Just kidding! Eustace Conway didn't mention anything about novels in his presentation on October 9th. I just like thinking about books. a lot. Some of the things that Mr. Conway talked about were living sustainably and spiritually with nature, knowing hunger and quiet, and the current disconnect he sees in contemporary American society.
Eustace Conway is a homesteader known as "The Last American Man" who makes his living almost entirely off of the land (he also obviously gives presentations like the one I saw a couple of nights ago). Mr. Conway's been living in the forest since he was 17. He said that one of the things he valued most about his time in the woods was that he had the opportunity to take a step back from contemporary American society and analyze its negatives and positives. His catchphrase of the night was "disconnected". People don't know where their food or clothing comes from and they don't understand how one beautiful, perfectly swirled chocolate ice cream cone can have negative effects on ecosystems by eliminating the natural landscape and replacing it with a contrived one for human purposes, in this case a dairy farm. (I think about food a lot too. Sorry not sorry).
Some of the things he said made me think about some of my favorite novels.
In elaborating on the contemporary American's disconnect from the Earth he talked about how he knew everything in his forest. He said that he saw a tree grow up from a little sapling to a giant thing. This made me think about the part in The Little Prince where the fox tells the little prince about the power of friendship. Until you get to know something wholeheartedly it's just like a thousand other things. It's not unique. When you get to know it, it becomes precious.
This made me think about a part in Fahrenheit 451. When Montag has just burned a woman alive for having books in her house. The woman preferred to be burned with her books in protest than to leave the house. Montag is sharing his concern with his wife and she doesn't want to think about something so disturbing. Montag lashes out by saying: "We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?"
The way Mr. Conway talked about the disconnect between modern human beings, the land they live on, and the resources they use made me realize just how little people seem to care about something so important. I noticed people distractedly looking at their phones and yawning throughout his entire presentation.
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