Book Review: Try Anarchism for Life

Image: the cover of the book is a green background with a hot pink circle a in the center. Inside the symbol or green illustrations of leaves winding through the lines. On top of the symbol and lighter green cursive lettering is try anarchism for life. Around the top edge of the symbol and small black letters is Cindy Barukh Milstein. Along the bottom edge of the circle is the beauty of our circle.

Try Anarchism for Life is a break from Cindy Barukh Milstein's usual style, (which I like very much for the record.) It is more abstract in some ways, more playful, and more accessible, (though I do find their other books quite accessible as well.)

The book, published by Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, is a lovely printed collection of artworks sent to the author paired with Milstein's short writings on various topics. There are lino and wood cut prints, illustrations, graphic design, and more. I really loved the images that they chose to include in this book and Strangers did a great job with the design and printing.

When I say this book is accessible, what I mean is that I think it could be handed to almost anyone, including youth within reason as well as older folks. It has a playful and simplistic way of talking about who anarchists really are and creating a much larger picture than the black bloc that some people may see on the news (which Milstein and I both also support for the record.) Many people do not connect the mutual aid efforts that they run into with anarchism due in part because in those situations, anarchists don't often call them anarchist events- they're more focused on getting the work done than branding. People often associate anarchists with what they're against. Given that the vast majority of anarchism is based on cooperation and taking care of one another, this sort of quick run through of various elements is very important.

There is the curmudgeon and me, who no longer organizes due mostly to health problems, but also for other reasons. I've seen some stuff go down that I and other anarchists should not be proud of. This part of me feels the need to remind the curious reader that anarchists, like all human beings, can have some really messy group dynamics and anti-aurhoritarian groups can attract people looking to exploit that. This book doesn't talk about that, nor am I saying it should. I'm saying that this book creates a beautiful picture of anarchy and I wish I could say that we could match that perfectly in real life all of the time. 

That said, one of the best messages of the book is that one can do anarchism day to day alone or with some friends in a variety of ways, regardless of if one joins an anarchist labeled group. Anarchistic things are happening all around us and many people don't even realize it. When a conflict arises or when something doesn't work, we can change and grow in new ways. Anarchism can only stay alive with said growth.

This book does an excellent job of showing that anarchism is not what reactionaries believe- either a structureless society full of harm, an authoritarian communist dictatorship (addressed directly in the book, by the way,) or a chaotic street party based purely on destruction. It is a consistent movement on a long journey with no end. It is a constant struggle to create better things in the place of the harmful structures that exist to take it all away. 

I believe that Milstein conveys these and more things in a way that is light and playful. The reader does not have to prepare themselves for a 800 page book full of dead anarchist theory one needs a background in or college degree to grasp. They can read this and know what anarchism actually looks like on a day to day basis, and get to enjoy some excellent artwork in the process.

This was also posted to my Goodreads.

Book Review: Summertime - reflections on a vanishing future

 

Image: the cover of the book shows an expansive charred landscape from the perspective of a kookaburra who perches on a damaged tree on the right side of the cover. The skies are orange red from fires. Across the top is the author's name in white letters. Below that is summertime and black letters. Below that is a black line and under that in smaller black letters is reflections on a vanishing future.

I have to be careful with what I read and watch these days. For a variety of reasons, including clinical ones, I simply do not read or watch graphic descriptions of trauma for the most part. There are exceptions where I will because it is wholly necessary for a specific situation, but long gone are the days where I will watch undercover videos from animal farms as they reach the media. As a result, I was a little worried about going into Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future. The last time I read about wildfires and how they affected humans and other animals in the area, it was a story of people abandoning farmed animals in enclosures to burn to death. Their experiences (and the coverage ignoring why they were trapped and what their fate would have been otherwise) dominated my obsessive thoughts to the extent that I could barely function. 

I did not have that experience this time. I was truly impressed by Danielle Celemajer's ability to navigate the most horrific of topics in a way that both allows the reader to attend to their seriousness and sadness while also not beating them over the head with some sort of trauma porn. She allowed the reader to see the bigger picture of her life with her family and friends- including Jimmy and Katie.

At one point in the book, the author discusses how impossible it would be for a human being to attend to the life of every animal lost in Australia's wildfires. It would involve multiple lifetimes of doing nothing but thinking about the suffering of animals at all times. The truly unimaginable number can cause us to detach from things. That is part the importance of books like this that allow us to understand the lives of individuals. The author does not allow the reader to run from the situation or to intellectualize the problem. She holds your hand and walks you through it with her in such a way that you do not need to think about what you believe. Reading this book embedded this experience within me and gave me what I assume is the best understanding someone could achieve who wasn't there.

I'm intentionally being somewhat vague in describing the specific characters of this story because the author does this as well in the beginning. 

I am frustrated that this book is not being marketed in the USA. I originally thought that people in the USA would not be able to read it, but I just checked and there are some websites selling the ebook internationally I believe. I think this book is of critical importance for us to understand what is happening to this planet and how it affects not just humans but everyone else we share it with. With wildfires raging all over the globe, many of us do not really understand what a wildfire is like. I for instance, did not know that they can envelop a home in moments, traveling so quickly that by the time you see them on the horizon you may be doomed. As this planet burns, as ice caps melt, as indigenous peoples island homelands sink, as countless species disappear forever, and countless more die in nets and in slaughterhouses, it can be difficult even for those intimately connected not to detached from it all. Celemajer manages to tell such difficult stories in ways that allow us to absorb them without denial and without shutting down.

 I am a different person after reading this book. I can only hope that others will have similar experiences, if not from this book, from the stories of others. I hope others will be able to understand the lives of the humans and other animals and this story and apply that understanding to the trillions who lose their lives every year so that we may understand what we're responsible for and what needs to change. It's so much bigger than most conversations being had. I leave this review knowing it's insufficient for this topic.

This was also posted to my Goodreads.

Book Review: Readme.txt

Image: the cover of the book is a purplish tinted mix of grays and blacks making up a form of digital camo. Across the top and large white letters is Chelsea Manning across the bottom is the title of the book. In the center is a small icon of a document file and underneath in small white letters says a memoir.

Readme.txt gave me a new understanding of Chelsea Manning's life. I knew of her story, I had followed things in the news, I paid attention to her twitter, and I got to see some of her finally being able to exist as her true self. However, like most things that make their way into the public eye, and like all things that don't, they can become hidden over time under the barrage of information pummeled at us on a daily basis.

It's easy to lose track of time and tragedy in this kind of environment. It's difficult to imagine the individual moments of someone locked away and tortured, especially the further away one gets from the event being reported upon. This is the sort of fate that affects all prisoners. Even those who have the love and dedication of family and friends are often left separated from any sort of connection. The system is designed this way. In the case of someone like Chelsea Manning, add on top of that the horrors of secret prisons, being a trans person in prison, being accused of treason, spying, and other ridiculous crimes, being kept in solidarity confinement even worse than that of other prisons, and being thrust into the public eye while the government controls the narrative as much as possible, and you have a recipe for an even more extreme forms of torture.

