Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : New Words : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References
Basic Information:
Author:
Richard Powers
Edition:
ePub on Overdrive from the Fresno Public Library
Publisher:
W.W. Norton & Company
ISBN:
039335668X (ISBN13: 9780393356687)
Start
Date: December 7, 2019
Read
Date: December 19, 2019
502
pages
Genre:
Fiction, Fantasy, New Age
Language
Warning: Low-Moderate
Rated
Overall: 4 out of 5
Religion:
New Age, Pantheism
Religious
Quality: 2 out of 5
Christianity-Teaching
Quality:0 out of 5
Fiction-Tells
a good story: 4 out of 5
Fiction-Character
development: 4 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
Overstory
is a novel of extreme ecological activism. It starts with Trees and
will end with lives which are torn apart. But in-between, it works
through the lives of eight people who get wrapped up in trying to
save the forest and the trees. The story is somewhat mystical and
very New Ageish.
The
first part tells the background of the eight people. None of them
except Ray and Dorothy Brinkman are connected to each other. But as
the novel proceeds, their story lines connect as they try to overcome
the destruction of the big trees. In one instance which is
reminiscent of Julia Butterfly, two of the people barricade
themselves in a tree. After the disastrous attempt at destroying a
logging facility in which one of theirs dies, they disband and go
their separate ways.
Their
lives seem to hold less meaning separately. The remainder of the book
follows their lives. They seem lost, except for Ray and Dorothy who
find purpose after Ray has a disabling stroke. In the end, there is
the ratting out on one of their own. He is imprisoned. The overshadowing theme is that this force is driving them to their
ends, you might say their destruction in order to save the trees.
Cast of Characters:
- Nicholas Hoel-an artist
- Mimi Ma-an engineer
- Adam Appich-psychology student
- Ray Brinkman and Dorothy Cazaly-He is a patent and copyright lawyer. She is a legal secretary. They are married.
- Douglas Pavlicek
- Neelay Mehta
- Patricia Westerford
- Olivia Vandergrif
Expectations:
- Recommendation: Three places which I have heard about this book: PBS piece titled Five Novels About Climate Change to Read Now, then I saw this book in Delilah fire lookout, and finally, our OSHER book club will be reading it in the Spring of 2020
- When: May 31, 2019, June 2019 and December 2019
- Date Became Aware of Book: June 1, 2019
- How come do I want to read this book: Sounded interesting
- What do I think I will get out of it? Probably not much in a change of mind, but adding some depth to my understanding.
Thoughts:
Roots
Opening
with a mystical type of saying with a conversation among the trees
about an unidentified woman who is sitting in a park.
Nicholas
Hoel
Give
the background of Nicholas Hoel’s family. How the patriarch came
from Norway. When he felt constrained in Brooklyn, he moved west to
Iowa, but took the beginnings of six chestnut trees. But as the
generations goes on, each chestnut tree dies until there is only one
left. But that one, one of the sons started to take monthly pictures
from a particular spot. Over time, he has hundreds of pictures. They
show how the tree changes. Along with that, the family has to sell
off bits and pieces of their families properties.
America,
where men and trees take the most surprising outings.
What does Powers mean by outings? Is he saying that trees migrate?
Before
microbes were discovered, God got blamed for early or unexpected
death. Powers shows his thinking about a Supreme Being with this.
Further in the chapter, Powers uses the phrase: chaos
of God’s will.
This seems to refer particularly to the Civil War. But may also be
with the cycle of planting and harvesting and the uncertainties of
that occupation. Later on in the book, Powers will show himself to be
un-adversed to having non-physical forces moving and controlling
people.
Another
interesting phrase: yields
to the disease of improvement…
This is related to the son cannot resist a new gadget to improve the
farm operation or his life. He gets a new Brownie camera in which he
shoots pictures of everything, including the chestnut tree.
Farmers
are patient men tried by brutal seasons, … Powers
talks about documenting what is in plain sight.
Being
in art school made Nicholas Hoel think differently about things.
Mimi
Ma
The
father comes to America from China right before the Communist take
over. He brings three rings and a family painted roll.
Sih
Hsuin turns into Winsta Ma. To him, it is just an engineering fix.
I
wonder if this is the signal to his losing identity. As less of
somebody from China and gathering being an American? He will not talk
Chinese. But he is ever an engineer. He takes notes and references
all of the camping places he has been-eleven notebooks full. He is
the most content, standing in a stream, fly fishing with one of his
daughters-Mimi Ma.
When
a grizzly bear ambles into camp, they scatter. But Winston talks with
him in Chinese and lures him into an outhouse. The family escapes.
When asked, was he afraid? Not
my time yet. Not my story.
Mimi
Ma takes after her father-she realizes she is an engineer at heart.
Adam
Appich
He
is said to be a slow learner. Even his family seems to have it out
for him, playing deceitful tricks and being unsympathetic to his
woes. A restless psychology student who ends up studying activists
for his doctoral thesis.
The
family tradition is to plant a tree whenever a baby is brought home.
When a sickly brother is brought home, Adam expects his black walnut
tree to die. But
both live, which only proves to Adam that life is trying to say
something no one hears.
Which in some ways is the theme of this book.
One
thing Adam is is analytical. When his sister is murdered, he reasons
what the person who killed her is like. Not that anybody pays any
attention.
As
Adam ages, he works off of the theory that Humankind
is deeply ill. The species won’t last long. It was an aberrant
experiment.
