I really didn't like Chapter 1 of Collapse. Diamond summarizes the various environmental stresses, modernized developments and conflicting sentiments in a region of Montana. It's clear that Diamond has an emotional attachment to the area but I don't like his personal tone (its a dramatic deviation from the matter-of-fact and measured tone in GGS, which I really liked). It does serve the purpose of putting a human face on a society's interaction with the environment, something that will be absent when he goes into the ancient case studies.
I'm hoping the next chapter on Easter Island will get back to what Diamond is known for. However, I am worried that will not be a large, overarching thesis as in GGS. The latter was an exciting read because each chapter lead into the next by adding another piece to his grand idea. I fear that Collapse will not be as cohesive and only feature short and repetitive case studies. Diamond has earned the benefit of the doubt on this, so I'm willing to give plenty of time to allow him to let ideas percolate in the paragraphs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment