loved reading Berry's essay on why he will never buy a computer, the letters he received in response, and his rebuttal. A wonderful essay that asks us to reconsider what we really need to function - and function well - in life.
I love part III of this book. Although most of the essays were written 20 years ago, the ideas there are very postmodern. He points out a way out of our modern self-destructive way of living. I could not appreciate most of his essays in part I & II. They are too heave and too religious for a non-Christian.
I am deeply shocked by his words that we are all part of the problem by being a consumer. and .
I am deeply shocked by his words that we are all part of the problem by being a consumer. and .
Is our modern lifestyle sustainable or are we coming up due for some kind of societal breakdown in which technological civilization reverts to a more natural state? I don't know the answer to that question, but it is an important question to at least be aware of as opposed to going through life thinking that things will stay the way they are and just keep getting better. I don't think Wendell Berry is a prophet, but I also don't think he's a grumpy crumudgeon luddite. A lot of people will probab...more
wb knows.
it took me a while to get into this collection. the first few essays were about people he admired. they were good but i was not enthralled...that happened a little bit later. i realize now that he was using these people as examples to build up to what i would consider the meat of the essays.
berry speaks of community, family and home/place. he writes about cultivating oneself vs. getting educated so you can move far away as fast as possible and contribute to the consumer rat race. he wri...more
it took me a while to get into this collection. the first few essays were about people he admired. they were good but i was not enthralled...that happened a little bit later. i realize now that he was using these people as examples to build up to what i would consider the meat of the essays.
berry speaks of community, family and home/place. he writes about cultivating oneself vs. getting educated so you can move far away as fast as possible and contribute to the consumer rat race. he wri...more
this is a phenomenal collection of well written commentary, beautiful poetry, protest, action, art, and knowledge of his place...."protest that endures, I think, is moved by a Hope far more modest than that of public success:namely the Hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart &spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence." reads excellently alongside mlk speeches.
May 09, 2009
Preston Vanderslice
is currently reading it
A book of essays that's never too far from my reach. Some of my favorites so far are 'A Remarkable Man,' 'Feminism, The Body, and The Machine,' and 'Word and Flesh.'
The book has a mix of fascinating/convicting essays, and some obscure/forgettable ones. But overall very worth reading and picking through. As an urbanite interested in learning to live more simply, sustainably, and locally, I found this book helpful. He provides motivating answers to the the "why bother?" question for that kind of lifestyle.
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Wendell Berry is a conservationist, farmer, essayist, novelist, professor of English and poet. He was born August 5, 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky where he now lives on a farm. The New York Times has called Berry the "prophet of rural America."
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“I dislike the thought that some animal has been made miserable to feed me. If I am going to eat meat, I want it to be from an animal that has lived a pleasant, uncrowded life outdoors, on bountiful pasture, with good water nearby and trees for shade.”
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“Eating is an agricultural act.”
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