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Long time, no reading update
May. 22nd, 2021 08:47 pmMissed a week there, due to the Great Transphobic Book Debacle. I don't have the energy to rehash it, but here's a tweet thread in french with some english images and links:
So that's the most stand-out thing I read since I last posted: parts of Robert Jensen's The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men. Possibly the most interesting thing is also by Jensen, this essay at 'Killing the Buddha', on his having been expelled from the presbyterian church, and his career as a 'radical christian' non-theist. That explains a LOT, including why the book reads so much like one of those 'Christian masculinity' books: it's just that it's about his conversion to (very shallowly understood) radical feminism, which is holding the place of 'godly masculinity' in his worldview. HUH. He's not even the only one- the teacher I dealt with mentioned Chris Hedges, whose name has been doing the rounds lately in connection with Palestine. He's a Middle East socio-political analyst, with some writing on techno-capitalism, who is also an ordained pastor, and who firmly believes that pornography is destroying modern masculinity.
So, y'know, it's not that I can see no classroom use for Jensen. If I'm ever assembling an 'American Protestantism ruins everything' syllabus I'd be tempted to include extracts.
Currently Reading:
Fiction for fun: Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber and other stories'. I'm discovering that, since I grew up with fairy-tale adaptations in part made possible by Angela Carter, I admire her lush prose and find it interesting to trace her literary/generic influences but am neither absorbed by the stories nor the adaptive choices.
Non-fiction for interest: Still puttering through bell hooks.
Poetry: Not much progress on Paradise Lost, and nothing new.
Lit Mag: Behind on the TLS, and on everything else
For work: Puttering through Helen Vnuk's 'Snatched', and Elin Diamond's 'Unmaking Mimesis'.
Recently Finished:
Anna Zabo, Outside the Lines: I had an itch, and this scratched it. My previous review stands.
The Miller's Tale: Wahala Dey O! by Ufuoma Overo-Tarimo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The editing of this annoyed me a bit - inconsistencies, over-glossing, and the like. The play itself seemed great fun. I have Thoughts about Overo-Tarimo's understanding of Chaucer, as expressed in the paratext.
View all my reviews
The Canterbury Tales: A retelling by Peter Ackroyd by Geoffrey Chaucer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
There is adaptation and there is translation, and this is the worst of both worlds. With extra 'fuck' swears.
View all my reviews
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I found this very slow to start with, partly because I was erroneously expecting a singular plot. The other problem I had was the ironic treatment of Yaz, in the second POV section - yes, everyone in this book is treated with some irony, but Yaz felt like a stereotype of a Gen Z know-it-all, and the part about faking mental illness to get bigger dorm rooms was, well. Hiss. The second most flimsily-treated character was Morgan, the 'other' of the title list, a millenial nonbinary person. And yet: these are the things that bugged me, they are small beans compared to the breadth of story and characterisation for Afro-British women.
I bought this for a book club, and I'm ultimately glad I didn't show up for this meeting, I don't think my experience would have been improved by dissecting it with mostly-white mostly-cis-women.
An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
On the one hand: this is very good historical fiction.
On the other hand: this would have been better AS historical fiction, rather than historical romance. There was too much else going on, crowding out the romance arc, and literary-historical-fiction would, I think, have had more room for the complex layers wherein both protags are lying to each other, and withholding from the audience at the same time.
View all my reviews
Online fiction:
Thank God Nothing Lasts Forever, Carl Lavigne. Did you order some pining and denial and messy dynamics? Because I read this last night and my soul hurts, in the same way my soul hurts from Call Me By Your Name, or from bare: A Pop Opera. The protagonist here is not being his best self, I warn you! He behaves in unethical ways toward a an out gay femme classmate! But oh. Ow.
It Won't Be Long, It Won't Belong, Carl Lavigne. Same protag, older. Both are excerpts from a book that's in progress but not, afaik, contracted yet. This is unfair because I require it at ONCE, to feed my hurting soul.
What Stays Locked, Carl Lavigne. Short, also pining, not as striking.
The Walking River, Carl Lavigne. VERY striking, not at all pining.
