The After-Normal: Brief, Alphabetical Essays on a Changing Planet
by David Carlin and Nicole Walker
Rose Metal Press, 2019. $16.95
Reviewed by Serenity Schoonover
How has the unthinkable become unimportant? When did ‘what if’ become ‘whatever’? These are just a couple of the questions discussed in David Carlin and Nicole Walker’s book, The After-Normal: Brief Alphabetical Essays on a Changing Planet (Rose Metal Press). Through imaginative flash essays and pithy, op-ed articles, each author attempts to face the unnerving fact that “we’re in trouble” (45).
With essay themes dictated by letters of the alphabet, the authors, one American and one Australian, take turns crafting snippet essays that manage to chime in on everything from public transit, bird nests, imperialism, childhood, map-making, xenophobia and air travel, among others. The result is a quirky attempt to unpack “what is happening right now as the present moment unfurls into the future,” a potentially exhaustive topic, especially since for the first time in human history, scientists can tell us what it will be like there — and the news is not good (xii). But Carlin and Walker manage to make a doomsday theme more entertaining than it sounds. The brevity of each piece, infused with sardonic humor, proves to be both provocative and palatable. For instance, while lamenting the use of synthetic additives in the meat industry, one author admits a personal conflict of interest: “I never know what to believe. Nitrates taste delicious” (114). And the authors’ willingness to move past the prognosis and address the pragmatic implications of climate change is very refreshing: “we know, we know, we know,” they write, “yes, we know! But what can it possibly mean to have this knowledge?” (ix). With this in mind, the authors’ goal in writing is to sound the alarm to anyone, themselves included, who has felt summarily paralyzed, overwhelmed or just plain desensitized by the facts of climate change. In what ways can we come to terms with the firehose of data “crowding in from all directions,” an existence that could itself be called “the new-normal”(93)?
Most notable, and in need of much more writing on the subject, are essays that promote an unvarnished understanding of the past, and its potential to inform global politics. As they put it, “one thing leads to another once you start asking questions,” yet their discussion on the disparity of global distribution of resources and systemic treatment of Indigenous populations is more of a cursory nod than the deep-dive the topic deserves (178).
The After-Normal is an intriguing, collaborative investigation on humans’ typical survival mechanisms, which is to A) put off that which doesn’t seem urgent, or B) deny what becomes urgent when it is either too catastrophic, inconvenient, or both. This is no small task, yet the very act of writing this book is an act against apathy, an urgent reflection about the present state of humankind, and if climate trends continue, where we are most certainly headed.
Serenity Schoonover has an MA in History, is a fellow with the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, and teaches writing classes to adults and teens. She was recently selected to teach at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, MN. Her work has aired on National Public Radio and appeared in Women’s Independent Press, Cross-Country Skier, Bella Grace, CALYX, among others.