Granta 83: This Overheating World

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #83

by Ian Jack (Editor)

The world we were born into has gone. We shall never completely recapture its climate, its seasons, the way its plants grew and its animals lived. This is not a wild-eyed prediction, a man on the street with a placard ("THE END IS NIGH"). Respectable science knows it and says it. Nine of the world's ten warmest years since records were kept have occurred in the past fourteen years. Some calculations suggest the average English garden moves south, climatically, by a distance of sixty-six feet every day. Who is responsible? We are — our habits. Can we prevent it? Too late. Can we moderate it, slow it, eventually reverse it? Yes — if we try. This outdoor issue of Granta reports from our present and future world, with writings from Edward Burtynsky, Marian Botsford Fraser, James Hamilton-Paterson, Thomas Keneally, Philip Marsden, and Bill McKibben. In addition, Christopher de Bellaigue, James Meek, and Nuha al-Radi offer insights in the new Iraq, along with a new story by Jon McGregor.

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthologies

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Ian Jack is a British journalist and writer who has edited the Independent on Sunday and the literary magazine Granta and now writes regularly for The Guardian.

Reviews

[Pete daPixie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never heard of Granta before. It appears they are a 30 year old publishing house. I picked this up off a bookstall at this years Glastonbury festival for £3.50. I was struck by the pictures, which look like paintings. I discover they are the photographic work of Edward Burtynsky, titled 'Manufactured Landscapes'. Although all these photographs were taken here on planet Earth, many resemble some alien topography. Nickel Tailings at Sudbury, Ontario looks like the surface of Mars! Was that a river? It's red and could be a lava flow. Uranium Tailings at Elliot Lake, Ontario could be a post nuclear wasteland. All these full page colour photo's take the eye and brain a while to adjust into. Some are like abstract art works. The shock then follows that Mr H.Sapien & Co.Ltd are responsible.
The reading matter is a collection of short stories and articles by various journalists and writers, a la Readers Digest. I had the impression that all the works were solely of an environmental nature, but not so. Some are travel biogs and there are a couple of accounts from the Iraq war.
I'm still very spaced out and this collection has taken a few weeks to read, it's also now a month since I've visited the library!

[Boo Trundle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't really like to eat seafood. My first choice would be the nasty, thoughtless pollution filters like shrimp and scallops. In a pinch, I will eat a mild, unfishy fish from a nasty, thoughtless "farm:" tilapia or catfish. Please don't order an actual fish that arrives at the table with one dead, gray eyeball staring up at the vintage chandeliers. Don't do that when you are out with me.

[Benjamin]

Highlights:returnreturnWayne McLennan: Rowing to Alaska (bro travel memoir)returnEdward Burtynsky: The Evidence of Man (photos)returnJames Hamilton-Paterson: Do Fish Feel Pain? (factual)returnJon McGregor: The First Punch (understated adultery fiction)returnJames Meek: With the Invaders (Iraq war journalism)

[Ram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished reading Granta 83- This Overheating World. An apt issue in these times. "Midsummer in April" by Maarten 't Hart was undoubtedly the best. "The Weather in Mongolia" by Phillip Marsden and "Rowing to Alaska" by Wayne McLennan were also good pieces.