A Language Older Than Words (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: cultural eyeglasses, coyote tree, interspecies communication, Language Older Than Words, United States, Forest Service (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Singular, compelling and courageously honest, this book is more than just a poignant memoir of a harrowingly abusive childhood. It relates the extraordinary journey of one man striving to save his own spirit and our planet's. Comparing his physically and sexually abusive father's destruction of his family with humankind's systematic destruction of civilization, New York Times Magazine contributor Jensen (Listening to the Land) tells a story about the hope for regeneration in a landscape of human and natural desolation. Throughout, Jensen mobilizes his experiences as student, teacher, environmentalist, beekeeper, high jumper, abused child and survivor to delve deeper inside his own wounded psyche while condemning the constrictions of a culture that fosters abuse. In lyrical prose, Jensen calls for accountability and urges people "to live in dynamic equilibrium with the rest of the world." Rather than na?vely proposing an answer to the ills of modernity, he demonstrates the complexity of the problems by examining an array of environmental and sociopolitical atrocities, including the Holocaust, and what he sees as the reckless production of plutonium to further space exploration and the maltreatment of indigenous peoples by self-serving neighbors. His visceral, biting observations always manage to lead back to his mantra: "Things don't have to be the way they are." Jensen's book accomplishes the rare feat of both breaking and mending the reader's heart. 15,000 first printing; 10-city author tour. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"Be forwarned: this book will grab your attention and keep you reading even when you want to put it down." -- Family Therapy Networker, July-August 2000

"Jensen thinks with his taste buds and fingertips, feels with his mind." -- Sentient Times, Olivia Dugan

"Jensen's saga and reflections are bound to change the lives of many who read this book." -- United Feature Syndicate, Animal Doctor

"Steeped in history and psychology...[Jensen] joins the likes of Edward Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams." -- Spokane Spokesman-Review, Paul Lindholt --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 412 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green; Third Printing edition (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931498555
• ISBN-13: 978-1931498555
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,540 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Reading Experience..., October 17, 2001

By	Lance Pierce ((...)USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Language Older Than Words (Paperback)

Derrick Jensen's latest, A LANGUAGE OLDER THAN WORDS, is one of the most uncomfortable books I've ever read. As such, I suspect it was also highly uncomfortable for him to write. Its poetic use of words and skilled syntax only serve to emphasize, not obscure, the brutal honesty that he puts forth here.

The thesis is a simple one: We are killing the world. It's Jensen's rugged, insightful, and raw analysis of how and why we're doing it that makes me shudder when I read it. Having studied many of these themes before (well-written in books like Daniel Quinn's ISHMAEL), I've not encountered this subject in a way that touches the nerves that Jensen has managed to tap into. Killing the world, after all, is a horrifying thing, and Jensen exposes the horror by shining a bright light on it and analyzing where it comes from.

It's a brave book and a bold statement. And one that will be hated by many, particularly those who have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. The bottom line is this: if you read this book and find yourself affected by it, there's a chance for all of us. If you read this book and wonder what all the hoo-hah is about, you're too far gone and wrapped up in our cultural ways and vision to ever find your way out. If you read this book and find it threatening to your way of life, then you're the enemy, and you need to reconsider which side of the line you stand on.

I can't think of a higher compliment to give a book than to wish that I'd had it within me to write it myself. I wish I had this kind of insight and courage, and I'm grateful that Jensen does.

96 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dance of World Destruction, September 14, 2002

By	J.W.K (Nagano, Japan) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: A Language Older Than Words (Paperback)

Jensen opens with a series of body blows: "Do we think about nuclear devastation, or the wisdom of producing tons of plutonium, which is lethal even in microscopic does well over 250,000 years?" Unlikely. "Does global warming invade our dreams?" Do wet plutonium dreams count? "In our most serious moments do we consider that industrial civilization has initiated the greatest mass extinction in the history of the planet?" I'm still considering whether to do my kitchen floors in linoleum or hardwood. "How often do we consider that our culture commits genocide against every indigenous culture it encounters?" That's the way the Darwinism cookie crumbles, right? "As one consumes the products manufactured by our culture, is s/he concerned about the atrocities that make them possible?" Not if one wants to look cool.

