Hello! Today: a film about earth and the Earth, an Ibsen play about contaminated water, an essay about control and music by a cellist who sings. I also recommend drinking white grape juice, especially if they're Muskat grapes, maybe with a bit of sparkling water. I do not recommend watching a TV show based on the appendices of a book that you loved when you were a teenager; the hairstyles and storytelling will confuse and upset you. Onwards! 

Article: ‘What Have I Done?’ and Other Illusions of Control by Jessica Gaitán Johannesson, published by Wasafiri
First of all: this is an extract, and if you can get a hold of the full piece, I’d strongly recommend reading the whole thing – either by buying a copy of Wasafiri, or by accessing it via your library network. Jessica Gaitán Johannesson writes beautifully about aspects of control: our own bodies, what we’re doing to the planet. I’ve had long conversations with loved ones (okay, full disclosure, mostly my mum!) about feeling out of synch with the rest of the world, and that feeling is described succinctly here: “Within fifteen minutes my partner is watching a lecture about the albedo effect, tipping points and the possibility of a Hot House Earth state. Within the hour, we no longer belong in the same historical timeline as our families or friends.” I have thought about this essay often since I’ve read it. I have sent the pdf to selected friends. It is very good.

Film: Erde (Earth), directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter (2019)
Nikolaus Geyrhalter is an Austrian documentary filmmaker who favours a certain observational distance to his subject, but in Erde, a few people speak directly to camera: about the tunnel they’re digging through the Tyrolean Alps, the coal they’re digging from the Hungarian soil, the nuclear waste that is stored in leaky German salt mines. It is a film about the billion tons of earth and materials that are moved annually by humans. Sometimes, this is beautiful (marble), often it isn’t (fracking). I love Geyrhalter’s meditative, unsettling films, but if you’re after something with a plot and Kristen Stewart, I must say that I enjoyed her Christmas-themed film Happiest Season, directed by Clea DuVall – though your mileage may vary depending on how you feel about coming out rom-com dramas! Also co-stars noted legend Victor Garber though!

Book: En folkefiende (Enemy of the People) by Henrik Ibsen (1882)
I read this play after randomly watching a Norwegian film adaptation on Netflix. It’s probably always a good time to read Ibsen – A Doll’s House was my personality for a while when I was a teenager – and it’s always a bad idea to call something “timely” – “timely” is usually just about how the same shit has been shit for thousands of years – but who doesn’t want to read (or watch) the story of a doctor who prioritises his conscience and people’s health over profit? A town stands to profit from a recently opened spa; the spa water is contaminated; you guess what happens next.
I read the German translation by Christel Hildebrandt, published by Reclam.

Learning: Low-Tech Magazine
My friend has introduced me to Low-Tech Magazine, which questions the supremacy of technological progress at all costs and looks at “low-tech solutions to high-tech problems”. I’m expecting this to make me even more unbearable, but it is also genuinely very interesting. As a recent convert to hot water bottles, this recent piece on the “revenge of the hot water bottle” spoke to me.

Other: Será que ahora podremos entendernos by Mabe Fratti
I’ve been enjoying this album by Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti. Sometimes the vibe is improvisation, sometimes the vibe is “I am floating ten metres above ground”. All of it is good.