Reviews for A language older than words

The average rating for A language older than words based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-05-30 00:00:00 Randy Powell This is one of the few books I have consciously decided not to finish in recent years. I agree wholeheartedly with Jensen's basic premise-- that we are rendering the world uninhabitable and committing atrocities against its human and nonhuman residents, and that our ability to do this depends on our denial of reality and our disconnecting from the people around us. I cannot, however, support the belief structure he builds up around this premise. Jensen equates studying science with raping children, and treats public schools as analogous with genocide. He condemns all modern western social structures and sources of knowledge, and offers only eco-terrorism and unverified personal gnosis as alternatives. I was reading this book hoping for solutions I could apply in my own life, and I found only contempt for my not having found them already. In my opinion, A Language Older that Words leaves the most important questions unanswered. If medical animal research can never be justified, should all the advances of modern medicine be reversed? If factory faming is never acceptable, must every person (including the entire continent of Africa and most of Asia) who does not have access to sustainable farmed staple foods starve? Does Jensen actually believe that every human whose children, pets, or livestock have been killed by a wild animal simply failed to communicate with the predator? And if he believes that we participate in structures of oppression by participating in society, just how far has he dropped out? He owns a car-- how does he justify driving it? Does he wear clothing whose fibers were cultivated on industrial farmland or synthesized in a third world factory, whose threads were spun by children in China and whose pieces were assembled in a sweatshop? Or does he go naked? Does he use only products (silverware, cleaning products, furniture?) whose origins are ethical and verifiable? He turns such a condemning eye to everything he sees in our society, and yet never presents a viable alternative, or turns his scathing contempt on himself. Jensen's own fatalism, hatred and hypocrisy are as sickening to me as is the abuse he experienced as a child. Two wrongs don't make a right-- hatred and rage in the name of the environment is no less damaging than hatred and rage in the name of the ego. In the end, one absolutist ideology is much like another. Jensen is an environmental fundamentalist-- he believes that there is no room for compromise or even discussion with conflicting viewpoints. As such, I see no reason to continue reading his opinions; he would have no interest in mine. I give this book two stars because I think it has something to teach. I'll leave it at my local coffeehouse because I hope its ideas may be valuable to some people who can use them constructively. I, alas, wasn't able to find anything constructive here.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-02-15 00:00:00 Gabriela Moraes it has been said, though i recall not by whom, that we do not find great books, that, in fact, they are the ones that manage to find us. having been found, it took me visiting a now-defunct bookstore in the east village of manhattan before i could see whether this book's promise (the promise, ever present yet rarely fulfilled, of every unopened book) were to be kept. from the first paragaraph i knew this was to be a book so stunning that i would i confuse the wish to have written it myself with the ability to actually have been able to do so... "there is a language older by far and deeper than words. it is the language of bodies, of body on body, wind on snow, rain on trees, wave on stone. it is the language of dream, gesture, symbol, memory. we have forgotten this language. we do not even remember that is exists." by the ensuing two sentences, i realized i was reading a book that i would later count among the very few that i'd ever describe as having been truly pivotal in shaping my thinking and feeling of the world... "in order for us to maintain our way of living, we must, in a broad sense, tell lies to each other, and especially to ourselves. it is not necessary that the lies be particularly believeable." rare is the writer that can stir within their reader even a single emotion, rarer still the one that can rouse many. derrick jensen writes with a rigorous devotion to both an emotional honesty and intellectual clarity encountered very infrequently. his skill is evidenced by a fluid, patient, and poetic prose that, through its steadfastness, marks itself upon our perception indelibly. a language older than words is horrific yet beautiful, tragic yet touching, dispiriting yet invigorating. gasoline tears aplenty for the fire this book inflames.