Do we ever stop to think about how messed up the world is? The answer, of course, is an overwhelming no. And if we do, it's not for very long. We don't think about these problems, we don't talk about them, and more importantly we don't try and stop them. In Jensen words, "We don't think about them, because they are too horrific to comprehend." They are too foreboding and ominous to stomach. They are, in effect, unspeakable.

After taking an honest look at the evolution of Western Civilization, Jensen draws the only logical conclusion that can be found: Our culture is insane. We are off our collective rocker. Reason, science, technological advancement and the work-a-day world have only driven us deeper into the carnival of horror and madness. Things are not getting better. They are getting worse with each passing day. Oops, I went and said it.

But you still believe in progress. Casually examine the context of your own life. In the last fifty years, "sane" men have killed 100,000,000 of their "sane" fellows (perhaps now a few women have gotten in on the action too). Maybe you knew some of them. Perhaps they were family members. Or perhaps it was you that dropped bombs, laid land mines, pulled the fatal trigger. Or perhaps, like me, your father went off to war and came back crazy. War... an aspect of our culture that is now more familiar and ordinary than ever before. (Need I even mention what "Dubya" is planning right now?)

Yet we are all live in work in this web of destruction together. Perhaps your paycheck comes with each fresh clear-cut, or perhaps you simply buy those clear-cut trees in the form of a new house, deck, or furniture. Perhaps you draw energy from a dammed river, helping kill off the last of the salmon. Or perhaps you are more intimately linked to the web of murder, genocide, mass rape, abuse, wage slavery, systemic impoverishment and ecocide that characterize life in the twentieth, and now twenty-first, centuries. Perhaps you are a victim. Perhaps you are an abuser. More than likely, you dabble in both.

That said, wherever you fall within the totem of abuse, don't ever admit there is a problem. Don't say with me, "My name is j.w.k., and I live and take part in a system that is utterly abusive, coercive and wrong." Rather, keep telling yourself that everything is fine. That is all right. Yes, we'll pull through. Humans are too bright to destroy themselves and the planet.

But that is exactly what we are doing... A fourth of all animals slated for extinction - 1000 times the natural rate of extinction. ("The government will do something. Anyway, extinction is part of life.") A quarter of all American women are raped, and another 19 percent are sexually abused. ("They should take self-defense courses and stop wearing such sluttish clothes.") Skin, prostate, colon and breast cancers are on the rise from industrial pollution, UV radiation exposure, and poor food quality. ("Our scientists will fix it. They'll invent something new and make it all better.") 150,000,000 children are enslaved, carrying bricks, chained to looms, or otherwise filling the Wal-Mart's of the Western world. ("Work builds character.") 32,000 people die of hunger everyday, in a world where one billion are too busy stuffing their faces with steak and marshmallows to care. ("I can hardly pay my own bills.")

Rationalizations... Sometimes witty, sometimes humorous, but always easy, efficient and painless ways to avoid the facing cognitive dissonance. They are the bedrock of our philosophy in a world awash with deprivation, hunger, war, famine, abuse, and ignorance amid waste, plenty and absurdity. Nazi Germany was good at rationalizing, too. Smoke billows up from Auschwitz: "It sure is a cloudy, Heinrich, isn't it?"

"When we do allow self-evident truths to percolate past our defenses and into our consciousness, they are treated like so many hand grenades rolling across the dance floor of an improbably macabre party."

Today we all live under concentration camp conditions, without even realizing. We also live in a world of hopeless and impending death. The only difference is, we can watch TV and pretend `it's all good.' As Kunster says in Home From Nowhere, "We demand fantasy in order to distract ourselves from the reality of life's tragic nature, and since reality tends to be insistent, we must keep the TVs turned on at all waking hours and at very high volume." Bring on the CNN. Hail Friends, Survivor, and the Comedy Channel.