It was interesting to read about Chelsea's journey from being a nerd who was good at computers to being a whistleblower. Her naive innocence, especially when she described how she never thought that she would get the punishments she did for releasing such important information, is an important part of this story. She wasn't some sort of anarchist weaving her way inside the military to sneak out bits of information for exposure. She was someone who saw more and more horrific things that didn't match with the message that she was given about the heroics of the US military.

The book is also an in depth look at what it was like for many LGBTQ people during don't ask don't tell. In Chelsea's case, it opened the door for more abuses, including from superior officers, that couldn't be reported without outing oneself. For all of the criticisms of the military, it shows that any law in any area that marginalizes lbgtq people is going to do harm far and wide.

I also found how Chelsea talked about being trans in the prison system to be refreshing in our current climate. Anti-trans people often accuse us of playing dress up or saying that gender roles and clothing are what make us trans. Chelsea's fight against the prison system to get hormones and proper transgender care rather than a small concession of slightly longer hair or something is an important one. Yes, it is true that there are many people who identify as trans for a variety of reasons and express themselves in different ways. But, for those of us who need to transition medically, legally, etc, being trans isn't simply being allowed to wear a different cut of clothing. At the same time, in an oppressive authoritarian system, those little concessions also matter a great deal. Wrap all of that up with the dangers that trans people can face in prisons and you get a complicated story which I think Manning navigated in this book well.

Overall, this book was an interesting glimpse into more of Chelsea's life that made me even more glad that she's finally out.

This was also posted to my Goodreads.

Book Review: NAS Birds of North America

 

Image: The cover of the book is a white background with the left side covered by an image of a bohemian waxwing- a light tan bird with a black mask and throat. The right side says BIRDS in large red letters and national audubon society and of america in smaller red letters. The description of the text in the lower right in red letters states: The complete guide to birding- with full-color photographs, updated range maps, and authoritative notes on voice, behavior, nesting, and conservation status. The lower far right corner has the black audubon logo.1

I am not sure where I stand on the birder experience list. I think of myself somewhat close to a beginner because I have been an avid birder years, contributing to citizen science like ebird.org, but I only recently started taking classes and consulting more than apps. Audubon's app, in my opinion, is best for visual ID and Cornell's Merlin for sound and photo ID. I am at the stage where I have learned enough that I realize how little I know. That said, I do think I have gained enough experience to be able to review new guides when they come out. The National Audubon* Society's new edition of Birds of North America has been updated for the first time in decades, which is an important step given the massive negative effects and changes caused by human intervention and climate destruction. 

The start of the book includes a short and helpful overview of bird biology topics written by experts in the various fields. There is some ranking of "intelligence" and other anthropocentric metrics, but they also do well to highlight birds' own interesting characteristics and abilities separate from humans.

This volume does the same thing that all of my other bird guides do- they refer to birds as "it" throughout the book when it is entirely unnecessary. I was also not a huge fan of how they discussed non-native species. While they do initially account for humans being at fault, they tend to describe birds like starlings almost entirely by the damage they do to industry (with no acknowledgement of how many of those industries are a far greater threat to birds than any non-native species.) They also do not acknowledge that many non-native species populations are in decline along with native birds and the perceived damage done by species is not shown in studies to be nearly as bad as the mythology around them- which is used as an excuse to offer them no protection. Though, I admit I did not read every bird description in the book.

The guide, like all others I have encountered, focuses visually on adult male animals (with the exception of rare more colorful females such as the belted kingfisher.) I am not 100% against this- it can work in one's favor for certain kinds of IDs. Many breeding plumage males (like many warblers) will show the most extreme versions of the field markings that can then be sought out in their lighter expressions in nonbreeding plumage males, females, and  juveniles (if there's a difference in said species.) But, the focus on the flashy male species not only ignores the wonders of female camouflage (again, if the species has it,) it also causes birders and others to have an extremely difficult time identifying sexually dimorphic females of unfamiliar birds. Given how massive this volume is (textbook sized, even larger than my Sibley volume and far larger than my other 3 guides,) it would have been nice to see more images of juveniles, females, nests, eggs, etc. The images could also have been labeled better and seem to be the same ones from their app (which are labeled in the software.)

One major improvement is the updates to conservation statuses and some of the texts. The first thing I did was flip to the section on wild turkeys to see if the same horrid description from the app- calling domestic turkeys "rather stupid creature(s)" was present in the text. It was not. (Though it is still in the app unfortunately despite my and others complaints.) The conservation information and discussion of population changes are critical given that since the original publication, bird species have declined and changed in major ways. The volume is also well organized by types of birds and including cover flaps and a ribbon to hold one's place. There is also an index to find each bird without needing to scan an entire family section. 

The photos are gorgeous and seeing them on the larger printed page vs the app or website is nice. I won the softcover version from a goodreads giveaway, so I cannot comment on the hardcover design. Overall, it's a beautiful and valuable guide I am happy to add to my collection.

*NAS has acknowledged that Audubon was a slaver and colonialist who shot and posed the dead bodies of all of the birds in his famous illustrations. This is a good first step, but I and others think they still should change the name, especially since there are a great many genius workers in the NAS that descend from Audubon's victims.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Creative Interventions Workbook

Image: the cover of the book is a light teal background with a black and white linocut print of a fern unfurling in the center. Across the top in large white letters is "creative interventions workbook." Below that in small letters is "practical tools to stop interpersonal violence." On the bottom there are four circles with symbols in them- a bee, a conch shell, a gear with a wrench, and an ocean wave.

Creative Interventions has been a valuable resource for quite some time, but the print publication of their Toolkit and now Workbook by AK Press has given them much needed further reach. I read and reviewed the toolkit in the past out and found it to be incredibly helpful and informative instruction on dealing with abuse, violence, and other harms perpetuated in a variety of communities without relying on authoritarian state systems that often do not help and can make the problems worse. The toolkit is also a textbook sized, repetitive, massive volume that many people may not have the time, energy, or persistence to get through. I tried to read it cover to cover, but admittedly ended up skimming much of it halfway through due to the size and repetition. The repetition is not a bad thing- it allows the book to be broken up, copied into sections, and shared without constantly reading through the whole thing. But, a more condensed overall review of the processes was much needed (and requested of the organizers.)

Enter the Creative Interventions Workbook: a small volume that is far more accessible and less intimidating. This will allow more people to access and use the information. CI makes it clear that the workbook is not meant as a replacement for the Toolkit and that they are meant to be used in tandem. However, realistically, the important thing is to get as much information to people as is possible. They acknowledged this in the toolkit as well- encouraging people to find ways to share the info with those who have barriers of ability, lack of time, etc. Even in college courses, most people are not reading their textbooks cover to cover. Since the toolkit is designed in a way that different sections can be referenced separately, the workbook allows people to get the gist of things while also helping them understand what parts of the toolkit are most important to reference. The workbook also condenses much of the written exercises, allowing people to do that work in one smaller space, rather than sifting through or marking up the larger volume. 

A personal access note: I have pretty painful arthritis in my hands and wrists as well as some coordination issues that legit make big heavy books a massive pain to hold up and read. There is a significant difference when I can hold up something light and read anywhere vs lugging something heavy that I can only read at my desk. Ebooks can be a solution to some of this, but with the great design of the CI series, I end up preferring the print versions. I also adore the art by Kill Joy on the cover.

