Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival and ResistanceFrom a Booker Prize-winning author and one of the most impassioned of writers of our time, this powerful collection of essays offers a stark portrait of post-9/11 realities. John Berger occupies a unique position in the international cultural landscape: artist, filmmaker, poet, philosopher, novelist, and essayist, he is also a deeply thoughtful political activist. In Hold Everything Dear, his artistry and activism meld in an attempt to make sense of the current state of our world.
Berger analyzes the nature of terrorism and the profound despair that gives rise to it. He writes about the homelessness of millions who have been forced by poverty and war to live as refugees. He discusses Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Serbia, Bosnia, China, Indonesia-anyplace where people are deprived of the most basic of freedoms. Berger powerfully acknowledges the depth of suffering around the world and suggests actions that might finally help bring it to an end. |
Contents
Wanting | 7 |
Undefeated Despair | 13 |
Would Softly Tell My Love | 27 |
Where Are | 41 |
War Against Terrorism or a Terrorist War? | 49 |
Let Us Think About Fear | 55 |
The Chorus in Our Heads or Pier Paolo Pasolini | 83 |
A Master of Pitilessness? | 91 |
Ten Dispatches About Endurance | 97 |
Flesh and Speeches | 107 |
About Disconnecting | 113 |
Ten Dispatches About Place | 119 |
Another Side of Desire | 129 |
Notes | 147 |