So this has half a Christian thought. Christianity does say that
humans are deeply ill. But there is hope for them. First, there is
the image of God embedded in each person. Second is there is a way
created to make things right when Jesus came to earth.
He
is smart enough, that he is able to do other people’s homework and
get paid for it.
Ray
Brinkman and Dorothy Cazaly
He
is infatuated by her. She says they can date if he auditions for a
play. They both get leading parts. They get married, but she will
never be owned.
These
are not outdoors people. The comment is they’re
not hard to find, two people for whom trees mean almost nothing.
Ray
proposes on their first anniversary that they buy a plant each
anniversary. The plants, whether they live or die will be a reminder
of their years together.
Douglas
Pavlicek
He
gets put into prison, but this is the Stanford Prison Test. When he
comes out, he is messed up. So he signs up for the Air Force and is
sent to Vietnam where he helps ferry supplies until he is shot down.
Afterwards, he takes a job on a horse ranch as a caretaker. After the
owners come back, he quits and heads west. By chance he finds out
that the trees along the side of the road is only a veneer screening
the clear cutting of the forest. He then starts to replant the
forests only to discover that the logging companies profit from this
as well.
The
greatest flaw of the [human]
species is its overwhelming tendency to mistake agreement for truth.
Douglas
would like to know if his thoughts would be agreed upon by anybody
else-he is living alone on a horse ranch.
When
he quits his job as a caretaker, he does not know where he is going.
He thinks that such knowledge is an
impossible luxury.
On his way West, he needs to pee. Rather than pee by or on the road
he goes into the forest. Not because he is modest, but he thinks that
savagery
is a slippery slope.
Douglas
has a habit of learning something new every day.
The
clear cut forests of the Northwest are disillusioning to him. He goes
out and takes on planting trees for the lumber company until he is
enlightened that this is only benefiting the lumber companies so they
can clear cut more.
Trees
fall with spectacular crashes. But planting is silent and growth is
invisible.
Neelay
Mehta
The
problem with this particular story, is that I know too much. The
setting takes place in Mountain View, close to where I grew up. While
it is interesting to read about it, the author takes some liberties
with settings.
Neelay
and his father build an early home computer, like what you would find
in Byte magazine. But they do more with it. They start small and
master how to code. Neelay it turns out is a master programmer whose
only limit is his imagination. Then they start building little
robots.
Interesting
phrase: most
of the world is a present for him.
On one hand, this sounds like a very pampered boy of seven. On the
other hand, when you read about God, you see that is a phrase which
when we understand God’s intention for us, could best be described
by that phrase.
Powers
starts to talk about Mountain View, particularly the area which I
used to live in. So some of what he describes seems like home. Sounds
like they may have lived in the Two Worlds apartments.
Moore’s
Law
moving at a snail’s pace? Like all programmers, there is a desire
for more CPU and more memory. But you can pretty much buy more if you
have the money. The other constraint is how much money do you have?
Else you wait until the price curve changes. Later on while at
Stanford, people realize that over the next 60 years that computers
will get faster to the tune of 240
times faster. This is unfathomable. Also the pace has slowed down to
doubling once every 2 to 2 ½ years instead of 18 months. Still at a
clip unprecedented in human history. Powers will make a big deal as a
shock factor does not delve into what this really means.
On
the other hand, when Neelay has an “ah ha” moment and blurts out
in class an exclamation, that seems all too real to me. There is an
intensity in problem solving. But this also gets him in trouble as
she finds out he is doing computer problems in English class. Powers
pictures Neelay and his English teacher as being worlds apart. The
questioning of the English teacher seems a bit non-sequitur as it is
obvious Neelay is in an advanced literature class and is doing well.
To
Neelay and to Indians, shame is worse than death. Neelay has used a
swear word to his teacher because she would not give back his
computer project. He realizes this is a disgrace, not only for him,
but to his family. He does not know how to face his mother and
father. Whether he slips on purpose or accident or as the book seems
to imply, the tree fails him, he falls from a tree thinking about
shame. This is a place where I think Powers goes into that the trees
are symbiotic.
I
am thinking that Powers’ worlds get too far ahead of him when he
pictures the English teacher thinking that logic
kills everything fine in the human soul.
In reality, good writing follows a kind of logic rather than an erratically.
After
the fall from the tree, Neelay is paralyzed and is wheel-chair
bound. But he is a computer whiz, so as long as he can input code, he
can be productive. He makes games. Games he gives away and they
become immensely popular. Because of this, he feels much better about
himself, even if he is wheel-chair bound.
But
one night he sees a tree which has been in his dream. He realizes
that it has either magically popped up or he has not noticed it
before. Isn’t that how we are-not see, not noticing the wonder
around us? Neeley goes into some sort of strange real-life
dimension. Through this vision, he realizes that he needs to quit
school and work on his game. Then sell the next version for a small
amount and build up step by step until he can get to his ultimate
achievement.
Patricia
Westerford
Patricia
is born with a hearing defect as well as a deformity on her face
which makes her look monstrous. No playthings, except for a world she
has made. Her father teaches her observation. But as she grows into
her college years, she starts to attract attention. She thinks that
trees have a social element to them.
We
see things which only look like us.
I would also add, which are unusual. The common we seem to skip over.
Real
joy consists of knowing that human wisdom counts less than the
shimmering of beeches in a breeze.
