emily’s Reviews > John Berger: From Life > Status Update
emily
is on page 178 of 400
‘But—addressed to the future—drafting—in the form of a letter to his newborn son. Early drafts—weave—into the texture of world history. Crossing the river was crossing into the past. It is here that the dead most come into the book. He writes, ‘The truth is that mass demonstrations are rehearsals.’ The living, like the dead, never went away—The dedication—balanced like an equation—multiplied by the other—not divided’
— May 29, 2026 02:11AM
5 likes · Like flag
emily’s Previous Updates
emily
is on page 309 of 400
‘You lived through enough zeits for there to be many geists—Nam June Paik—to Harun Farocki—You read Gabriel Garcia Marquez—it inspires you to continue a road you’ve already chosen—psychogeography—London submerged by gentrification—booming banks—The idea that places have histories outside the ones airlines—advertise. You—read Sebald, and he reads you, though you don’t—ever meet. An intimate relay over vast distances.’
— Jun 03, 2026 03:55PM
emily
is on page 279 of 400
‘Exile—is fascinating to think about, but terrible to experience—a sundering from geography, history, self—violence—evolved—endured—a drone account of the human condition—this is what the ruling language, which now surrounds us, is like. A culture ‘which has no faith in any future—pretends the past is obsolete’. At a moment like this, there is value in letter-writing—In an era of instantaneity, it is—an act of faith’
— Jun 02, 2026 02:47AM
emily
is on page 228 of 400
‘‘The arse of indifference that can smile in sentimentality,’—a postcard poem to Anya. Clarity—is more important than money—Hard to have clarity if you have no money though—people, will help you turn the prize against itself—The same story all over the world—All of our ancestors—go back a few generations—to connect again—to bring the workings of your demons into the open—In folklore, the unavenged haunt the earth—’
— Jun 01, 2026 03:30AM
emily
is on page 198 of 400
‘—a world defined by exile & fragmentation—What, then, does TV express? Maybe something even more transcendent & homeless now that we watch it on our phones wherever we are sitting, standing, walking, driving, shitting or trying to get to sleep. The invention of photographic reproduction—ambivalent about whether this is positive or negative: it has democratising potential, & potential for abuse. In truth it is both.’
— May 30, 2026 06:46PM
emily
is on page 133 of 400
‘‘However you interpret the idea of happiness’, John wrote to Anya, ‘I think you interpret it in the same way as I do—I am convinced that this is our unlikely chance of it.’ Tell them the truth about us in London, and we’ll do the same here. Maybe that way they can’t make us fight each other. Some of them started important, horizon-broadening friendships—witness to horrors, but also a promise they might be survived.’
— May 24, 2026 07:07PM
emily
is on page 108 of 400
‘Because art is a connection to the past—everyone who has ever been alive, it is absurd to restrict it—to a wealthy minority. What mattered—was the sense it carried—historical—geographical roots. His letters—read like drafts for ‘Here is Where We Meet’. But instead of encountering—ghosts of people he loved—he is glimpsing the shapes of people he will love—people he has just met. No one shaped his life more than Anya’
— May 18, 2026 04:34PM
emily
is on page 89 of 400
‘For Romantics of John’s era,—there was—knowledge that human rage & fear could obliterate any landscape. He—found in D. H. Lawrence—insistence that there is a unity, not a separation, between mind & body—between content & form. Later, he would—associate it with Spinoza. Livorno,—he began to discover a ‘complicity’ w/ Caravaggio—spent months visiting a bell foundry in Croydon—In writing, his impatience became urgency’
— May 17, 2026 10:11PM
emily
is on page 72 of 400
‘To ask who was paying became a lifelong instinct for John—be it the Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s—or the slavery-tainted wealth of McConell funding a literary prize in their name. By the time—he became a storyteller—shaped by telling & retelling—secretaries of death, bearing witness rather than creating out of nothing—go-betweens for the living & the dead, travellers across that boundary—And now here we are.’
— May 16, 2026 07:14PM
emily
is on page 18 of 400
‘Home, if you're lucky, is where the two lines meet. Even when severed—connection survives, if it is worked for. We're not talking about organised religion here. There’s no hope for the future in surrendering the past. The original meaning of radical is roots—stories—connection. At the heart of this—he wants our company, and we need his. There is plenty of the horrible irony of trauma here, but no meaningful blame.’
— May 15, 2026 04:47PM