Uncanny and Improbable Events

by Amitav Ghosh

In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.

In this personal and wide-ranging exploration of how our collective imaginations fail to grasp the scale of environmental destruction, Amitav Ghosh summons writers and novelists to confront the most urgent story of our times.

Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Essays, Sustainability, Climate Change, India, Nature

118 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 26, 2021

About the author

Amitav Ghosh is an Indian writer. He won the 54th Jnanpith award in 2018, India's highest literary honour. Ghosh's ambitious novels use complex narrative strategies to probe the nature of national and personal identity, particularly of the people of India and South Asia. He has written historical fiction and non-fiction works discussing topics such as colonialism and climate change.
Ghosh studied at The Doon School, Dehradun, and earned a doctorate in social anthropology at the University of Oxford. He worked at the Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi and several academic institutions. His first novel, The Circle of Reason, was published in 1986, which he followed with later fictional works, including The Shadow Lines and The Glass Palace. Between 2004 and 2015, he worked on the Ibis trilogy, which revolves around the build-up and implications of the First Opium War. His non-fiction work includes In an Antique Land (1992) and The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016).
Ghosh holds two Lifetime Achievement awards and four honorary doctorates. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India's highest honours, by the President of India. In 2010, he was a joint winner, along with Margaret Atwood, of a Dan David prize, and in 2011, he was awarded the Grand Prix of the Blue Metropolis festival in Montreal. He was the first English-language writer to receive the award. In 2019, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the preceding decade.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a strange experience reading this the same week I watched the movie Don't Look Up(, which I recommend, even if it's an unpleasant experience).

More than anything, it was worth reading the book (for me) because I can't get the following passage out of my head:

[C]ontrary to what I might like to think, my life is not guided by reason; it is ruled, rather, by the inertia of habitual motion. This ... is why very few of us will be able to adapt to global warming if it is left to us, as individuals, to make the necessary changes; those who will uproot themselves and make the right preparations are precisely those obsessed monomanias who appear to be on the borderline of lunacy.

Exactly...

This slight, pocket/bite-sized essay (more specifically, in this case, an excerpt from Ghosh's The Great Derangement) is volume 6 in the Penguin Green Ideas collection, which, apparently, is not available for sale (in the slipcase collection) in the U.S. (but it's not that difficult to order it from a UK supplier).

I found it well worth reading, if only for the unique perspective, but, for whatever reason, I found it less impactful than some of the others in the series that I've consumed so far.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amitav Ghosh’s 2016 book The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable is a favourite of mine, a brilliant examination of why there is little literary fiction about climate change. Since it was written, more novels dealing with climate change have come along although many of them struggle to do it justice. Ghosh’s analysis remains highly relevant and thought-provoking, as it delves into imperialism, capitalism, and their psychological influence. I’ve been waiting for his more recent climate change non-fiction, The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, to become available at the library and in the meantime borrowed Uncanny and Improbable Events as a stopgap. It contains the first section, titled ‘Stories’, from The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. I highly recommend reading the longer book in its entirety, but this section also stands very well alone. While I was disappointed not to find it new to me, I definitely appreciated re-reading 5 years on. Parts of this section influenced how I think about the relationships between fiction, imperialism, and the changing environment. The topic continues to be of great interest to me. Here are three of Ghosh’s key points.

[Meteorologist] Sobel goes on to make the argument, as have many others, that human beings are intrinsically unable to prepare for rare events. But has this really been the case throughout human history? Or is it rather an aspect of the unconscious patterns of thought – or ‘common sense’ – that gained ascendancy with a growing faith in ‘the regularity of bourgeois life’? I suspect that human beings were generally catastrophists at heart until their instinctive awareness of the earth’s unpredictability was gradually supplanted by a belief in uniformitarianism – a regime of ideas that was supported by scientific theories like Lyell’s, and also by a range of governmental practices that were informed by statistics and probability.

[…]

But in the era of global warming, nothing is really far away; there is no place where the orderly expectations of bourgeois life hold unchallenged sway. It is as though our earth had become a literary critic and were laughing at Flaubert, Bankim, and their like, mocking their mockery of the ‘prodigious happenings’ that occur so often in romance and epic poems.