All in all, the workbook is an excellent partner to the toolkit as well as something that can be used on its own when that's the only option. I hope these methods are able to be used by more communities granting us all more protection from the state and better solutions to very human problems.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Pests

Image: The cover of the book is a dark background with light green sketched silhouettes of animals. On the top third is a fox, mouse, cat, rat, pigeon, squirrel, snake, sparrow, and bear. Below that in large orange letters is "Pests." Below that in the center in smaller white letters is, "how humans create animal villains." Around that is another sparrow, pigeon, coyote, 2 squirrels, a deer, rat, a few more bird silhouettes, another snake, a cat, another mouse, and an elephant. Across the bottom in small orange letters is the author's name- Bethany Brookshire.

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains is a book that I rate right in the middle, not because it was a mediocre book across the board, but because I am averaging out the very polarized reactions that I had to it. I found myself both entertained and infuriated by the way this book was written and how these topics were handled by Brookshire. I knew going in that any book about animals mislabeled as "pests" was going to have a lot of animal suffering and death in it. I also knew from the description that this book was going to focus heavily on human thoughts and feelings about these topics. I could have handled a balanced amount of either of those. The biggest issue is that this writer became an accidental subject in her own piece, not because she shared personal anecdotes, but because her own bias taints much of the book. There are some redeeming statements at the end that help, but the fact that they were not appropriately woven throughout the text means that the writer is hit far more with the authors' (and far too many of her friends and family members') biases against (and occasionally for) other animals.

Let's start with the good- the 5 star stuff. This book had a ton of potential for several reasons. It is written in an accessible journalistic style. It is both readable for a variety of educational backgrounds and entertaining as well. It is also very well researched from what I can tell. Since this is an uncorrected proof, I do have a list of sources at the end but not footnote numbers in the text to match them to. I did not take the time to go through and fact check all of the sources, but from what I can tell, they were used responsibly. Strangely enough, I hated parts of this book, but put more page flags on the pages than a lot of books I have liked. I learned a lot of information about various animals, how they arrived where they did, how they continued to proliferate, the awful things that were done to them, and occasionally the not awful options (which were woefully not covered enough.) I liked the graphic design of the print copy as well as how the book was organized into different chapters for different animals. The inclusion of indigenous peoples perspectives from a variety of tribes, backgrounds, and locations was commendable. There are flaws in how she suggests that they apply to the bigger picture (for instance, you would cause mass extinction and habitat destruction if everyone started hunting deer, animal flesh from any source is unsustainable as it is currently consumed by settlers and many other populations,) but they are critical in seeing this issue from a more holistic point of view. There should have been more inclusion of their wisdom, but at least they balanced out the parade of anthropocentrism in the rest of the book.

These are the reasons I kept coming back to this book rather than throwing it in the trash. Unfortunately, there were a lot of times that I wanted to throw it in the trash.

The most glaring issue with this book is that it may have been doomed from its inception. There is no effort to understand and explain the point of view and experiences of other "pest" animals and to consider them as important in their own right by the author. The very sparse, often one-sentence, bits from interviews with indigenous people/scholars and occasional creative conservationists and vets does not make up for this flaw in discussing other animals is distant simplistic beings whose descriptions are limited to the conflict they have with humans. There are horrific killing methods mentioned throughout the text and very rarely does she even touch on how agonizing they are for the animals or harmful for the ecosystem. For instance, snakes need less oxygen to stay alive than we do, meaning the casually mentioned decapitation is slow torture. The poisoning of rodents (an often birds who eat them) is a lengthy torture, this gets one sentence. "Harvesting," "culling," and many other euphemisms also often involve terrifying captures and painful deaths. Campaigns that encourage the public to contribute often have lasting effects on other species, celebrating cruelty all around. I will spare you the endless amount of cruelties that were not properly addressed as such in this book.

Brookshire's bias is clear throughout the book in other ways. The message of almost every chapter is humans have to kill all of these animals, sad but true. She predominantly interviews people who believe this. That is, until we get to cats. The author has pet cats. So, despite feral cats being worse for birds and ecosystems than many of the previous animals discussed, they get a more fair shake in the discussion. There is a nuanced discussion of various points of view, including ones that say maybe the cats shouldn't pay the price of humans' constant destruction. Maybe there are other ways. Endangered elephants also get more fair treatment because who doesn't love an endangered species? Elephants also do because in the areas where there is conflict, the residents respect the elephants more overall than westerners and many others do with conflicting species while also dealing with the wests misunderstanding of human-elephant conflicts. Even though she regularly acknowledges that humans are the reason every single time that a species becomes a pest, the chapters usually still have suggestive thread that there is something about the other animal that is the problem. She will discuss how we've attracted wild animals with "our" spaces far more than she discusse how we've taken everything from them and left them the scraps.

It is quite clear in the section about rodents that the author used to previously put them through terror and hell before killing them in labs- had I known this before starting this book, I likely would have spared myself. Snakes? Easy enough animals for the author to give a one sided story on. Though we do get to hear about how the people "love" snakes like she "loves" mice right after we learn that they have contests where the winner gets an award for killing the most. The celebration does not sound like mourning to me. If someone was having a kitten slaughter competition, I don't think the author would have written about them the same way. 

Her treatment of people who harm(ed) animals for work- including herself- sometimes made me wonder if she worked PR for animal exploitation industries or if the cognitive dissonance was just so strong that she could not see past it. She has the audacity to say that mice- a species that has been tortured and slaughtered by the billions in labs with no animal welfare act protections- are "winning" by being bred, harmed in an unfathomable variety of ways, and killed there because they get to "pass on their genes" through no consent of their own after being purpose bred and sold. All of this is said after she admits that mice were chosen for such cruelty in part because of their pest status and the struggles vivisectors were having defending the use of dogs. She also talks about how ranchers losing animals to wolves and other predators grieve such an emotional loss of the animals they "care for," completely ignoring the fact that they are grieving the loss of being able to send these animals to a slaughterhouse that will make a wolf pack look like a sanctuary. These are but a few examples. It is one thing to say one used to harm animals, that ranchers kill and sell meat, that hunters grow up in a certain culture. It is another to claim victims of these industries are some how lucky, cared for, loved, or considered someone higher than property. 

The author also interviews a lot of her friends and family who are generally as anthropocentric as she is. We learn of someone who used to think deer were "cute" ...until her dogs attacked them (multiple times!) and the deer had the audacity to defend themselves and their babies. We learn about how hunting is a beautiful experience of being one with nature. I can tell you as a birder, nothing is stopping you from getting up early and sitting silently in the woods and waiting for an animal to show up. You don't need to shoot or stab anyone to do it or you can "capture" and "shoot" pictures instead. We learn of her friend who uses a sword against a raccoon. The author even opens the book with a story about "fucking Kevin"- a name she's given all the squirrels in her neighborhood because they might have disturbed her pitiful tomato, who she considers shooting with a bb gun. It is done partly in jest, but also with clear disdain. It is not the best way to show someone you're going to give "pests" fair treatment. It's not that I completely oppose these stories- they show humans' self-centered, ignorant, and irrational ways of thinking about other animals. The issue is that, when she draws from her own circle so much, she doesn't draw from others' enough. I remember every time there was someone in a chapter who challenged the maligning and slaughtering of various animals- who reacted to them as if the whole world didn't exist for humans- because there were so few of those people in this book. 

