Reflection Time
A thoughtful meditation on abortion and grief, waiting and time
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, just as the world went into lockdown, Meredith Greer realized she was pregnant but couldn’t keep the baby. The experience of waiting for, undergoing, and recovering from an abortion was isolated and isolating, encapsulated as it was in a larger, collective act of waiting.
In Reflection Time, Greer argues that terminating a pregnancy – an experience that is both very private and very public, given how controversial abortion is – and living through a pandemic can both be defined as ‘in-between times’ or ‘liminal zones.’ In such a liminal zone, the old normal has been left behind but we have yet to enter the new. Everything is in flux.
Liminality is usually associated with rituals, but when it comes to abortion, as well as the pandemic, Greer observes, we’re sorely lacking in rituals to help us process loss, mourning, or new beginnings. ‘Liminality’ she writes, ‘is a phase in which the rules do not apply. But you can’t make an exception for special circumstances if the rules have already been suspended until further notice.’
Weaving together personal experience with an examination of the function of silence and the silencing of women; the depiction of abortion in film, the history of the internet and its attendant dreams of connection through technology, Greer renders on the page the sensation of being in limbo. The result is a poetic, thoughtful and quietly political reminder that putting private and collective experiences of loss into words is a matter of power and of survival.
Essay on two difficult private and collective experiences: abortion and the Covid-19 pandemic
A poetic exploration of ‘liminality’ through personal recollection and close readings of film, literature, and media history
A stunning new voice in literary non-fiction
Year of publication
2023
Page count
208
Publisher
De Bezige Bij
Rights
Marijke Nagtegaal
m.nagtegaal@debezigebij.nl
Sample translation available
“Meredith Greer writes about her pain, her anxieties, her doubts and her grief without becoming heavy-handed, or lapsing into navelgazing. Her writing is erudite without being pedantic, the cultural references stem mainly from her own curiosity, and she’s all too happy to take the reader along on her journey.”
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In recent years the far-right’s growing mainstream acceptance has come to feel unstoppable. On a platform of identity, family, nationalism and anti-immigration, populist parties have seen electoral wins throughout the West. Underlying their valorisation of what is ‘natural’ and ‘realistic’, however, is a broader counterrevolutionary movement against the left-liberal globalist elite and what is perceived as the undermining of Western identity.
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When Humans Stray — Seven Animals Bite Back
For 400 years, European seafarers attempted to sail over the top of the globe for a shorter trading route. The famous polar explorer William Barentsz, who lent his name to the Barents Sea, died a hero, after becoming stranded in Novaya Zemlya in northern Russia. Today, however, he would have been able to complete his route in the summer.
Listening Practice
Initially, the emancipating power of internet technology was warmly embraced: the marginalised could finally influence political debate, new voices could shake up the dominant world order. But constant scrolling has led to a ‘dizzying swirl of current events’, overstimulation leads to mental shut down. Can we learn to listen again?
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Old Growth — The Fight for Europe’s Wilderness
Central and Eastern Europe are home to the continent’s oldest forests and much of its last true wilderness. There, wild bison, wolves, deer and even bears still roam and families have foraged for mushrooms for generations. But these UNESCO-heritage forests are under increasing threat from logging, fed by our insatiable demand for cheap furniture.
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