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https://theconversation.com/at-a-time-of-crisis-reading-books-can-help-us-make-sense-of-the-world-231495>
"Why do any of us read books these days? There are so many other forms of
information and entertainment that are much easier to consume. With 20 minutes
to hand, why wouldn’t you just scroll for a while through TikTok, or check in
on a news app?
Yet sometimes bite-sized doesn’t work. I want to share an example from my own
reading. At the end of 2023 and the start of 2024, I was following the Israeli
offensive in Gaza the way I usually follow news media. Which is to say, I
mostly read headlines and saw photos. I knew something shocking was happening,
but that very sense of shock sent my brain into short-circuit. I couldn’t stay
with the story; I couldn’t understand it.
Then my friend and research partner, Claire Squires, told me about a book she
had just read:
Don’t Look Left: A Diary of Genocide by Atef Abu Saif.
The Palestinian Authority’s Minister for Culture, Abu Saif was visiting Gaza
from the West Bank with his 15-year-old son when the bombing started.
Don’t
Look Left is his diary of the next 85 days, shared with his publisher through
WhatsApp messages and voice memos.
Reading this book clicked with me in a way other media hadn’t. Over the course
of its 288 pages, I got to know Abu Saif, his extended family and his friends.
The diary format and the ever-present threat had the immediacy and urgency of
news media, but the way the diary unfolded helped me to see people and places
in a new way. I learned the names and nuances of different neighbourhoods –
like Jabalia refugee camp, where the author was born in 1973, and the tent city
of Rafah.
Abu Saif conveyed what it was like to make daily decisions about where it was
safe to sleep. He describes seeking out the most fortified parts of a building,
lying awake listening to missiles. I gained insight into the harrowing quiet
moments between bombings, staring out shattered windows at night. The texture
of everyday life and survival amid terror – searching for food, finding
somewhere to charge batteries, checking messages from friends and family,
helping neighbours search the rubble of bombed buildings – was woven into
something profound that has stayed with me.
Since reading
Don’t Look Left, I have been able to remain engaged when the
news feels overwhelming, to place the ongoing horrors in Gaza into a framework
of deeper understanding."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