At the end of each chapter, there are usually a couple of sentences, often good ones, about the reality of the situation. But, up against an entire chapter of unchallenged and contrary information, they don't pack the same punch. The author's conclusion is the fairest and most enlightened part of the book (still needing work, but it's a drop of water in the desert.) I found myself asking, "Why didn't you say any of this in the other chapters? Why did you give ethicists and people who care about other animals' right to exist- including "pests"- so little space until now? Judging by the way it is written, the author learned a lot through the process of writing this book, but never went back to check if the other chapters identified that process. She eventually comes to many of the right answers. If anyone is a pest, it's us. We are creative people who can come up with creative conflict management solutions. We should share the planet rather than dominating it. A lot of issues are rooted in colonialism. Etc. Had she written more about these points than a few pages at the end, perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more and found it more balanced. I can't say I recommend this book, but if you do read it, take what you can from it and then read another 20 or so books about other animals to fill the gaps- preferably ones that aren't all about how humans turn them into monsters.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: ¡No Pasaran!

The cover of the book is an image of a wall with the remnants of multiple torn down posters and stickers attached. Over top is a sticker that is a black circle surrounding a red center. In the black is the title of the book in white stencil style letters. In the red is a white antifascist symbol of three arrows pointing downward to the left. Across the center are black silhouetted marchers holding banners and flags. 

¡No Pasarán!: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis, edited by Shane Burley, is a brick of a book, and for good reason- it collects a wide variety of anti-fascist voices from various backgrounds and locations around the world. I have always really enjoyed Shane Burley's work. I like his writing style and find his books and pieces engaging, but also have learned a ton about the diversity of far right and other movements therein. This book offers that same diversity for anti-fascist movements while also having the meticulous editing found in Burley's other works. Burley's own pieces in the book are also fantastic (without dominating it or taking up too much space.) He and those who worked on this with him also reached far in their calls for contributions. While there are generally going to be a lot of entries from the USA when one works and lives in the USA, there are also contributions from and/or about various European countries including Greece, South Asian countries, Syria, and Brazil (pardon me if I have left anyone out.) 

One thing that stands out to me in this book is how diverse the writing styles are. There are interviews, historical essays, philosophical essays, manifestos, story telling, and more formats, each with their own voice. There are entries that feel like anyone from any background or education level could grasp them, including children. There was only one academic entry that I found to be so painfully jargony that I didn't want to finish it. The other academic essays are far more accessible. The interview questions were well considered and had engaging answers from a variety of organizers. There is decent LGBTQ representation and an important focus on transgender folks who are a current target of fascists in even more extreme ways than usual.

Some of my favorite entries involved discussions of niche subcultures that fascists attempt to co-opt (and why we shouldn't let them.) "Subcultural antifascism: Confronting the far right in heathenry and heavy metal," by Ryan Smith was one of my favorite entries in the book and I also enjoyed "Nazis don't get nice things," by Margaret Killjoy about the importance of generally combatting fascism in all (sub)cultural areas of life, rather than handing things over and moving on. "The meme alibi," by Margaret Rex was a painful case study of a specific person's descent from edgelord online to real life fash really made the whole book feel more intimate. There are others referencing subculture that are also excellent, but these were my favorites. I straddle multiple subcultural worlds, some of which have been used- successfully and not- by fascists for rebranding and recruitment. (I was also a complicated teenage edgelord, luckily before the internet immortalized my embarrassing mistakes, which I thankfully grew out of.) I have a tattoo of the overlapping pentagrams intentionally resembling a certain body orifice symbol for the very gay avant garde, industrial band Coil- who actually collaborated with fascist Boyd Rice before he revealed himself to be a trash fire racist. I no longer call that symbol "the black sun," because that term is synonymous these days with the sunwheel/sonnenrad (a completely different symbol/meaning favored by nazis, that thankfully looks very different.) Industrial music has also been a contentious ground with a vast array of people from the furthest left you can get to pieces of fashy, misogynistic garbage that like playing militaristic dress up. It's also a subculture that I will forever feel a part of. So, of course I feel resentful if someone paints any of these things with a fascist brush as I am sure plenty of people from other subcultures do as well. The idea that all occult, esoteric, dark music, religions/atheism, even veganism, and more just need to be handed over every time a nazi grabs for one bothers me quite a bit, especially due to how many people within those cultures are either targets of fascism or vulnerable to recruitment due to their marginalization by society. I of course concede that there are some things nazis and other fascists will have forever like the backwards swastika. But, I appreciate that there are more people than I realized defending their various subcultures, music scenes, and belief systems from fascist co-optation.  

This review feels like it should be longer for such a long book full of great contributions. Rather than writing a lengthy book report on each entry, I will encourage readers to seek them out for themselves. I can't think of a single bad essay in this book. It's definitely an effective balm for the wound that is the false public perception of "antifa" unfortunately crafted by many liberals and the far right. Also, it's another great cover design from AK press.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: An Immense World

The cover of the book is a green background with white particles travelling up from the bottom, getting brighter as they go up. In the center at the bottom is a monkey's face looking upward toward a blue butterfly in the upper right corner. Across the center in large white letters is, "An Immense World." Above that in yellow letters is, "how animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us." Below the title is the author's name- Ed Yong- in yellow letters. In small white letters below that is, "pulitzer prize winning author of I contain multitudes."
 

I love learning things about the larger than human world. Behavioral, biological, ecological, and other sciences are fascinating. Unfortunately, reading about them is often an underwhelming, depressing, or angering experience. People who have never worked in the sciences sometimes think that the field is full of one dimensional humans who are pure geniuses and devoid of bias, pettiness, and egocentrism. These assumptions are not true because scientists are human beings. When humans observe and write about other animals- especially humans invested in continued exploitation and harm towards other animals- they tend to do them a great disservice. It is true that anthropomorphism can be a problem when we interpret the worlds of other animals. Not only does it spread false information, it can lead to humans harming, neglecting, or even killing other animals without intending to. That "smiling" dog might actually be showing signs of stress and pain for instance. And don't get me started on all of the animal abuse industries who use cartoons of said animals on their restaurant logo- serving up their own slaughtered and charred body parts on the grill.

A far larger problem however is anthropocentrism. Humans have historically assumed that other animals were less than us. That they had no feelings, no inner worlds, no cultures, etc. Some people who did assume animals could have these things still often looked at them through the lens of human abilities, ranking them next to ours when they didn't do as well and quickly forgetting about the times they did far better than us. Humans are not rational animals, as much as some like to pretend that we are, so of course we made these mistakes. 

In in Ed Yong's An Immense World, he breaks with the tradition of a lot of very anthropocentric science writing and attempts to examine the data on other animals in a way that truly showcases their abilities and senses- including the many that we humans do not have. He navigates the struggle humans have in comprehending the worlds of these animals. He had me hooked in his introduction where he states, "...this is not a book in which we childishly rank animals according to the sharpness of their senses and value them only when their abilities surpass our own. This is a book not about superiority, but about diversity." I believe he mostly succeeded in this task.