While I think there is some truth here, it is only some. What Powers
says is only one aspect of joy. There is the joy of finding and
particularly finding a bit of new wisdom, for instance.
There
is no knowing for a fact. The only dependable things are humility and
looking.
How does Powers show this is true?
Interesting
date routine: a picnic in a cemetery.
This
is the start of her professional life in forestry. The professor
takes things from a professional forestry view and talks about
cleaning up the forest. But she is thinking the forest has survived
on its own for thousands of years without human house cleaning. She
thinks that trees have a social element to them. This
is the heart of the book.
She
runs an experiment where she is bagging trees. Some trees are
attacked by insects, some not. But they seem to be telegraphing the
attack to other trees. Powers says that there is only one conclusion.
But is this a sign of a little mind when you cannot figure out other
possible conclusions?
She
is mocked for her conclusions. She thinks about suicide, but
disappears instead. Disappears to study and get out of the limelight.
Years later, she is recognized and is told her research has been
rejuvenated.
Powers
now sets that various characters in the book are intertwined, but do
not know that they are.
She
gets a job with the BLM to walk the land,and clean it up, sometimes
studying it.
Powers
says that current research shows her correctness in her research. I
am not familiar with this effort-so is it true? Then it sounds like
Powers references some of Steve
Skillet’s
work.
Powers
assorts through Westerford that trees are intertwined, there is no
individual tree. Does not sound right. But I do not have anything to
refute it. Something to look further.
In
her older age, a man ten years advanced of her comes into her life
and makes her content.
Olivia
Vandergriff
Describes
Olivia as someone who is pretty self-centered, hedonistic and drunk
or stoned half the time. She has married and divorced.
Trunk
Long
chapter. Stories of the characters start to intersect. Opens with
Olivia being electrocuted and still living. She follows these beings
which start guiding her. Her parents do not understand and encourage
her to come home. Olivia hooks up with Nick. They travel westward. In
the meantime, Mimi and Doug end up together in Portland with the love
of a grove of trees which get cut down. This radicalizes them. She
loses her job and they join up with others. Olivia and Nick defend a
tree by living in it for awhile, until it is attacked by a
helicopter. Adam joins up as part of a research project on
personalities. He joins the group which tries to defend part of an
old-growth forest. But they lose the physical battle. Many are
bruised and scarred for life. At the end of the chapter, the group
turns into eco-terrorists. They try to bomb one operation. Olivia is
killed by their own bomb and they disperse.
Mimi
lands up in Oregon, at company headquarters with an important job. A
grove of Douglas pines grows in a park across the way. They are
scheduled to be chopped down. Douglas finds out that his tree
planting only gives the lumber company the cover to cut down trees.
Neely’s
company grows to be a big gaming company. He has a vision for his
newest game. This is called Mastery.
It is a vision from the trees.
Nobody’s
anger can hurt a girl who has already died.
Her parents try to protect her, coercing her into coming home. Her
father is a lawyer. He is described as someone who looks at
procedures rather than passions. He seems frail to her. Her roommates
believe in safety. Interesting thought. How much do we depend on
being safe rather than taking a risk to explore life? Still there is
a side which says we should be looking at some and determining
acceptable risk. Those who do not, die young. By the way, her major,
which she abandons is dealing with insurances and annuities.
During
the time she was out after electrocution, she meets up with some
spiritual beings. When she is in a lecture, the being appears to her
and she leaves the lecture and school. She starts following the
route which Johnny Appleseed followed.
It’s
hard to pray and drive at the same time.
But what is she praying to?
The
spirit directs her to where Nick Hoel is trying to give away his art,
even that is not with any takers. Not because the art is bad, but he
is just really out of the way. Obviously the spirit beings want them
to hook up. They spend two weeks together, getting rid of the family
belongings and then sells the old family farm. They continue to
travel westward. Dialogue on what is crazy and what the spirit beings
are trying to lead them to.
Nick
thinks that two weeks ago Olivia is a stranger. But that does not
stop people from being intimate or even marrying. Powers then says
something a bit mystifying: Nicholas
knows all this; he has cleaned house after his dead parents and
grandparents, mall all the terrible discoveries that only death
affords.
What are these discoveries?
Sand
Hill Road-I used to ride my bike up this. Powers says that Skyline
was named because of being an old cableway. I wonder where he got
that from? I have never heard that. Wikipedia
makes no mention of it.
Neely
goes out into the forest off of Skyline with his wheelchair. His
chair gets stuck and then he realizes that there is blackness in
front of him. Huge blackness.He then realizes this is a Semperviren.
He has a vision of his deceased father and him. His father is saying
that all these trees go down to the same root.
Olivia
notes that her spirit beings are not like handlers. They seem to give
direction but not forcefully-I think.
Mimi
meets Doug-after her favorite park tree has been cut down. They
realize they have the same loves-the trees. Doug sees that we think
these things will go on forever, but we humans are trying our best to
do away with them.
And
then we have Ray and Dorothy. Lover of books-but two different
styles. Ray reads a book beginning to end; he wants to make sure
that he is prepared. She loves books for books sake. This may be the
best line in the whole book: Once
any given volume enters the house, it can never leave.
I like that. Powers goes on with his description: The
conversion of their house into a library happens too slowly to see.
The book that won’t fit she lays on their sides, on top of the
existing rows.
Ray,
being an intellectual property lawyer, gets into things like, Should
Trees Have Standing?