Comedy amid horrors - next to oil it's our best selling commodity. After waking up to apocalypse every morning, one gets used to it. It becomes completely natural. Yet in our more lucid moments, should reality suddenly appear the phantasmagoria of pain, suffering, and hell it truly is, we can deny everything. We can take mental holidays or look the other way; but one thing is becoming increasing clear: We cannot play the denial game much longer. Something will give. If we do not awake from this nightmare of plutonium, rape, genocide and ecocide, we will most certainly perish along with the rest of the species we have consigned to eternal oblivion. Even our scientists now say so - when they can be heard over 500 billion screaming TVs.

Don't believe it, though. Don't believe any of it. It's a bunch of lies. Propaganda. Reactionary hype. Jensen is clearly out of his mind. Perhaps he's a communist. Don't listen to him, don't listen to me, nor to anyone else who blackens your rainbows or eclipses your sunshine. Don't buy this book. It might affect you. Go to the mall, plop down in front of the TV, or hit the disco and dance away the thought of this pessimistic review - but do keep an eye out for those grenades.

Essential reading.

j.w.k.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Don't look at my finger. Look at the moon.", March 12, 2001

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Language Older Than Words (Paperback)

Deep-ecologist, Thomas Berry, says "the universe is composed of subjects to be communed with, not objects to be exploited. Everything has its own voice. Thunder and lightning and stars and planets, flowers, birds, animals, trees--all these have voices, and they constitute a community of existence that is profoundly related" (p. 361). In his engaging book, Derrick Jensen encourages us to listen to those voices. Jensen is a familiar name to readers of The Sun magazine, where his interviews appear frequently. I first heard this LANGUAGE a year ago, when Jensen read excerpts from it in Tempe, Arizona. "There is a language older by far and deeper than words," he writes. "It is the language of the earth and it is the language of our bodies. It is the language of dreams, and of actions. It is the language of meaning, and of metaphor. This language is not safe" (p. 311). It is the language of "wind on snow, rain on trees, wave on stone, gesture, symbol, memory" (p. 2). And it is the language of interspecies communication.

Jensen's book belongs in the "life-changing books" section of the bookstore. It is as much a memoir as a "grenade rolled across the dance floor" (p. 108), encouraging us to wake up, pay attention, and listen (pp. 143; 248). This is not a "feel-good" bestseller. Rather, Jensen writes, it is "a cry of outrage, a lamentation, and at the same time a love story" (p. ix). As a victim of child abuse, Jensen digs deep into his personal experience to explore the silence and denial common to the world at large. "I wanted to write a memoir that moved beyond the microcosm of my personal experience," he explains, "to the macrocosm of the world in which we live" (p. ix). Why do we numb ourselves to our experiences, he wonders. Why do we deafen ourselves to other voices (p. viii)?

Through exploitation or annihilation, Jensen observes, our conscience and conscious awareness of relationship have been silenced by religion, science, politics, education, and violence, and we live by the maxim, "Thou shalt pretend there is nothing wrong" (p. 188). This book is about walking away from the "make-believe world" in which we "pretend all is well as we dissipate our lives in quiet desparation" (p. 6), and remembering "how to listen" (p. 7). "If we celebrate life with all its contradictions, embrace it, experience it, and ultimately live with it, there is a chance for a spiritual life filled not only with pain and untidiness, but also with joy, community, and creativity" (p. 142).

Jensen marches to the beat of his own drum, and the beat feels real. He shows that "wherever you put your foot, there is the path. You become the path" (pp. 150-51). We find the environmental activist in him wondering whether he "should write or blow up a dam" (p. 50), and pulling up surveyor's stakes (pp. 154-55). And we find him tending his chickens, dumpster diving for lettuce to feed them, conversing with coyotes, beekeeping, and shooing snakes off the road. He ponders, "what it does to each of us to spend the majority of our waking hours doing things we'd rather not do, wishing we were outside or simply elsewhere, wishing we were reading, thinking, making love, fishing, sleeping, or simply having time to figure out who . . . we are and what . . . we're doing" (p. 109).

This is a wise, old LANGUAGE that will speak to your soul, and then stay with you, reminding you "about the potential for life and love and happiness we each carry inside, but are too afraid to explore" (p. ix). I hope Jensen is working on another book in between his interviews for The Sun.

G. Merritt