However, before he’s put aside, what might Yeats offer the post-Tiger, virus-clenched Ireland? What does Yeats’ verse have to do with the gleaming, tech world of Dublin now? How does the fusty old poet who wrote about “the fascination with what’s difficult,” and his longing for love and a return to youth, have something to offer contemporary life?
Audiences often think of adaptations as identical, comparing and contrasting the new to the old to find the differences, often confusing the most faithful adaptation for the best. But what Morrow’s So Many Beginnings shows is that variations on a theme—even significant ones—are not betrayals of the source material. Maybe we can stop thinking of a worthy adaptation as a twin to the original and more as a sister.
On any given page, Srinivasan will leave you feeling convinced she has found a way out, only to pull the rug out from under you; whenever she says “but,” one wants to duck. Though far from exasperation, I felt relieved—even hopeful—that someone is asking the hard questions in public without asking for anything as absurd as a single answer.
By linking our industrial meat-centered food system to the most pressing issues of the 20th century, Lappé built the case for eating as a political act. The author or co-author of 17 books and co-founder of three organizations focused on hunger, poverty and the environmental crisis, Lappé continues to advocate for the practical solutions now detailed in the book’s 50th anniversary edition.