Sort of a pun. He thinks it is silly. But then he wonders about how
women, children, slaves, aborigines all have gained rights. The
proposal is bound to sound odd or frightening or laughable. This is
partly because until the righless thing receives its rights, we
cannot see it as anything but a thing for the use of “us”-those
who are holding rights at the time.
Interesting. I will need to think about this. Where do you draw the
line? Or do you? Powers then goes on and quotes Kant as a refutation:
As
far as nonhumans are concerned, we have no direct duties. All exists
merely as means to an end. That end is man.
(From
Lectures
on Ethics.)
Kant
does not seem right either. Seems like to the religious, the end is
to God.
But
not all is right with Ray and Dorothy. Dorothy is having an affair
and thinking of leaving Ray. In the middle of singing Handel’s
Messiah, she slips out and rendezvous, in time to make it back as the
baritone solo based upon 1 Corinthians 15 is ending. Seems at odds
with what she is singing and doing.
Now
the question should arise, the powers which Olivia follows, are they
benevolent? Doug and her are camped in the redwoods and about to
confront the lumber company. He wonders if she is afraid? Her
response is Believe
me. I have it on the highest authority. Great things are under way.
Just remember this line much later in the book. In the meantime, I am
reminded of CS Lewis’ That
Hideous Strength
where the powers feed into people’s lust for the powers own
purposes.
Olivia
(Maidenhair) and Doug (Watchman) are now up in Mimas, a huge redwood
tree slated to be lumbered. They are like Julia Butterfly. They are
getting disoriented about time and day. Also they compare people to
being like drugs-you need to be around them.
Back
to Neelay again. He is single, but worth tens of millions of dollars.
His Mom is wondering why he does not get married? He does not want
to. So he makes up a person. He knows that he will have a simulated
breakup before his mother sees her. So far pretty common. But there
is a phrase Powers uses which gives pause to think: he
has made her happy in the only place where people really live, the
few-second-wide window of Now.
First thing is that this is interesting because of Powers description
of how people live-in the Now. Little retrospect or future thinking.
But it is in the Now where people feel the emotions. The more Powers
writes about Neelay, the less I like him. He seems to want to take
the easy way out of things, wanting only to code.
Ray
and Dorothy. Powers describes the seconds before a stroke happens.
Mimi
is fired. Her last 20 minutes, packing her personal belongings.
Adam
is done with his research, but also a changed person. He just does
not know it yet. In effect, he is no longer an unbiased observer. He
is also confused-he cannot tell when someone is sardonic or telling
his way straight. He returns to the group he was studying as a fellow
protestor. He now has a protest name-Maple.
Asked
how do you change a person’s mind. His reply: The
best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The
only thing that can do that is a good story.
This seems to follow Jonathan Haidt’s thinking
The
group tries to protect an old growth forest from being logged. But
the “fort” is overpowered with heavy machinery. Many are injured
in their futile resistance. Some have locked themselves into becoming
human trees inside iron contraptions, thinking that they could not be
moved without being killed. People would not kill other people over a
tree. But they are wrong-there are ways to be removed without death.
Is
this the question of the fanatical? Or realistic? If
we’re wrong, we pay the price. They can’t take more than our
lives. But if we’re right? And everything alive tells me that we
are…
A dichotomous question. Are these questions always that way? How
often is this the right question to ask? Is there a different way to
put it? Is her perspective correct?
The
chapter ends with them trying to blow up a lumber site. Instead
Olivia dies from a premature blast. Remember a while back, Olivia
says Believe
me. I have it on the highest authority. Great things are under way.
Was this the great thing? Was the powers guiding her wrong? Was she
wrong about the powers?
Crown
Chapter
opens to a conversation between a man and trees. Sort of strange,
considering everything else Powers throws at us concerning how
intelligent and interactive trees are presented in this book. Powers
then traces the lives of the remaining eco-activists as well as
Dorothy and Ray.
Nick
works at a warehouse for one of the big online stores. He
contemplates how a fulfillment center really fulfills us? As a bin
passes by him, he wonders is there any words of truth in these books.
But his nightlife is spray painting carefully crafted graffiti on
buildings.
Douglas
is a caretaker, guide at a deserted mining town. One winter day he
falls down a cliff, saved by a tree. He would freeze to death,
exposed, but a dead
woman kneeling beside him…[says] You’re not just you.
Patricia
is now creating a Noah’s ark for seeds. The problem with vaults,
particularly those that run on power, what happens to them when the
power is turned off? How long do you think they will last, people to
take care of them? A generation? Two? Ten?
In
Brazil deep in the woods they find a tree which is shaped very much
into a woman’s figure. Powers comments that who would carve such a
figure so far away from where everything is? Of course a religious
person might say God. He sort of does funny things like that. Patrcia
remembers her Ovid, Let
me sing to you now, about how people turn into other things.
[Metamorphoses] When you hear the same stories on different
continents and different peoples, does that say there is commonality?
Mimi
ends up being somewhat of a therapist-self styled. Her therapy seems
to be mostly unspoken thoughts with a back and forth about that my
guilt is more than yours.
Neelay
is working on his most realistic game. But his minions are having
second thoughts about his approach. The key interchange is with one
of the minions asking about the penalties, such as bleaching
reefs and rising seas and drought driven wildfires.
Neelay's answer is another one of the statements of the book: If
that’s how people play it.Neelay is giving
people the opportunity to do what they want. If it leads to
destruction, then they know this is not how to treat the earth.
