Our Times
...something is wrong with the world...
We live in unprecedented times. In a state of perpetual social, economic and political upheaval. In a late capitalist dystopia, an era “dirty, tired, imperfect, winding down, at war with itself.”
We live in the Anthropocene. On a planet that we brought to a boil. Where forests die off, taking with them their fauna and flora, where acidified, polluted oceans turn into sewage, where fertile soils erode, while the air we breath fills with poison.
We live in the Age of Loneliness. In an era of atomisation and go-it-alone individualism that deprives us of a sense of collectivity and connectedness. Without the necessary frameworks to make sense of modern-day phenomena, we struggle to grasp the rapid currents of change.
We share a feeling so hard to shake off: something is wrong with the world.
Book Club Adriatic is an attempt to make sense of this feeling. To turn the negative tide. In this, we can rely on what has always helped us cope with adversity—ideals, being in nature, literature. But even more importantly, we have to rely on each other, on the power of conversation, exchange of thought and the milk of human kindness.
Today, more than ever, we see reading as a form of resistance. As the place to go in search of hope. Hope, however, is an act of faith and should be nourished by concrete actions. Concrete collective actions: debating, conspiring, rebelling.
This is why we decided to start Book Club Adriatic, a space where we come together through literature to make sense of our times.