In the pre-modern era, curious households had two books: the Bible and an almanac, a compendium of world knowledge with stories, calendar sayings and lists that you could leaf through over and over again on the long winter nights without getting bored. Friends of the “funny paperbacks” still know a late form of it, the compact red pawn finder manual, in which Tick, Trick and Track always look up when their uncle Donald has maneuvered them into a hopeless situation again. The concept of the good life companion book, in which you can find tips, tricks, but also something worth knowing, something to laugh about and to think about, will be taken up and renewed this summer by Eckart von Hirschhausen.
His new book fits exactly into the wide gap left by the highly specialized advice and happiness literature market, because this book is about the planetary whole as well as worrying about oneself, with which one can feel alone in our atheistic times. If the whole climate debate puts you in a bad mood, you will learn new things here, because in fact extreme heat can have a negative effect on our mood, and if one is constantly taught or feared in such a way, the result is an unpleasant angry state of citizenship or a sad disgruntlement. Then it helps to read about it in order to find out again.
At night it stayed as hot as during the day, the pool was a warm soup
Such a tumult of feelings was at the beginning of the project. Hirschhausen celebrated his 50th birthday, concerned himself with his own finiteness, the question of the state in which he leaves the earth to the children, also what of his work should be remembered. And then he experienced the consequences of climate change directly, of all things during the summer holidays that have been carefree and joyful since childhood.
He was in the south of France in the summer of 2018 and couldn’t keep a cool head. It stayed as hot at night as it was during the day, the pool was a warm soup, and beloved activities like cycling and apricot harvesting were impractical in the insane heat. In the mountains of Austria, too, climate change had long been a fatal reality: Hirschhausen found out about a mountain accident that cost an experienced mountain guide the life because a rock had surprisingly come loose. At great heights, layers of stone are held together by ice in the rock. When it melts, it crashes and crashes.
This resulted in material for several books. Hirschhausen could have written his memoirs. How the Berliner, who grew up in modest circumstances, rushed through the genres and branches, mutated from magician to doctorate, succeeded as a medical comedian and cabaret artist, later became a science journalist and presenter, furthermore a bestselling author and still a stage artist. That alone would be a bold German media story. Hirschhausen became particularly popular through Harald Schmidt: When he presented the rubric “Doctor Hirschhausen’s Medical Cabaret” on his late night show, he suddenly knew half of Germany. He is one of the last active German celebrities to become really famous before the internet came up.
The trust that his audience places in him is correspondingly high. On the Internet and on social media, everyone is always controversial, accompanied by poisonous comments, something always doesn’t fit. Old-school TV stars have a different relationship with the audience; it could develop in the quiet of the living room. Hirschhausen is an enlightener, but he does not divide. In his programs, the climate deniers, meat fans and car freaks are not stupid. He always leads all mistakes and vices back to himself, to all of us. He sets a bad example so that everyone can follow him and then seeks the way back.
The book should simplify the introduction to conversations on sensitive, taboo topics in family and friends
The book works with the analogy of planet and body indicated in the title, offers anthropomorphic geography and globalizing anthropology. Above all, the author achieves a level of conversation that is comfortable for almost every audience: the major climatic contexts are developed in the same friendly tone as the discussion of very personal questions, such as how one would like to be buried, buried or cremated after death. So the planetary issues are repeatedly interwoven with the everyday, all too human considerations. On the one hand, the book avoids any instructive tone and, on the other hand, always mixes enough humor into the text so that the drama of the climate crisis and the finiteness of our lives, the basic themes of the book, do not lead to leaden weight, but on the contrary lead to an amused inspiration.
Hirschhausen is not the only protagonist in the book. He meets the great Jane Goodall, Jared Diamond and many other committed scientists and conservationists. The text of the thick volume is broken down into short sections, as can be read well every day, especially during the holidays, and treats the pairs of opposites such as coming and going, talking and listening, need and consumption. This depicts a structure of human needs, which must be preserved if the planet is to remain habitable for us. Thanks to this open and inviting structure, everyone can actually get on board, think about it and learn something new. It is a book full of specialist knowledge, but designed like a successful farm festival in the neighborhood. With this, the author provides a tried and tested antidote to the lamented poisoning of all discourses and specialized loneliness of scientists. It is not about a victory in the eternal battle between climate deniers and climate protectors, but rather a skilful bypassing of classic front positions by integrating personal experiences into the narrative of climate change. And it also reflects the corona pandemic, which makes it easy to get into the matter, because everyone has something to say about it.
It is a well-made non-fiction book, the seriousness of which is repeatedly canceled out by jokes and anecdotes and which is suitable for reading aloud with slightly older children or older contemporaries, i.e. all those to whom the daily news offers too much information and too little context. It should also simplify the start of conversations on sensitive, taboo topics in family and friends, and is therefore a book about the cycle of life and the climate that should best be read in a group.
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Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