Dorothy
finds books. One, with a made up name, but very similar to one I
have, called Easy
Tree IDs
has a poem from Ray which she had never seen. This excites her. And
then she gets excited over identifying some trees outside. Common-we
do not notice the common around us. Even if it is special. We can
only hope it is not too late when we discover the common is special.
But
one thing she finds while tending to her bed bound Ray is freedom.
Not the freedom to discover other men, but the freedom of serving
someone who has loved you and who you discover you actually love.
Adam
is back to studying forceful causes. Now he is looking at the Occupy
movement. Doug sees him there. Adam is a lecturer. He is interested
in what people think they hear from spiritual powers. Doug betrays
him.
Neelay
has been kicked out of his own company. The trees speak to him-too
weird for others and does not make money.
Story
starts to come full cycle. Dorothy and Ray find a chestnut tree
growing out of range in their backyard.
Patricia
Westerford is giving a lecture which sums up the passion of this
book: The trees are trying to communicate with us and they want
something from us. She says that we are closer cousins being
launched from the same seed. She brings up where a tree, arbre du
ténéré, killed a drunk Libyan who ran into it, and a bald cypress
which was killed by a cigarette-she says this is not our place to
kill and be killed. She talks about What
is the single best thing a person can do for tomorrow’s world?
And then another thought: What
you make from a tree should be at least as miraculous as what you cut
down.
The
answer comes to Dorothy-do nothing.do not mow, do not weed. Let the
land go back to its own ways.
Adam
is now confronted with life in prison. He now has a wife and a five
year old son. He wants to cut a deal, but the wife does not. Adam
feels like he would be righting a wrong. But how? At what cost?
Patricia
commits suicide(I think)e-her thinking the best things human can do
for the world.
Dorothy
and Ray have let their section of the world run wild. Now the city is
giving clean-up orders and fining them for not cleaning up the
outside. But Dorothy’s observation is that civil
disobedience may cost them thousands in compounding penalties, but
the view from the house has been much improved.
Seeds
Adam
is in jail, awaiting sentencing. Mimi is considering turning herself
in, but does not. Adam is sentenced to 70 plus 70 years. Mimi
realizes that Adam did this because then a story might be told which
would save the trees. He also does it because he realizes that to
save himself, he will lose who he is. That is so true. Taking the
easy way means you may not be true to one’s own beliefs.
Neelay’s
game is accelerating. They are understanding that life wants
something from humans. But what? Can humans give it?
Once
again Powers gets a bit wrapped up in his words without checking them
He says that Nothing
in this city is older than a century. In seventy plus seventy years,
San Francisco will be saintly at last or gone.
While the second sentence may or may not be true, the first is
definitely not. Such as Mission Dolores is about 220 years
old-probably the oldest in the city. Also parts of the Presidio goes
back that far. Simple things like this gives me pause to what else
Powers is saying. As a note: Powers published this in 2018. He was a
Stanford professor starting in 2013. So he should have some feel for
the area. This is just sloppy and uncaring.
Doug
is feeling remorse, similar to Judas. He hears a lecture talking
about the World Tree, Mimas, how it has been topped five times and
continues to grow. And now it has been topped again. It is unknown
what will happen. But he is remorseful about sending Adam away. No
forgiveness will come from Doug’s universe. The only thing is the
trees will let you climb them to get above things. So different from
Christian thought. Forgiveness is everywhere, you just need to take
it. Guilt you may have, but then again you can give that away to.
Adam
now enters into prison, his home for his life. A sticky burr has
attached to his prison uniform. But the most interesting statement is
that the
one [terror]
he fears is time.
Just the longness of doing the time. This is the thing. When we have
no purpose, nothing to occupy us, time lengthens. How do we know what
to do with time?
Ray
dies. Dorothy’s thought is How
can it happen now? We still had books to read. There was something
the two of us were supposed to do. We were just beginning to
understand each other.
Several things caught my attention. There are so many books to read.
I guess I will never get through all the books I want to read.
Neither did they. But the even more impactful statement is that they
were just beginning to know each other. Dorothy going from having an
affair and going to get a divorce to spending her time with Ray drew
them closer. As you get closer to someone, your heart grows bigger.
You realize that there is more there which you want to explore.
Closing
page: Nick is putting together his last art work-arranging fallen
trees to form STILL. He says the oldest word he knows is Amen.
And it is an old word-comes from the Hebrew. Then Powers says that
tree
and truth
comes from the same root. I am not so sure how true that is. Both
have roots which start with tre
but that seems to be at all which in-common. But I am not a linguist.
Interesting if true, but I am not relying on Powers to make that
statement.
I
am torn on what I think of this book. Starting with, this is a very
well written book. The story line of following a group of
eco-activists as they try to save the forest is compelling and the
world from destruction. Powers knows how to use words and he envelops
the reader with it. Well worth the read just to enjoy the ride he
gives you.
The
other part of me really did not like the book on two counts. I will
first start with the petty. Some of the scenes, particularly with
Neelay takes place in my own home town of Mountain View, about ten
years after me. I know the city and the descriptions are off. And
then you get that there is nothing older in San Francisco than a
century old, you really wonder what Powers is presenting to the
reader.
