book review – literature

PROMETEUS: Sloterdijk's book addresses the dark side of freedom, how humans freely and unrestrainedly (albeit with shame) consume the earth's resources without caring about the consequences, because we have the right and freedom to do so.

POETRY: Two poets with great sensitivity to the world around them and the present, albeit a contemporary era seen from the perspective of the past – as they are referred to as 'retrogardists'.

EXCEPTIONAL STATE: Democratically elected leaders can manipulate us into believing there is a crisis due to immigration, homosexuality, terror, viruses, abortion, or moral decay in the population.

NATURE: How about recognizing some of the many wild bees we have in Norway and gaining an interest in nature's diversity of species? Here is a scientifically based book free of irony and scientific distance.

CHINA: The Chinese nation marches forward with Marxist nationalism and global infrastructure, while the West stumbles in its own insecurities. It will be difficult for the United States to realize that its heyday is over. Has China found the formula for a new world order – or is it just old authoritarian wine in new bottles? And is Xi more Leninist than his predecessors?

RESISTANCE: On the occasion of the more fascist turn we are now experiencing with the inauguration of Trump and his government in the United States, we bring back the criticism from the American Michael Hardt and the Italian philosopher Antonio Negri. Do you not think that there is any alternative to capitalism, or that there is no possibility of changing the situation from the side of power – the economic inequality, racial and gender discrimination, the climate crisis? Then Hardt's latest book The Subversive Seventies is a welcome attempt to establish historical connections between the 70s and today. Furthermore, to articulate feminism, anti-capitalism, anti-racism and anti-imperialism, while the various organizations maintain relative autonomy, equality and diversity.

ETHICS: Is ethical thinking even possible – how can we humans develop moral thinking when the world is as changeable as it is? Erland Kiøsterud's collection of essays, from which MODERN TIMES has chosen two different analyses, contains contemplative texts about art, man and nature.

ECOLOGY: This time, MODERN TIMES looks at a book that, in its breadth and depth, treats our time and future, ecologically as well as culturally – as when culture is naturalized. About India: Here the most meticulous rituals are performed to keep the world in balance. About China: the Chinese emperors who used music to harmonize society. In Europe's stormy history, the dream of harmony and order is projected into the afterlife. Erland Kiøsterud tries to find a cosmology that can create a certain order and meaning in the world, while at the same time demanding total honesty. (See also our film about Kiøsterud here).

EUROPE: Peter Sloterdijk saw Europe as a kind of theater, with ever-new attempts to recreate and imitate the Roman Empire. The continent stands for humanistic ideals, but has nevertheless produced imperialism and countless wars. Why does a Europe characterized by a stoic ethic of self-restraint and a Christian message of peace and love lead to so much exploitation and oppression in practice?

POLICY: The United States, with its two-party system, has drastically evolved into a divided culture-fighting nation.

ARCHITECTURE: Sacred Modernity contains 139 images of modern churches. One could perhaps say that the book reflects the barren and displaced soul of humanity, the new society of stunned strangers…

POWER:Today's autocratic regimes have turned what was once a domestic policy into a foreign policy doctrine. Autocracy Inc. is brilliant and terrifying from Anne Applebaum.

POETRY: Latin America is in many ways an extension of Europe, with widespread poverty. Cities, human destinies, misfortune, love, everything seems bigger in Latin America.

PSYCHOLOGY: What makes Pico Iyer's book different from other descriptions of spiritual breaks from a hectic life is that his focus is not on what he has left behind, but on what he is striving towards.

ISLAM: Samia Rahman attempts to analyse what it means to be a Muslim woman in Britain today. Barriers in the form of veiling, lowering the gaze or physical separation of the sexes are, according to her, “a misunderstanding of the wisdom of Islam”.

POLITICAL: Denmark is now a member of the UN Security Council and must try to contribute to developing or re-establishing respect for the UN's mission. What does the book Liberating the United Nations say? And what about seeing ourselves as part of nature – with the mindsets, systems and objects we surround ourselves with today, it is difficult to understand, according to Jakob Jespersen.