The book is not without its faults. Yong is pretty into accepting the status quo of captive animal research, vivisection, and other ways of causing harm to other animals for science. It seemed so obviously in conflict with the very thesis of his book to refuse to examine the state of animal abuses in science. The only time he does so is for the section on pain, but he mischaracterizes pain research as existing to improve animal welfare, which is patently false. It is true that he interviews a researcher who sought to show that fishes feel pain (which should have been obvious, especially for vertebrate fishes,) but the vast majority of pain research on other animals is to substitute research that is illegal to do on humans due to its cruelty. There is also the large amount of people specialized in harming other animals who wouldn't move on to humans even if it were ethical and possible. There is also another section where he refers to bats kidnapped from the wild as "spending a cushy summer" in the lab. He misses analyses of captive test animals refusing to do tricks for humans as possibly being due to stress and depression. Lastly, he refers to animals as "it" through the entire book despite knowing they are not objects. It was frustrating to see someone- so enamored with the great many feelings and senses that other animals have- choose to hold on to his cognitive dissonance when it comes to the sciences.

Even with some pretty large flaws- ones that I very rarely see science books without- this is one of the best science books on nonhuman animals I have read. There is a ton of information in here that I had never heard of. The entire book was fascinating, but I especially enjoyed the sections on electricity-based sensory experiences. I am also glad so much of the book focused on non-mammal marine life, given that this world is so alien to most humans.

Despite this book being about nonhuman animals, there is a very overt and important human element to it (in a good way.) We learn time and again how scientists who showed various senses and abilities in other animals were (and often still are) ridiculed. There are still willfully ignorant people who think fishes don't feel pain despite all evidence to the contrary, for instance. This calls attention to the long history of oppressive assumptions that have existed in the science and medical realms (against both humans and other animals.) Yong's attention to these details breaks with some traditions of only highlighting the victories and virtues in science and medicine (of which there are many, no doubt.)

Another thing that stands out about this book is Yong's inclusion of a large variety of human experiences. It is common for any book about the senses to default to sighted, hearing, non-disabled humans in discussion. Yong breaks from this unfortunate tradition. Regularly, in discussions of various senses, Yong makes a point to include Deaf, Blind, disabled, etc people in his discussions. He also says things like, "...since most women have two X chromosomes..." without missing a beat (which is trans and intersex inclusive.)

 An Immense World is a flawed but beautiful exploration of the greater than human planet. I hope that this book is a stepping stone for Yong in the direction of greater understanding and empathy for other animals as well as greater analysis of ethics surrounding the way humans treat them.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Trust Kids!

 

Image: The cover of the book is a navy blue background with a painting of large flowers growing upward with pink and purple petals and green stems. In the yellow center of the lower flower are lots of small figures of people playing. In the center of the upper flower is a blue tower. There are dandelion seeds scattered over the cover with people holding onto them, riding the wind. Across the top in large white letters is "Trust Kids!" Below that in small white letters is "stories on youth autonomy and confronting adult supremacy." At the bottom in very small letters is "Edited by carla joy bergman, Forword by Matt Hern."

Trust Kids, edited by carla joy bergman, is a collection of essays, poetry, interviews, and artwork by adults, kids, and whoever else is in between. The book offers a lot of thought provoking information to those of us who have grown up entrenched in adult supremacy and ageism (i.e. most of if not all of us.) They state in the introduction that this is not meant to be a parenting manual or a group of examples of how perfect parent and other adults got everything "right." Nonetheless, it does offer a lot of perspective shifting content that could help with those things. It did seem a like they could have reached further with the call for submissions. There were lots of repeat contributors, many from the editor's family and friends, (and two white rappers, what are the odds?) giving the book a bit more of a limited scope. But, that does not mean I did not get a lot out of it. 

Going into a book about trusting kids was a strange experience and an emotional one. I am a person who generally looks back on my youth with uneasiness at best. As a kid, I struggled immensely, was taken advantage of frequently, and really believed adult men when they told me I was "mature." I didn't think I should have been "trusted." When some authors suggested kids were as knowledgeable as adults, and that they could govern their own lives, I was baffled. As I read on though, I repeatedly was forced to revise what I thought was true.

In the end, what I gained from this book were convincing arguments that not trusting kids actually makes things much easier for predators and much harder for kids (and the adults who care for them.) When children and youth are considered, listened to, included, and allowed to govern their own lives within supportive communities, they are more likely to be open and honest about their needs, wants, and questions they may have. They are more likely to push past the shame or uneasiness if something bad has happened, rather than hiding it like so many kids do. They are also going to feel safer telling adults about their lives and will be far more receptive to adults who have treated them like human beings expressing their concerns. 

I am not a poetry person, so I never feel that I can say whether poetry is "good" because I usually don't "get" any of it. I really loved the visual art in this book. The interviews/conversations were hit or miss, but I really enjoyed "Creating a Web of Intergenerational Trust," by Maya Motoi in conversation with her parents in Japan. The academic leaning (but still accessibly written) essays near the end by Tobey Rollo and Stacey Patton were some of my favorites and brought in theoretical frameworks I had not encountered before. I am team "Magneto was right," so I was happy to see an essay featuring him as the true hero (even if I wanted more from it.) The best entry in the book though was Uilliam Joy Bergman's "Hold on to Your Child (Within.)" I am glad that they put it into the book early, because it really showed me a 17 year old who knows more than I do about a lot of things, helping me trust the process of the rest of the book.

The only thing I disliked about this book was the representation of mental health/illness, particularly in one interview/conversation - "Four Q's and a Poem" - that seemed clearly scripted by the adult involved in order to highlight themself. I was part of organizing a local Icarus Project chapter years back. I favor Mad Pride movements and understand very well the many abuses in and problems with psychiatry. But, this entry made mental illness seem like some voluntary acid trip or cosplay. I have come to believe that the truth lies somewhere between psychiatry and people who claim mental illness is just a personality quirk. When your loved one is living with unrelenting, torturous paranoid psychosis causing them to live in a disoriented hellscape and act accoringly, when you know someone with foster kids whose minds have been mangled by trauma, and when you know personally what it's like to have the sickest parts of your mind control you, the horrors are far more real. Basically, there are much better sources for understanding trauma and mental health struggle in youth and adults than whatever this was- including ones from founders of The Icarus Project.

Trust Kids! is an important collection that offers up ideas for a better world where each of us comes into it as a whole person, not one to be molded by adults (who apparently finished becoming whole people at some undefined point.) There aren't many books like this that approach these topics with diverse perspectives and great passion. I don't think I have ever read a book about liberating kids that is written in part by actual kids, and that's a real problem. I hope this sparks future conversations for all of our sakes. 

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Off The Edge

Image: The cover of the book is a red background with a pixelated representation of the horizon on the sea running through the center. At the end is a silhouette of a black sailing boat tipping over the edge. Across the top in white letters is, "flat earthers, conspiracy culture, and why people will believe anything." In large white letters in the center is "off the edge." Under that is kelly weill's name in smaller white letters.
 

