Book Review: Unity

 

Image: The cover of the book is a blocked color illustration of an eyeball with a hexagon shaped pupil. It is white with a teal and yellow striped iris and dark blue pupil. Fading out from it are the colors dark teal to light to duller yellow to bright yellow. In circles around it in three layers part cut off at the edges of the book are cutouts of human stick fighures similar to paper dolls all holding hands around the center. There is a bright yellow stick figure in the center of the pupil. Across the top of the eye is the title of the book in bright yellow letters and across the bottom is the author's name: Elly Bangs.

 

One thing I can say for sure about Elly Bangs is that she is not short on creative and interesting ideas. Her first novel- Unity- is quite the showcase of these ideas. It is difficult to describe this book in a review without giving spoilers, but I am going to do my best. In the afterword of the book, Bangs tells us that she started Unity in high school 18 years ago and that the book kept evolving and transforming as her life did. I can see these kinds of themes throughout the book among the multiple, interconnecting elements. There were a lot of things in this book I had not seen or read before, or at least not in the way Bangs wrote them. There are cyberpunk, post apocalypse, dystopian, futurist, and many other science fiction subgenres that all meld together. This is a strength of the book. The story is interesting and full of twists and turns. Some of the bigger reveals towards the end are unique and multidimensional in ways that are engaging and entertaining. You can definitely see leftist political persuasions throughout (which I am all for, if that's not clear,) including diverging ways that certain leftist thoughts can become dangerous- particularly those that are authoritarian or pseudo-leftist power grabs.

Where I struggled with this book is that there were so many ideas that it sometimes felt as if none of them was fully fleshed out before the next was created. I can see how 18 years of different ideas ended up in the same book. It's not that all of the different things don't fit together- though there are times where I was left wondering why certain things survived apocalyptic collapse intact while others did not. It's more that I was often trying to figure out what was what up until the end. Since the book changes perspective between first person narratives of different characters to the occasional third person narrative, it is important that these characters be distinctive enough from each other. Their life experiences definitely are.  But, there were many times where I found myself asking, "wait, who is talking right now?" and flipping back a couple of pages. Now, this could be because I happened to read this book during one of the more tumultuous times in my personal life leading me to have a flawed attention span. But, I do think that also, I often found it hard to tell the narratives and internal dialogues of Danae, Naoto, and Alexei in particular apart. These are very different characters who all sound very similar during their personal narratives. We learn more about "Borrower" as the story goes on, and it fits into how his narrative sets itself apart a bit more. Many of these characters are referred to by completely different names at different times which makes their distinctiveness more important.

We also have multiple villain or villain factions (3-4 depending on your perspective) in the story, all of which seek to capture or connect with Danae. Each one has an interesting premise, but again often feels unfinished. We learn more about them as the story progresses but they still remain a bit shallow to me. I would have loved to see this book take on fewer ideas and expand on each one a lot more. Or, to create a series of books where all of the ideas get to remain and be built upon over time.

During the last stretch of the book where various villains intentions and worldviews are revealed, there are a lot of interesting explorations of uniformity, power, authority, misanthropy, technological progress vs detriment, and the all around messiness of what it is to be human. I liked that two of the bigger reveals involve characters that represent two sides of the same coin, but for different reasons (I know this is very vague, but I don't want to spoil the most interesting parts.) Learning why all of these people were seeking Danae and the technology contained within her was interesting. The epilogue, though, was not my favorite. There is a moment with Danae and Alexei who once again are doing very similar things despite being very different, and there is a message that the author clearly wants to convey- about allowing humans to be flawed- that I think is an excellent message to end the book with. The vehicle for this message was what I really did not like, and the way it played out was another way in which a shallowness permeated something that could have been further developed into something very interesting.