But
the main complaint, the serious one is the worldview he presents. It
is a pretty pantheistic view where the power of the trees guide
people. These are not the personified trees of Tolkein’s Ents, but
more of spiritual powers which direct humans. A sort of
spiritualism-New Age mix. This is at odds with my own personal belief
system. And in retrospect, I find these tree-forces somewhat
destructive. Somewhat more akin to the Masters in CS Lewis’ That
Hideous Strength.
Would
I recommend this book? With some hesitancy. The message of saving the
forest, saving the world from destruct resonates with me. And the
writing is top-notch. But I am reluctant from the standpoint that
Powers way of presenting it is off the mark.
Notes from my book group:
For
OSHER
What
does the word overstory
mean? What does it say about where the book is going?
America,
where men and trees take the most surprising outings.
What does Powers mean by outings? Is he saying that trees migrate?
Adams
family has a tradition that whenever a baby is brought home, a tree
is planted. When a sick baby is brought home, a sick tree is planted
Powers makes this statement: But
both live, which only proves to Adam that life is trying to say
something no one hears.
How does this statement work its way through the book?
Adams’
working theory is that Humankind
is deeply ill.
What proof is there for this statement. Do you hold that view? IF so,
how come? If not, why not? Is there hope for humankind?
What
do you think about Doug’s statement: The
greatest flaw of the [human]
species is its overwhelming tendency to mistake agreement for truth.
I
am bothered by Power’s statement in Neeley’s mind that logic
kills everything fine in the human soul.
Explain how this statement is true. Does it really do that? Can their
be creativity in the logical sciences? Does it make a difference that
Powers was a computer programmer at one point in his life?
Patricia
Westerford learns to observe from an early age. What does she see
that others do not? Is observation lost in current American society?
What is required to be a successful observer?
Also
Westerford’s research says that trees are interconnected? Does
anybody know of any research which substantiates this? Do you think
this is tree? How about the example of the arbre du ténéré. Does
this defy her hypothesis?
Who
are the elements which Olivia takes guidance from? What is their
purpose? Do they fit into any mythology or religious practices you
know of? Do you think they are benevolent towards humans? Are they
all-knowing or do they make mistakes? Do you think they are part of
Powers belief system? How would the book be different if they were
not part of the story? When Olivia says Believe
me. I have it on the highest authority. Great things are under way.
Is she right or is she deluded?
Ray
Brinkman ponders before his stroke should trees have legal standing?
Should natural objects have legal standing? If so, what should the
legal standing look like? As a not: corporations are treated as
persons. Also this is an issue with the Gila River.
When
asked with the question, how do you change people’s minds, Adam
replies: The
best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The
only thing that can do that is a good story.
What has been your experience? Does Powers use this storytelling
power with this book? Has reading this book moved your mindset? If
so, how and why?
If
we’re wrong, we pay the price. They can’t take more than our
lives. But if we’re right? And everything alive tells me that we
are…
Is this a healthy way to look at alternatives? Could the six of them
have come up with different alternatives besides it being destruction
or our death? When is this dichotomy a correct way to think about an
issue?
Neelay’s
games seem to bring people closer and closer to mirroring how humans
have taken care of the earth, until the game seems like it is the
earth. Is this an effective way to bring a message to people? Is this
similar to how Adam said that to change people’s minds you need a
convincing story?
There
is a hazard reading a book which you know too much about. Such as if
you have lived in a locality being described or a profession you have
experienced. This hazard is that you compare the book with what you
know. If you can see the author is taking liberties with something,
how does this react with your appreciation of the story being told?
This may be in terms of truth of the matter or other dimensions of
the book? Does the reciprocal also work? When an author captures the
veracity of an attitude or thought, does it make it seem like the
story becomes more reliable?
Many
of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
- Why the title of Overstory?
- Does this story work as a novel?
- Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
- Which character was the most convincing? Least?
- Which character did you identify with?
- Which one did you dislike?
- Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
- In what context was religion talked about in this book?
- Was there anybody you would consider religious?
- How did they show it?
- Was the book overtly religious?
- How did it affect the books story?
- Why do you think the author wrote this book?
- What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
- What “take aways” did you have from this book?
- What central ideas does the author present?
- Are they personal, sociological, global, political, economic, spiritual, or scientific
- What evidence does the author use to support the book's ideas?
- Is the evidence convincing...definitive or...speculative?
- Does the author depend on personal opinion, observation, and assessment? Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?
- What implications for you, our nation or the world do these ideas have?
- Are these idea’s controversial?
- To whom and why?
- Are there solutions which the author presents?
- Do they seem workable? Practicable?
- How would you implement them?
- Describe the culture talked about in the book.
- How is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
- What economic or political situations are described?
- Does the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the arts, religious beliefs, language or food?
- How did this book affect your view of the world?
- Of how God is viewed?
- What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
- Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
- What was memorable?
===
Questions
from the Publisher’s
Reader’s Guide
Written
by Professor Everett Hamner
1.
The
Overstory
is broken into four sections: Roots, Trunk, Crown, and Seeds. Each
section is introduced by a short passage from an unusual, even
mysterious point of view. How does this book’s structure and voice
depart from the typical shape and terms of a novel? Does seeing the
book in the form of a giant tree change how you read it?
2.
Nicholas inherits a scrapbook filled with photographs of the same
tree taken monthly over three-quarters of a century. Are there any
acts of sustained attention in our digital age that permit a similar
experience of deep time?
3.