Kelly Weill is a journalist who has focused a lot of her work and research on conspiracy theories- especially flat Earth. This made her an excellent choice to pen a very accessible and entertaining book, Off the Edge. Weill navigates difficult subjects with accuracy and compassion. I was drawn to this book due to having someone in my life whose mental health led them into a world of harmful conspiracy culture and I wanted to find new ways to think about and, frankly, better tolerate discussions about it. 

I really enjoyed the way Weill immersed herself in these movements and showed honest interest in how people became involved in these types of ideas. Being a decent journalist has allowed her to remain detached enough to give them a chance and caring enough to look deeper. The way she discusses the lives and beliefs of many of these people showed the diversity of backgrounds and also the similarities of how they are roped in. This allowed her to capture in painful detail just how sad and dangerous things can get when people fall down the conspiracy rabbit hole.

Not knowing Weill's work before this, I thought from the title that this might have more psychological analysis to it. Weill did touch on "why people will believe anything" throughout the book, including what she learned from researchers. But, most of the book was more of a character study of who believes what. Even though I did not get what I thought I would regarding the psychological part, the characters in this story still told me quite a lot.

I also liked Weill's general message encouraging us to try and help people immersed in conspiracy culture rather than immediately blocking them or cutting them off. This is a problem with conspiracy culture and often overlapping mental health struggles like clinical delusions. As leftists we claim to care about mental health, but then immediately sever ties with people who are obviously fragile at best when they promote baffling, oppressive, and/or wild conspiracy theories. I know I have sadly done this. I also think back to a time during the 2009 G20 when we found embarrassingly unskilled undercover cops at a march. Being very new to mass action organizing and also the not-internet-savvy person that I was and still am, I later posted what I did not know was a right wing conspiracy article on police infiltration from a website that also claimed all anarchists are actually infiltrators. A fellow anarchist gently suggested I check the source and that was that. I learned something that day and did not embarrass myself further. 

This is not to say it's always that simple, but I tell that story (still blushing) to show the timeline from real-life-betrayal to conspiracy theory website was a very short one for me. Many people start from a place of understandable mistrust and are then bombarded with algorithms that led them straight into the dragon's den over and over. It's actually quite normal to respond to information the way many conspiracy theorists of certain backgrounds who are led through this sort of trap do. Instead of cutting these people off right away, we should attempt to listen to them and understand how they got to where they are. Some people will never come around, and this is not to say that one should endure abuse. It is saying that often, treating someone who is on shaky ground as human will help them not to isolate further and go deeper into conspiracy culture where they are often preyed upon by far right extremists that deliberately target such movements and individuals.

This doesn't mean I am suddenly going to stop being angry, irritated, sad, or afraid when a loved one tells me an offensive or hurtful conspiracy theory. But, I have found that sometimes, I can get someone to listen to me once I have understood and listened to them. So much of it comes from trauma or mistrust of authority, and I can surely relate to that. And, like Weill states, all of us have likely believed in some form of conspiracy theory before. I don't know what to do when someone is in too deep, but some do make their way out, sometimes with the help of psychologists who specialize in cults and related phenomena. With algorithms in the mix, we have to be creative if we're ever going to combat these sorts of problems.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Goliath

 

Image: The cover of the book shows a transparent close up of a rocky natural structure with grayscale faces of three individuals lined up vertically. They each have dark skin, dark eyes and hair, and are looking straight ahead, to the right, and up to the left. In large yellow letters cascading down the cover is the title "goliath" and moving down the side of the book in white letters is the author's name- Tochi Onyebuchi.

I can see why Tochi Onyebuchi's Goliath wasn't for everyone. It is nonlinear, "political" (I will elaborate on my use of quotes,) and is different than a lot of more well known dystopian scifi in some ways. It was, however, definitely for me. I felt immersed in the story and each character felt real to me. I listened to the audio version despite initially intending to read it in print. I've had very little time to read lately. Those who cast and produced the audio version did an excellent job. I can definitely still enjoy listening to a lower budget, single narrator audiobook and all of them certainly help me to make it through my massive to-read list. But, the multi-narrator approach to this audiobook worked really well. Each narrator, (or should I say voice actor?) performed their narration and dialogue with great skill.

As for the meandering plot and nonlinear style of this book, it performed for me more as an immersive exercise than a typical storytelling. It felt like I stepped into a near-future world and walked through it, listening to people along the way and following some of them throughout their lives. Sometimes I might feel a little lost, but I would find my way back to where I was going. I would see many things in hindsight.

As for people calling it "political" in a negative way, I do understand what they mean. But, I disagree. Honestly, everything seems political to me. Some of it is obvious because the messages step outside of a normative internalized way of being that people are indoctrinated into from birth. This, for instance, is why anything gay or non-cishet is often deemed political. This book often fits into that type of box because it involves a lot of dialogue where many people are discussing their lived experiences of oppression, environmental destruction, and collapse. However, every dystopian book with a white guy hero from a poor background who fights a powerful structure in order to rescue a woman he falls in love with is also quite political, just in a different way. I see how the use of dialogue and story telling could lead some people to feel that they were reading a manifesto, but to me it just read as people speaking their truth in conversation. And, the audio version added great elements to it, showing how each performer and director interpreted these characters. I say all of this as a person who loves manifestos as well, so perhaps my opinion isn't very helpful. But, tl;dr, everything is political.

I will end this here and encourage you to read the story for yourself.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: A Participatory Economy

Image: The cover of the book is an out of focus cityscape where the lower half is a floor of yellow plastic and the upper half shows dark sky with lots of bulbs of out of focus white and orange streetlights. In the foreground in large black letters is the cover of the book. Below that to the right is the author's name: Robin Hahnel.
 

 Economist Robin Hahnel's A Participatory Economy is a practical and efficiently organized book which offers a vision of what large scale and even global economies could look like outside of capitalism. Hahnel also takes time to address authoritarian communist and related regimes and their failings while offering an alternative that allows for worker and consumer autonomy that is lacking in both systems.

Texts like these can be dry, especially if you're not super into reading about economics. Yet, solutions and philosophical exercises in anti-authoritarian- or less authoritarian depending on how you interpret things- societies are critical in terms of having practical solutions to massive and complex problems.  This is especially important when addressing the in between times, which Hahnel does well to bring up and address. Even in more practical guides, there is often discussion of what the "after" will be like when the "before" is overcome- if only it were as simple as hopping directly from one to another.

Hahnel also addresses specific criticisms from anarchists and other leftists as well as philosophers and economists across the political spectrum. Even if one doesn't agree with everything he says or puts forward, he offers a way of thinking differently about things rather than just saying others are wrong in big sweeping generalizations. He is able to convey his understanding of their arguments while also expressing why he disagrees.

Throughout the text, Hahnel also specifically addresses issues often left out of economics. In particular, addressing climate change and how to account for not only the human and worker costs of pollutants and emissions, but also the planetary costs stands out. His section on reproductive labor is also important, though it felt a bit more general than the other sections- perhaps because he wanted to make sure he was leaving space for those currently left responsible for most reproductive labor to take the mic. 