This, then, is the first of the many ways in which the age of global warming defies both literary fiction and contemporary common sense: the weather events of this time have a very degree of improbability. They are not easily accommodated in the deliberately prosaic world of serious prose fiction

This thesis is supported by the fact that extreme weather events are more commonly found in fantastical fiction and sci-fi. More recently, I have noticed more literary fiction attempting to grapple with the space between mundane daily life and global crisis – both climate change and latterly the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are proving to be an interesting mixture. A recurrent challenge for such fiction is what to do about the ending, which occurred to me when reviewing Dreamland. I think The Living Sea of Waking Dreams handled this well, as it was willing to make a strong parallel between individual and species-level death. The Inland Sea, Weather, and Ghosh’s own novel climate change novel Gun Island less so. The deadly prospects of climate change are very difficult to confront, as Ghosh explains:

The [World Bank climate change risk] report forced me to face a question that eventually confronts everybody who takes the trouble to inform themselves about climate change: what can I do to protect my family and loved ones how that I know what lies ahead?

[…]

The experience did make me recognise something that I would otherwise have been loathe to admit: contrary to what I might like to think, my life is not guided by reason; it is ruled, rather, by the inertia of habitual motion. This is indeed the condition of the vast majority of human beings, which is why very few of us will be able to adapt to global warming if it is left to us, as individuals, to make the necessary changes; those who will uproot themselves and make the right preparations are precisely those obsessed monomaniacs who appear to be on the borderline of lunacy.

This is part of the horrible cognitive dissonance of climate change: how can an individual take it as seriously as they should when collectively we are not doing so? Neoliberal capitalism has normalised environmental destruction in order to enrich a tiny minority; thinking beyond that, let alone overturning it, is extremely difficult. Yet how could anyone truly prepare for climate breakdown, even if they are a billionaire with a bunker in New Zealand? The world economy is so complex, interdependent, and fragile, as the pandemic has made increasingly clear. This is not say that we cannot adapt to some extent, as communities if not as individuals, but the idea that even an extremely rich person could ignore the rest of human society and ride out climate breakdown in isolation seems like nonsense to me.

The third point that particularly struck me concerned warnings from history and the location of cities.

It is surely no accident that colonial cities like Mumbai, New York, Boston, and Kolkata were all brought into being through early globalisation. They were linked to each other not only through the circumstances of their founding but also through patterns of trade that expanded and accelerated Western economies. Those cities were thus the drivers of the very processes that now threaten them with destruction. In that sense, their predicament is but an especially heightened instance of a plight that is now universal.

Is isn’t only in retrospect that the siting of some of these cities now appear as acts of utter recklessness: Bombay’s first Parsi residents were reluctant to leave older, more sheltered ports like Surat and Navsari, and had to be offered financial incentives to move to the newly founded city. Similarly, Qing dynasty officials were astonished to learn that the British intended to build a city on the island of Hong Kong: why would anyone want to create a settlement in a place that was so exposed to the vagaries of the earth?

[…]

This too is an aspect of the uncanny in the history of our relations with our environments. It is not as if we had not been warned; it is not as if we were ignorant of the risks. An awareness of the precariousness of human existence is to be found in every culture.

Ghosh writes in a well-structured, clear, and compelling style, explaining fascinating and important ideas. The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable is one of my favourite books on climate change; it has definitely shaped my subsequent reflections and my reaction to environmental fiction. I highly recommend it. If you can only get hold of Uncanny and Improbable Events, it is extremely worth your while and also small enough to carry around in case you need to wait for someone.

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

thinking many thoughts as per!!

[Catullus2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

No. 6 in Penguin’s Green Ideas series. Intelligent writing.

[Coepi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

My low rating doesn’t reflect any issues with the text itself - it’s just that I don’t really understand the point of this book. To be clear, this is a re-published an extract from Ghosh’s book The Great Derangement under a new name. The Great Derangement is a good book that I would recommend to anyone. But it’s only 164 pages long (at least in my hardback copy) - so why not read or buy the full book, instead of this, which is a short extract from it? Similar, the original retails at about £10 while this costs £5, for I believe less than half the content. I’m not opposed to re-publishing in all forms, but this edition doesn’t add anything as far as I can tell; it’s not updated, it doesn’t collate a few speeches or articles published elsewhere into one volume, or include anything new from Ghosh. Just buy The Great Derangement instead.

[Soeti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun and light read! Very thought-provoking premises. As an author I adore, Amitav Ghosh presents an incredibly important questions for us, bookreaders and members of literary society: why the story about environmental issues are always regarded as science fiction, or in extreme way, fitting into a dystopia/apocalypse genre? Not as common fiction?

I also like the way he explains how colonialism took part in modern civilization and created a danger milieu for the residents within the disaster-prone areas.

