I found this selection to be very interesting. I had never really thought about why people do not typically include the topic of climate change in literature, but as I continued to read, it became apparent that one of the main points in this reading is that people like predictability. On page 17, Ghosh describes how in literature, events that are rare and unheard of are "toward the background while the everyday moves into the foreground" (Ghosh 17). This makes sense; if writers want readers to understand and appreciate their work then they want the reader to be familiar with the ideas presented to them. The author also discusses how "fillers are an attempt at rationalizing the novelistic universe. . . few surprises" (Ghosh 19). People want to be aware of ideas in literature, but if there are surprises then they are unsure; they want to be able to keep everything in a little box, but "nature does certainly jump" (Ghosh 20). Nature changes and looks different everyday. There are natural disasters and interactions with our environment that are sometimes unfamiliar to us.
In our class, we have somewhat touched on the topic of climate change, but I think this reading is a great way to jump into the conversation. Like I interpreted before, people do not like the unexpected. Climate change is an unexpected event. Ghosh made some very intriguing points that explain this like, "human beings are intrinsically unable to prepare for rare events" (25). We rely so heavily on probabilities and predictable ideas that we do not know how to act in crisis anymore. The last thing I want to discuss is that with nature constantly changing, we "recognize something we had turn away from" (Ghosh 30). I think Ghosh is trying to say that these encounters with nature and this climate change crisis has always sort of "been there". The thing about this that scares humans is that it is closer than we think and want it to be.