The Unreality of Memory by Elisa Gabbert

Disasters, too, are often a matter of perspective, and the way we respond to them heavily influenced by our sources of information. Yet, as she argued at an earlier stage, ‘progress is tightly coupled with disaster’: the more we invent, particularly in terms of technology, the more likely it is for disasters – and large-scale ones, at that – to occur.

‘Is the world ending?’ Gabbert asks in her closing remarks, and after reading the catalogue of woes leading up to the question, most readers could be forgiven for answering with a yes. The results, though by no means clear-cut, are at once logical and fascinating, providing fuel for a more engaged and interrogative relationship with the media we consume on a daily basis. The main thrust of the book is not so much to describe these disasters and their causes – though Gabbert does so, in precise and often moving tones – but to examine how we as onlookers define, relate to and finally remember them to elucidate what effect (if any) they might have on the way we continue to live. In later essays, however, the author widens her net considerably, taking in everything from witchcraft and insomnia to the historical diagnosis of hysteria, our recent obsession with true crime stories and, of course, the presidency of Donald Trump. (Gabbert began writing these essays in 2017 they were published earlier this year in the USA and in August in the UK.) So far, so classic disaster.

The sinking of the Titanic, the Challenger explosion, 9/11, the atomic bomb, Chernobyl and Hurricane Katrina all feature in the first section of the book, along with looming threats – the possible Pacific Northwest earthquake, super-volcanoes, climate change – and, in an eerily prescient chapter, the potential for a new superbug or pandemic to develop. As might be expected from a book dealing primarily in disasters, The Unreality of Memory begins with a discussion of some of the most famous tragedies in human history.

The Unreality of Memory by Elisa Gabbert