I think that Elly Bangs is overall a good writer with fantastic amounts of creativity and imagination. I would definitely be interested in reading her next novel. I think this is a good start and I also think she can give us a lot more.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Unflattering Photos of Fascists

 

Image: The cover of the book's left 2/3 of space is a photo of a fascist white supremacist rally attendant. He has white skin, a blue button down shirt, a padded grey helmet, a face covering with a cartoon smile with pointed teeth on the front, and mirrored ski goggles. In his left hand, he is holding the sticks of two american flags. Behind him is the branch of a tree and a ground covered in brown leaves. On the right third of the cover is a dark grayscale tesselation of american flags. On top in red letters is "unflattering photos of fascists." Below that in white letters, "Authoritarianism in Trump's America." And below that in blue letters, "photos by Jeff Schwilk, Edited by Christopher Ketcham, Essays by Christopher Ketcham, Jeff Schwilk, Paul Street, Shane Burley, Tizz Bee."

I have to admit that the first time I saw "Unflattering Photos of Fascists," I laughed out loud. It wasn't because I find fascism funny. It was pure schadenfreude, finding joy in the humiliation of a group of people whose beliefs, actions, and ideas I despise. I quickly became apprehensive, though. While the title of the book seems to take care to use wording that doesn't latch onto any oppressive insults, it is all too common for leftists to resort to attacks on size, health, ability, age, and other attributes about people that not only cannot be helped, but are attributes people on the left share equally. Sure, there can be a sweet irony in a member of a group claiming to be the master race not looking like the pinnacle of perfection he claims to be. However, this often overshadows the real dangers of fascism and white supremacy. When we devolve into body shaming, ableist, ageist, and other oppressive insults, we're actually punching down, as use of those things as insults harms the most vulnerable people of those groups across the political spectrum.

All of that said, I was pleased to see that the book did not do this. The exception is that the word "blind" is used as an insult twice in the book. While this is ableist, it is extremely common across the board. The word "unflattering" can describe just about anything. The photos in the book feature a variety of fascists (though, as you can imagine, not a racially diverse one which is an impossibility.) Across the board, these photos are unflattering because they show the actions, behavior, and belief systems of white supremacist people and groups to be abhorrent. Their costumes, sign choices, unabashed fascist pride, and frequent ignorance are the focus of the book. 

While the photos of these people can cause one to laugh, scoff, and shake one's head, they do not result in a book that is making light of fascism. The title grabs your attention, while the texts after the photos lead the reader on a short journey through recent fascist and white supremacist activity in the USA. They begin with a glossary of different symbols and names of groups currently active in the USA. It could have been a bit more expansive, but is helpful nonetheless- especially to someone unfamiliar with how many groups use symbols and names to exist as dog whistles for nazism while avoiding more widely recognized items such as the nazi swastika.

If you're looking for an unbiased book that takes a "both sides have merit" approach, you can probably tell from the title that this is not that, and rightfully so. We begin by hearing from photographer Jeff Schwilk who tells the story of a homeless punk he knew who was brutally beaten and murdered by Nazi skinheads posing as SHARPS. Later Schwilk himself was stalked and harassed by white supremacists in destructive and violent ways. 

 Paul Street's essay following Schwilk's is so insult laden, it is annoying at first. Yes, we are all here because Nazis are bad. But, the more powerful parts of his essay come when he calms down with the creative cursing and gets right into just how insidious these groups are. Especially important is the callout of neoliberals and how their behaviors and constant descent further to the right have helped embolden existing white supremacist groups along with Trump. The essays in this book do not in any way claim that this all began with the 2016 election, nor do they discount the rise of Trump as a motivating factor lifting up these groups.

Shane Burley and Tizz Bee turn their focus specifically on Oregon. Oregon is thought of by many to have a very "granola" persona as the authors put it. But, in reality, white supremacist groups have existed quite strongly throughout the state. Burley focuses more on their recent history, while Bee focuses a bit more on the antifascists aspects (though both essays include both elements.)

Overall, a short read with quite a bit of info for it's size. I also really enjoyed the graphic design and formatting of the text in the print version of the book. It surprised me a bit, looking like a book of casual ridicule on the cover, but delving much deeper into the subject matter within. I could see it on a coffee table or in your friendly neighborhood anarchist section of your bookshelf.

This was also posted to my goodreads.