Is Neelay’s fall from the tree entirely accidental? How does it
shape his future storyline? Does his descent into virtual worlds
dovetail with the other characters’ experiences and choices? Why do
his “learners” come so fully to the foreground in the final
section, Seeds?
4.
The book suggests that life is asking something of humanity—that
humans are not alone in possessing subjectivity and agency, desire,
and purpose. Is this true? Did your belief in the urgency and
importance of trees change while reading the novel? Did the book
affect your sense of human uniqueness?
5.
Powers’s characters observe how easily humans let group
affirmation replace real insight. Douglas notes humanity’s
“overwhelming tendency to mistake agreement for truth” (p. 84),
and Adam’s professor lectures about how “we’re all operating in
a dense fog of mutual reinforcement” (p. 233). How does the novel
challenge this habit of groupthink? What does it propose as an
alternative? Can the habit ever really be escaped?
6.
The
Overstory
is full of marriages, partnerships, love affairs, and various
nontraditional arrangements. It also features multiple separations
and abandonments. What does the book’s depiction of the variety of
human intimacy have to do with its preoccupation with the nonhuman
world?
7.
Consider Olivia’s declarations that “exponential growth inside
a finite system leads to collapse” (p. 321) and that “we’re not
saying don’t cut anything. . . . We’re saying, cut like it’s a
gift, not like you’ve earned it” (p. 289). Is a reintegration of
humans into the living world incompatible with global capitalism? Can
an individualistic, human-centric, commodity culture ever become
“tree conscious”? Is Olivia right when she suggests that a
civilization that’s alienated from the nonhuman world is doomed?
8.
Where does the book come down on violent resistance? What kinds of
political engagement or resistance are you willing to condone? Does
the prospect of environmental catastrophe and mass extinction change
where you draw the line? Is there anything in the nonhuman world that
you would risk your life to defend?
9.
In what ways does The
Overstory
draw upon indigenous religious traditions? Does it participate in or
resist cultural appropriation? Is the book ultimately scientific or
mystical?
10.
This novel often reflects on the capabilities and limitations of
fiction, as when Ray realizes how characters “cross all distances
to sit next to you in your mechanical bed, keep you company, and
change your mind” (p. 383). What world myths and legends does the
novel invoke? Why are stories so important to The
Overstory?
11.
In her final lecture at Stanford, does Patricia choose to drink or
not to drink the Tachigali versicolor extract—to commit suicide or
“unsuicide” (p. 466)? How do Powers’s choices in narrating this
moment reflect the novel’s takes on ambiguity, evolution, activism,
interdependence, and branching?
12.
One of the ending scenes of the novel is Mimi sitting in stunned
silence against a tree in a San Francisco park, struggling to accept
a gift from Douglas. Is this a moment of psychological paralysis or
spiritual awakening? Another scene is a final art installation by
Nick. Is this installation a rejection or continuation of his prior
activism? What hope, if any, does the end of the novel hold out?
From
the PBS
Book Club
- Why do you think Richard Powers chose the title “The Overstory”?
- What was your experience with trees as a child, and what has it been as an adult? Have trees shaped your life in any meaningful way? Do you have a favorite tree?
- Adam initially builds his career on studying the faults in human brains, such as confirmation bias and the conflation of correlation with causality. Meanwhile, Douglas is convinced that humans’ greatest flaw is mistaking agreement for truth. What questions does this book ask about human failings?
- What does Powers mean when he describes humans as “trapped in blinkered bodies”?
- What do you make of the voices Olivia hears, and her sense of conviction that “the most wondrous products of four billion years of life” need our help?
- Which character’s story do you identify with the most, and why?
- It is a difficult moment for Douglas when he learns that all of his years of planting trees have only allowed companies to increase its annual allowable cut. How did this book make you think differently, if at all, about clear-cutting? Do you see it happening in your own community?
- What are you learning about trees that you didn’t know before? Did some of Patricia’s research surprise you, either about the “giving trees” or the ways dead trees contribute to forests? Did any of it change the way you see trees?
- Patricia describes trees and humans as being “at war” over land and water and the atmosphere, and that she can see “which side will lose by winning.” What does she mean by that?
- The book is divided into four parts: “Roots,” “Trunk,” “Crown,” and “Seeds.” What is the significance of each section? Were you surprised when the stories began to intertwine?
- Our book club just finished reading “We the Corporations,” a book about the ways corporations have gained many of the same rights as individuals. In “The Overstory,” Ray is moved and upset by a legal argument that suggests trees should also share those rights. Do you agree?
- Were you surprised by the lengths that Adam, Olivia, Nicholas, Mimi and Douglas went to try to wake people up to the destruction of forests? What did you think of their tactics?
- What have you read in the news lately that mirrors the stories in “The Overstory”? How is “The Overstory” playing out in real life in your own community?
- What is the significance of the worlds Neelay creates within his game, “Mastery”?
- What was your opinion of “direct action” as a means of effective activism before the book? What is your opinion after reading it? Do you think it should play a role in addressing the destruction of our planet?
- Toward the end of the book, Dorothy is arrested for her determination to let her yard grow wild. Did this book change how you see your own backyard?
- As the book closes, Mimi seems to say that the world as it has been is ending and a new one will begin. Does that ring true to you? How does that make you feel?
- Richard Powers writes: “The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.” Do you agree? Did any part of this story change your mind?
From
LitLovers
1.