This is an excerpt of his book The Great Derangement. It's better to buy that book to understand more profoundly on his ideas.

[Silje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woah! What a powerful read. Nothing other to do than go out get the whole book, from which this excerpt has been taken. The widening of the scope of the literary novel to invoke the post-human turn is more urgent than I thought. Somehow the fact that we live in a highly intertwined interdependent world, among plants minerals animals, seem to still be some kind of niche idea among artists and highly sensitive people. The post human novel may already be underway and have always existed. Ghosh certainly helps it along! Looking forward to read all of The a great Derangement.

This is the second powerful extract of a classic environmental movement text I have read from the ‘Green Ideas’ series. I appreciate the thin volumes giving easily accessible insights into ideas from much longer books and authorships. Good idea!

[Isuru · Rating 4 out of 5]

This prose—or short essay—Amitav Gosh explores, through fiction, how we have, and are, responding to the impending doom of the climate change: It is an interesting perspective.

The three key phrases, I gathered, from this are: "the regularity of bourgeois life"—which makes us dismiss the unfathomable consequences of climate change, as that, unfathomable; "discontinuities of space"—separating us at nation boundaries and dismissing the commonalities across borders; triumph of "individual moral adventures" in place of "men in aggregate"—setting us in a path of destructions, missing the wood for the trees.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't recommend this to enough people fast enough. For a novelist's perspective on why climate and weather is so hard to articulate in fiction without the derision that would 'relegate' a work to science fiction, for the strangeness and imminence of the changes in the weather, for a reflection on our relationship to language that is at once true and hard to forget, read this.

[Melina Topp · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 98 page book took my 364 days to read. :)

Reading this felt like listening to a professor passionately ramble on in a lecture of which I had done none of the required reading or even the prerequisite classes. There were moments I understood what was being said and ideas that stuck out to me. But mostly, I was confused and not inspired to understand because this isn’t my ‘field of interest’.

[Harsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

the way this novella was written, in that it portrays climate change with details from the author’s hometown, was what made it a good read. Great use of connecting stories with the point that the author is trying to make (I probably make no sense….)

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the last two decades Amitav Ghosh has written some of the most intriguing, beautiful and exciting novels exploring human conquests and tragedies in many forms and over different periods and locations. The beauty of his language and the ability to build the reader’s empathy to the plight of individuals is paramount. As part of the penguin Green Ideas series, Amitav Ghosh has produced an essay that forces us to consider our failure or blindsightedness to recognise the impact of climate change especially within fiction and from the clear evidence of global changes. Why doesn’t literature fully recognise climate change and yet within non fiction it is highly evident?Based upon his own personal experiences of climate change , research of scientific evidence and exploration of different literature, Ghosh shines a bright light upon the gap within fiction to fully reflect what is happening to our planet and the discrepancy within published works. I was left with the question as to whether ultimately publishers regard fiction only as way to make money ( commercial success) and if as a species we are yet to want to confront in our daily lives what is happening and the far reaching impacts of climate change hence the wider buying public may just not be ready to accept the challenges we are confronting in their own “ escapism “ ( fiction reading ) and ultimately most authors have shied away from it within their works. Maybe Hollywood films have stretched the theme to such an extreme most people are now desensitised to what is happening and regard it as fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and penguin for the advance copy.

[Janina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 4th booklet I’ve read in this series, and probably the one I had the hardest time getting through. The topic and the writing is impactful, but a little dense; might be a case of “I’m too dumb for this”. Still worth reading as there are sentences and paragraphs that I’ll probably think about for a long time.

[Koprophagus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sicherlich eine interessante Persepektive, auch wenn nicht so wirkungsvoll wie andere Teile in dieser Serie, wird hier darauf eingegangen, warum die Klimakrise in der Literatur eher untervertreten ist, abgesehen von Fantasy und Sci-Fi, wo apokalyptische Ereignisse viel mehr stattfinden. Es sind nun rund 10 Jahr vergangen seit diesem Werk und ich würde behaupten, dass zumindest in meiner Wahrnehmung, die Auseinandersetzung mit diesem Thema zugenommen und auch mehr ihren Weg in die Literatur gefunden hatte. Leider aber auch durch verschiedene andere geopolitsche Geschehnisse wie die Covid-Pandemie, die Kriege und zuletzt Trump wieder in den Hintergrund trat. Die Klimakrise ist leise und schleichend, wird uns aber härter treffen als alles andere zusammen. Vielleicht ist es dieses Hintergründige, eine Ohnmacht oder das Umgehen, moralisch predigend zu wirken, welche es schwierig macht, es literarisch aufzugreifen. Vielleicht ist es einfach nur, dass wie es auch erwähnt wird, es nicht leicht in Worte zu fassen ist.