I do wish these kinds of books talked about disability more. He does mention that disabled people that could not work would be supported, but disability is such a massive and diverse group that quantifying needs and abilities of each person can be extremely complicated. In a sort of meritocracy based system like this, there always a risk those who no longer can work at a young age, who have not worked much in their life, or who can never work at all to be treated solely as a burden. How do we make sure shit gets done while also valuing people who may not be able to do most or any of it? He does mention ways of making work more accessible, but I would like to read a more expanded take on how disability would fit into things and how to quantify that fairly if the focus is on the autonomy of workers and consumers. I also think he could have gone a bit harder on how much less we would need to consume to have a just and environmentally safer society. He discusses reductions in consumption, but also seems to have the goal of making sure a participatory economy allows for higher consumption than may be necessary (for survival but also enjoyment.) Hopefully, though, a participatory economy or something similar would result in neither the extreme of hyper consumption and overproduction of capitalism nor the constant desire for anything outside of what authoritarian communism provides.

I don't have the solutions, mind you. It just made me think a lot, which is what this book is supposed to do. This seems like the kind of book that any leftist should read and any non-leftist willing to open their mind even a little should definitely read. With Hahnel's willingness to seriously consider arguments and data in all directions, it creates a great place for one to discover what they believe.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Overcoming Capitalism

 

Image: the cover of the book is a navy blue background with a graphic of a red fish being swallowed by a much larger white fish that is actually made of a large group of tiny white fish swimming together. The title, Overcoming Capitalism is in large white letters at the top, below that in smaller yellow letters is, "Strategy for the working class in the 21st Century," and at the bottom in white letters is the author's name- Tom Wetzel.

Overcoming Capitalism is a book that offers information about working class struggle without expecting the reader to come away from it with a bunch of theory without any praxis. I don't have any issue with theory alone, but it can often leave the reader thinking, "ok, I agree with you totally/partly/a little, but how?" This is something I appreciate about Wetzel's effort here. I cannot say this book was really "for me" though. Part of it is purely that I am not incredibly interested in reading more about working class struggle, but part of it is that I didn't really see myself in this book. I also believe that it could have achieved its goal in about 1/2-2/3 of its over 400 page size.

It's clear that this book was a labor of love for Wetzel and as a result, it seems he put everything he had into it a couple of times. There is a lot of repetition. Sometimes repetition can make sense if the ideas are new, but most of these aren't. Did I need to read Wetzel's version of this Berkman quote repeated more than once when someone probably said some version of it even before Berkman did? Did I need multiple other examples repeated to me throughout the book? That said, this book could be good to hand to someone who had never read anything about working class struggle for this reason. Repetition like this can keep a reader engaged and referring back to the rest of the text if the information is new to them.

When I say I did not see myself in this book, it's because I felt like an outlier. Wetzel does indeed make an effort to include women and marginalized people throughout the text. He has examples of the ways syndicalist struggle and tactics can be used to combat sexism, racism, etc in workplaces. But, it didn't feel to me like these things were properly centered. It was not for lack of trying. I do believe the effort was there, but this has always sort of been why a lot of worker ideology doesn't appeal to me. It seems like everyone is a worker first (if they can work,) and everything else second. That's just not the way my life has been. 

The things that I really liked that Wetzel touched upon were the issues with all of the hot button words that end up tied into working class struggle. Medicare for all when medicare sucks. Unions, when they've become corrupt corporate tools of control in many places. Communism as owning the means of production when authoritarian communism is nothing but and is a total shitshow. (I can't really blame ignorant USA reactionaries for hating auth-comm and thinking capitalism is their only other option.) These are all my versions, not his words, but you get the point. This isn't a vapid repetition of buzz words without context and I want to make sure that my critiques of the length and repetitiveness in other places are separate from this. 

Wetzel also does well to describe- in detail and in accessible ways- the various environmental, social, health, human, and other costs of capitalism. He shows how these effects are far reaching and extinction-level problematic. There is a lot of analysis of how to gauge what work is, how much one should need to work, what constitutes "skilled" and "hard" labor, and so on. There is discussion about unpaid labor such as stereotypically feminized labor and discussions of various conflicts that will arise when trying to balance environmental preservation with working class needs and struggles. I did feel like he went further than many workers struggle ideologies go regarding environmental topics (if they go there at all,) but it still wasn't enough for me.

There is a very brief inclusion of elder and disabled people, but the little time given to these topics. This was another reason I didn't really see myself fitting into this. I appreciate that he thinks that disabled people who cannot work in stereotypical ways should still receiving livable income and so on, but this felt like a marginalizing afterthought where it would be the same thing as now with a little more money.

The last chunk of the book was probably the most interesting, even if I didn't agree with it all. Reading Wetzel's ideas for what a large scale anti-capitalist, less authoritarian society could look like to him was a good thought exercise. I do think there were too many things that resembled or would quickly lean right back into capitalism. He also admits that a lot of it is basically a form of government but with less authoritarianism, which I can also appreciate, but still don't find to be ideal. As a person who lives in the real world of 8 billion-ish humans hurtling toward extinction, I can appreciate imperfect but practical solutions for the meantime. I think that any form of anti-authoritarianism will need to cover more of the big-tent than this did. But, for someone new to these ideas or someone looking for practical examples of working class anticapitalism in practice, this book offers some valuable contributions.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: The Modern Crisis

Image: The cover of the book is a photograph of a forest on fire. There are birch trees in a cloud of smoke in the background with bright flames reaching up the left side of the image. The foreground is moss covered rocks. Across the center in white letters is the title of the book. Across the bottom is Murray Bookchin. Under that in smaller letters is, "Introduction by Andy Price."

It is always a strange feeling when reading something written decades ago that could have been written today. It shows the wisdom of the author while also providing a reminder that the problems of today are also the problems of the past and future, ever changing shape. The reprint of Murray Bookchin's, The Modern Crisis invokes those feelings. His discussions of topics such as social ecology, bio/ecocide, climate catastrophe, authoritarianism, libertarianism (the original anarchist kind, not the appropriated right wing kind,) and more nestle themselves well in the current time. To be honest, I did not fully appreciate this book until I went back and read through my page flags. I sometimes find myself overwhelmed by political philosophy texts, but when I looked at my highlights, I saw more of the brilliance there.

It has been a while since I have read anything by a famous anarchist guy, but I have caught snippets of Bookchin's work here and there and figured he'd be someone I'd have things in common with. My portal into anarchism overall came through the green end of it and I remain very attached to green anarchism. Today, I think that all anarchisms, when practiced efficiently, are covering each other's bases anyway, so I don't tend to call myself one thing. But, there are times where it is important to draw divisions and Bookchin touches on some of those in this text. The titular line comes from this quote:

"The color of radicalism today is no longer red, it is green, and should be raised aloft boldly if the modern crisis is to be resolved."

While Bookchin does make references to other identity politics based issues, the essays in this book center humanity and everyone/thing else on the planet as a larger whole. Social ecology is the name of the game which differs from things like social "darwinism" and other anthropocentric and supremacist views of nature. While capitalism and authoritarianism create a myth of competition as the primary goal and who misrepresent Darwins teachings as some sort of war cry for toxic masculinity, social ecology involves seeing ourselves as part of the rest of the planet, dismantling and preventing oppressive hierarchy, and not assuming that something existing (patriarchy) means that it should or must exist. 

