The Stone Gods

In her latest novel, Jeanette Winterson takes us through three worlds, all of which are at the brink of collapse. The first is Orbus, which is "evolving in a way that is hostile to human life", despite the fact that its residents have managed to slow down global warming, stabilize emissions, drain rising sea levels, replant forests, and stop using oil, gasoline or petroleum derivatives. Winterson then takes us to Easter Island, which looked as if "some great creature with hot breath had flown above and scorched all below", just at the moment when the islanders fell down the last palm tree. The third is an unamed world, much like our own today, which has just suffered a nuclear attack. In this post-World War Three era, people no longer use money. The world is run by a global trding company that rents out everything--houses, cars, clothes, even leisure. This is a welcome change from pre-3 War era when "Nobody ever had enough money. Rich or poor, money was scarce. The more we had, the less it seemed to buy, and the more we bought, the less satisfied we became. It was a relief when money was gone".

As with all Winterson's novels, the plot is not complicated; it is the beautiful prose, and the ill-doomed and unconventional love between beings--between two women, between two men and between robot and human--that makes us read and re-read her books over and over again. But in this novel, her prose is not only thought-provoking, but at times very political:

"... life cannot be calculated. That's the big mistake our civilization made. We never accepted that randomness is not a mistake in the equation--it is part of the equation".

"The truth is that I've spent all my life with my binoculars trained on the Maybe Islands, a pristine place of fantasy... maybe if I hadn't done this, or that or... But the truth is I am inventing the maybe. I can only make the choices I make, so why torture myself with what I might have done, when all I can handle is what I have done? The Maybe Islands are hostile to human life".

"What it means to be human... is to bring up your children in safety, educate them, keep them healthy, teach them how to care for themselves and others, allow them to develop in their own way among adults who are sane and responsible, who know the value of the world and not its economic potential. It means art, it means time, it means all the invisibles never counted by the GDP and the census figures".

I had the opportunity to see Winterson read extracts of this book last year, which was a delightful experience. Winterson does not mean to paint a dismal future for our planet; she claims to be an optimist and believes that humanity deserves better. We must act fast, however, to try to change the possible course that our planet is taking. To see videos of her reading, go to: http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=493

Winterson is one of my favourite authors, and I have read almost all her novels. Although I cannot say that "The Stone Gods" is one of my favourite of her books, it is a thought-provoking one that I know I will keep on coming back to. The book has succeeded in inspiring me in the work that I do--to try to make the world a better place.