Das Lesen wird ein wenig dadurch erschwert, dass viele Referenzen zu anderen Werken gemacht werden bei denen es für das Verständnis hilft, sie zu kennen.

Ahja, und nicht direkt am Wasser bauen!

[B.S. Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It is as though in the literary imagination climate change were somehow akin to extraterrestrials or interplanetary travel."

Here Amitav Ghosh brings together his own experience and the works of several other writers to give his thoughts on just why we as a society struggle to grasp the severity of climate change. Providing an interesting and cleverly thought out exploration into the literary world where climate issues only appear in the fiction section, this was deeply personal and thought provoking providing plenty of room for introspection.

Uncanny and Improbably Events is probably the 'wordiest' of the collection I've read so far and is quite dense, but in just under 100 pages it is definitely a must-read especially for other writers.

[izzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This book is very intelligently written, and thought provoking. My favourite section of it was toward the end, when connections between environment and literature started to be explored in further detail. However, the pacing felt a little 'off', thoughts didn't feel fully explored, and conclusions didn't feel fully developed. This is most likely because it's an excerpt from 'The Great Derangement', which I didn't realise until reading reviews after I had finished the book. Overall, I would recommend as I think it is certainly worth a read, however it may be more thought provoking and worthwhile to read 'The Great Derangement'.

[Adrian Cristian · Rating 5 out of 5]

On fiction's difficulty of talking about climate change without being science fiction. On how modernity has separated humans from nature and themselves. On how we culturally see improbable or uncanny events in the westernised world.
Fascinating, thought provoking, as many of the authors in the series Mr. Ghosh manages to open a door to another world within our own that is completely new and fascinating.

[Ally Marrs · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this little book Ghosh explains why he believes climate change has been left out of modern literary fiction. Over the last year I have gotten back into reading as a hobby, so I enjoyed learning about the history of the novel and different narrative styles. However, this piece seemed to jump around a bit between different ideas, and I think that some of his arguments went over my head ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If anyone can explain to me what a hyperobject is lmk 🥲

[Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read. I enjoyed breaking up my novel reading with short books like this one. I loved that it incorporated increasing problems in climate change and natural disasters and encouraging authors to write more about them in fiction books.it was brilliant and shocking reading about the authors experience with a tornado in India. It really opened my eyes to what's going on in the world, and I believe this is the authors point. Plus, you also end up with a great list of books to read. These books are great for short insights into very important topics. Perfect for those who don't like heavy non-fiction books.
Many thanks to the author and publishers for bringing us this interesting read. You can always depend on penguin books to print very thought-provoking and interesting books.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and thought provoking - Ghosh puts into words things I’ve been thinking and feeling for a while now. I wish he did it sometimes more simpler, but I guess as his expertise dictate, literariness is his key into the world!

[Jan Bloxham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Amitav Ghosh reads like a conjuror blowing large puffs of smoke, saying “See all the animals - look what they are feeling!” - you walk away not having understood a word they meant.

It’s like reading a human version of ChatGPT, minus the faked common sense: completely un-nourishing.

[Olli · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars?
Described as "wide-ranging" in the blurb, to me it felt a little more like "all over the place" and I found it hard to keep up.
But I was interested to learn about the change in politics associated with coal and then oil, and this feels like something I'd like to look into more.

[Withmanyroots · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much to consider, especially coming off the back of an intense COP26 experience.
Why does the modern novel fail to address the central issue of our times?

[Aida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading! Interesting discussion about arts, language and climate change. I liked the way of writing, and thought there was a nice balance of hopefulness with facts

[Fleur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten eerste: ik wil elk boek uit deze serie, zo mooi! Ten tweede: echt een interessante read, worden connecties gemaakt waar ik nooit eerder over na had gedacht. Ook zorgwekkend en deprimerend.

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A crucial text for anyone interested in the Anthropocene narrative within literature! Highly recommend.

[Connor Girvan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 / 5 stars

[Mads ✨is balls deep in the Animorphs reread✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who cares about literature, especially fiction, should read this book. My favourite of the series so far.

[Lili · Rating 4 out of 5]

slay