Up Next: I don't know but I'm not satisfied with it. My copy of CMBYN is in the UK, and I ditched my copy of 'Someday this pain will be useful to you' years ago, so how am I supposed to assuage this soul-ache of pining, exactly?!
I haven't the werewithal to do links today. The internet, it's full of stuff. I'll post links to some of that stuff Another Day.
Aujourd’hui c’est #IDAHOBIT, et j’ai envoyé ma lettre de démission comme juré du Matu à une collège Genevoise, en raison du caractère transphobique de l’un de la liste des des livres d’examen. Les jeunes Genevoises méritent mieux.#transphobie #TransRightsAreHumanRights pic.twitter.com/51hBQDQFtb
— Amy, botherer of cats (@amisamileandme) May 17, 2021
So that's the most stand-out thing I read since I last posted: parts of Robert Jensen's The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men. Possibly the most interesting thing is also by Jensen, this essay at 'Killing the Buddha', on his having been expelled from the presbyterian church, and his career as a 'radical christian' non-theist. That explains a LOT, including why the book reads so much like one of those 'Christian masculinity' books: it's just that it's about his conversion to (very shallowly understood) radical feminism, which is holding the place of 'godly masculinity' in his worldview. HUH. He's not even the only one- the teacher I dealt with mentioned Chris Hedges, whose name has been doing the rounds lately in connection with Palestine. He's a Middle East socio-political analyst, with some writing on techno-capitalism, who is also an ordained pastor, and who firmly believes that pornography is destroying modern masculinity.
So, y'know, it's not that I can see no classroom use for Jensen. If I'm ever assembling an 'American Protestantism ruins everything' syllabus I'd be tempted to include extracts.
Currently Reading:
Fiction for fun: Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber and other stories'. I'm discovering that, since I grew up with fairy-tale adaptations in part made possible by Angela Carter, I admire her lush prose and find it interesting to trace her literary/generic influences but am neither absorbed by the stories nor the adaptive choices.
Non-fiction for interest: Still puttering through bell hooks.
Poetry: Not much progress on Paradise Lost, and nothing new.
Lit Mag: Behind on the TLS, and on everything else
For work: Puttering through Helen Vnuk's 'Snatched', and Elin Diamond's 'Unmaking Mimesis'.
Recently Finished:
Anna Zabo, Outside the Lines: I had an itch, and this scratched it. My previous review stands.
The Miller's Tale: Wahala Dey O! by Ufuoma Overo-TarimoMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The editing of this annoyed me a bit - inconsistencies, over-glossing, and the like. The play itself seemed great fun. I have Thoughts about Overo-Tarimo's understanding of Chaucer, as expressed in the paratext.
View all my reviews
The Canterbury Tales: A retelling by Peter Ackroyd by Geoffrey ChaucerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
There is adaptation and there is translation, and this is the worst of both worlds. With extra 'fuck' swears.
View all my reviews
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine EvaristoMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I found this very slow to start with, partly because I was erroneously expecting a singular plot. The other problem I had was the ironic treatment of Yaz, in the second POV section - yes, everyone in this book is treated with some irony, but Yaz felt like a stereotype of a Gen Z know-it-all, and the part about faking mental illness to get bigger dorm rooms was, well. Hiss. The second most flimsily-treated character was Morgan, the 'other' of the title list, a millenial nonbinary person. And yet: these are the things that bugged me, they are small beans compared to the breadth of story and characterisation for Afro-British women.
I bought this for a book club, and I'm ultimately glad I didn't show up for this meeting, I don't think my experience would have been improved by dissecting it with mostly-white mostly-cis-women.
An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa ColeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
On the one hand: this is very good historical fiction.
On the other hand: this would have been better AS historical fiction, rather than historical romance. There was too much else going on, crowding out the romance arc, and literary-historical-fiction would, I think, have had more room for the complex layers wherein both protags are lying to each other, and withholding from the audience at the same time.
View all my reviews
Online fiction:
Up Next: I don't know but I'm not satisfied with it. My copy of CMBYN is in the UK, and I ditched my copy of 'Someday this pain will be useful to you' years ago, so how am I supposed to assuage this soul-ache of pining, exactly?!
I haven't the werewithal to do links today. The internet, it's full of stuff. I'll post links to some of that stuff Another Day.