The
Overstory
is split into four sections: Roots, Trunk, Crown, and Seeds. How do
those sections reflect the thematic numerous concerns of the
novel—that human development (in the micro and macro) mimics growth
in the "natural world," that human beings are deeply,
intimately bound to nature?
2.
Follow-up
to Question 1:
The Hoel family keeps a photographic record of the American chestnut
tree in their field. In what way does this photographic record of the
tree's life mirror the family's own life?
3.
Of the novel's nine opening stories, which do you find most engaging?
Is that because you find the characters more compelling …or the
storyline itself … or can't the two be separated?
4.
What do you make of Patricia Westerford's statement:
You
and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion
and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after
an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still
share a quarter of your genes.
5.
Westover also says, "Forests panic people. Too much going on
there. Humans need a sky." Do you panic in deep forests?
(Forests are different than the lovely shaded groves and glens where
we love to picnic.)
6.
How does the author treat eco-warriors: are they the novel's heroes?
Does he seem sympathetic to their causes … or impatient with their
stridency? What is your
attitude toward eco-warriors, both the ones in the novel and the ones
in real life?
7.
Some reviewers claim that characters in The
Overstory
get short-shrift, that they are subsumed by the book's ideas. Others
say the book's characters are convincing and invested with humanity.
Which view do you agree with? Do the characters come alive for you,
are they multifaceted, possessing emotional depth? Or do you see them
as fairly one-dimensional, serving primarily as the embodiment of
ideas?
8.
Has Powers novel changed the way you look at trees? Have you
previously read, for instance, The
Hidden Life of Trees
by Peter Wohlleben,
Lab
Girl
by Hope Jahren, or Annie Proulx's novel,
Barkskins?
9.
What might the title, Overstory, signify? What is the pun at its
heart?
10.
What of this observation on the part of the lawyer who turns to
novels for solace but then seems to question their value?
To
be human is to confuse a satisfying story with a meaningful one.…
The world is failing precisely because no novel can make the contest
for the world seem as compelling as the struggles between a few lost
people.
- Trajan’s Column (Nicholas Hoel): a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars.
- Coeval (Nicholas Hoel): having the same age or date of origin; contemporary.
- Zoopraxiscope (Nicholas Hoel): invented by British photographer Eadweard Muybridge and first shown in 1879, was a primitive version of later motion picture devices which worked by showing a sequence of still photographs in rapid succession.
- Arhat (Mimi Ma): someone who has attained the goal of the religious life.
- Ectomorph (NeelayMehta): typical skinny guy. Ecto's have a light build with small joints and lean muscle. Usually ectomorph's have long thin limbs with stringy muscles.
- Taciturn (Neelay Mehta): reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little.
- Windthrow (Patricia Westerford): or blowdown refers to trees uprooted or broken by wind. Breakage of the tree bole (trunk) instead of uprooting is sometimes called windsnap.
- Verisimilitude (Trunk): the appearance of being true or real.
- Scapula (Trunk): known as the shoulder bone, shoulder blade, wing bone or blade bone, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone)
- Tumescent monk (Trunk): pompous or pretentious (Can also mean swollen, such as a penis)
- Chronophagic (Trunk): Something that wastes time.
- Calyx (Trunk): the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.
- Succubus (Trunk): a female demon believed to have sexual intercourse with sleeping men.
- Malaprop (Crown): the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect, as in, for example, “dance a flamingo ” (instead of flamenco ).
- Sororal (Crown): of or like a sister or sisters.
- Ablution (Crown): the act of washing oneself (often used for humorously formal effect).
- Phosphenes (Seeds): a ring or spot of light produced by pressure on the eyeball or direct stimulation of the visual system other than by light.
- Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott
- Stepford Wives by Ira Levin,
- The Pocket Guide to Trees by Keith Rushforth(probably a made up book)
- The Golden Guide to Insects (probably a made up book)
- The Ape Inside Us by Rubin M Rabinowski (A made up book)
- Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
- The Portable Nietzsche By Friedrich Nietzsche
- The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus by Nostradamus
- Paradise Lost by John Milton
- Gilgamesh
- The Pearl by John Steinbeck
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
- Metamorphosis by Ovid
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf by John Muir
- My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir
- Complete Waverly Novels by Walter Scott
- The Age of Intelligent Machines by Ray Kurzweil
- Fifty Ideas That Changed the World by John Farndon
- Four Great Novels by Jane Austen
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- You vs. Wall Street: Grow What You've Got and Get Back What You've Lost by Natalie Pace
- Insects: A Guide to Familiar American Insects by Herbert S. Zim
Good Quotes:
- First Line: First there was nothing.
- Last Line: This will never end.
- The greatest flaw of the [human] species is its overwhelming tendency to mistake agreement for truth. Chp Douglas Pavlicek
- savagery is a slippery slope. Chp Douglas Pavlicek
- We see things which only look like us. Chp Patricia Westerford
- The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story. Chp Trunk
- Roots
- Nicholas Hoel
- Mimi Ma
- Adam Appich
- Ray Brinkman and Dorothy Cazaly
- Douglas Pavlicek
- Neelay Mehta
- Patricia Westerford
- Olivia Vandergriff
- Trunk
- Crown
- Seeds.
References:
- Author's Web Site
- Wikipedia-Book
- Wikipedia-Author
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- New York Times Review
- NPR Interview
- PBS Interview
- Other eco-books Powers recommends
- The Guardian’s review
- The Irish Times review
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