One may wonder- especially outside of anarchist circles with running red vs. green snowball fight jokes- what the point is in creating such a distinction between red and green. Bookchin touches on this in multiple places, but especially in the essay "Workers and the Peace Movement." Bookchin dismantles the idea of "The Proletariat" as an inherently revolutionary class of individuals or as a monolithic people who will ultimately be liberated by seizing the machine that oppresses them. He dispells myths that activists who disrupt oppressive or ecologically destructive businesses are privileged people standing in the way of and at odds with the proletariat survival. Instead, he sees these people as all humans of differing backgrounds who must be part of the struggle together. He calls attention to the fact that many histories labeled only as workers revolutions were often far more complex in demographics and structure. 

"Let us agree that no radical social change is possible without the support and initiative of working people - or, for that matter, of technicians, professionals, soldiers, women, ethnic groups, youth, the elderly, and the solidarity of the oppressed on a worldwide scale. But no radical change is possible unless "The Proletariat" transcends its suffocating class being and becomes a revolutionary *human* being."

Other essays touch on this and often reference the structure of ancient Athens as a model (while acknowledging oppression such as patriarchy that still existed then.) I don't know enough about that history to say much about it either way, but the gist of his argument seems to be that communities should be run by their members, with room to also respect and include "outsiders." Large nation sates make this sort of thing impossible, turning politics into a performative thing where individuals lose the ability to contribute in effective ways.

I do think that at times, Bookchin's own prejudices and anthopocentrism get in the way of his arguments. I knew before reading this that he did not always apply his critiques of anthropocentrism towards his personal behavior towards other animals in terms of consumption of their bodies and labor. I cannot ask him why this is, but there is always something that creates that itch in the back of my mind when someone is pointing a finger without necessarily pointing it at themself as well. This results in some comparisons between humans and other animals that don't mesh well with other comparisons and arguments that we are indeed part of the natural world like they are. Today's version of this is the cop out, "no ethical consumption under capitalism," which people often do not realize is a phrase that can be used to excuse countless atrocities involving money. (I am sure they would not say this phrase in regards to human trafficking for instance.) None of this means that his points are without merit of course. There is also a batshit out of place quote, "We buy and sell the outward trappings of personality: the sheen-like leather jackets that make humble bookkeepers look like dashing pimps and the high- heeled boots that make bored secretaries look like dangerously seductive temptresses." Temptresses replaced "whores" in the original version. There are so many hopefully obvious things wrong with this that I will not make this even longer in detailing. But, all this is to say he's not perfect. Overall though, he really hits the nail on the head in ways that I desperately wish more movements would connect with. I think perhaps when we include the other-than-human natural world in our movements and analyses, it forces us to look at ourselves more. That can be a lot harder than looking at cops and kings. 

I'll end with a chunk of my favorite quote from the text in the essay, "An Appeal for Social and Ecological Sanity," that captures the gist of it all for me. His audience is clearly non-immigrant North American, but you get the point. It's all connected.

"With each such loss (of aforementioned extinct species, biodiversity, etc,) humanity, too, loses a portion of its own character structure: its sensitivity toward life as such, including human life, and its rich wealth of sensibility. If we can learn to ignore the destiny of whales and condors - indeed, turn their fate into chic cliches - we can learn to ignore the destiny of Cambodians in Asia, Salvadorans in central America, Kurds in Syria and Turkey, and, finally, the human beings who people our own communities."

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: High Risk Homosexual

Image: the cover of the book is an animated image of palm fronds in shades of purple, blue, and yellow moving slightly in the wind. Across the top in bold black letters outlined in white is the title of the book "high-risk homosexual," across the bottom in bold white lettters outlined in black is the author's name: Edgar Gomez.
 

It was a pleasure to read Edgar Gomez's memoir and to speak with him in (virtual) person at VINE book club last month. Gomez's High Risk Homosexual, stands out in a crowd for its nuanced take on what it's like growing up at the intersection of multiple marginalized demographics. Even though this book represents a the life of a Latinx nonbinary person raised in a world that wanted him to be a toxically masculine straight man, it is relatable to me and I would assume to most people on various LGBTQ continuums. While many of us grew up in a variety of communities with varying levels of acceptance and shame, I believe this sort of thing is deep inside all of us. The euphoria we can experience when we have moments of letting go is shared as well but is not simple or easy.

One topic that ended up taking up a lot of space at the book club was Gomez's relationship to the oppressed other than himself. This extended to other animals as well. A particularly intense scene involves cock fighting rings and a forced conversion situation simultaneously (which I won't describe in detail so that you will go read it yourself.) People react in a variety of ways to traumatic experiences in childhood, but what grips me a lot about Gomez is how he empathizes with everyone around him, including the women dealing with their own set of struggles, the roosters forced to fight, and the hens used as bait. It is saddening to think of a child so sensitive feeling so many things, but in the end, that child grows into a kind and considerate adult without losing all of that gentleness. Many people cannot say the same. 

This story also involves the horrendous tragedy that was the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub. Gomez's account captures just how debilitating and far reaching collective trauma goes, even if one is not on the scene when it happens. Moving through this trauma as well as slowly but surely going from ashamed to shameless is an intense reality that all too many people face. 

Regarding the title, it is kind of poetic how all of the shame that family and community instilled in Gomez, all of the self hatred and fear he was taught to absorb, and all of his careful maneuvering throughout gay life still led to him being labeled a "High Risk Homosexual" in a medical setting. In some ways, these trappings are devastating. No matter how "good" and "careful" one is, their mere existence can be stigmatized. But, on the other side of the coin, we might as well be free and enjoy ourselves if they're going to step on us either way. Easier said than done, but an important realization nonetheless. Even if Gomez was taking part in "high risk" activities, he would still be deserving of respect (and appropriate medical care for that matter.)

The only critique I have of this book is the organization- particularly in regards to timelines. The book often jumps backward and forward in time without anything to orient the reader as to how far back or forward one has jumped. I found myself saying, "wait a minute..." and going back to previous chapters thinking I completely misunderstood a story before realizing the non-linearity of the story line. Nonlinear writing is perfectly fine and often an entertaining tool, but in this case, I needed more organization to fully follow the story.

The end leaves us with some nice grey area, which I appreciate. This is not a bury-the-gays story line nor is it an it-gets-better story line. It is grounded in reality while remaining hopeful of the future, and that makes it all the more believable and important.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: We Won't Be Here Tomorrow

Image: The cover of the book is a reddish sepia tone illustration of a landscape of houses shown from the roof up. There is a person in a hoodie silhouetted on the left side of the image, looking upward toward the book title. The top half of the cover is a cloudy sky with "we won't be here tomorrow and other stories" in large black letters. Across the bottom is a black bar with Margaret Killjoy's name in white letters.
 

 I had the pleasure of reading an ARC of Margaret Killjoy's forthcoming We Won't Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories. I'm a fan of her work and have read a few of her books and also enjoy her podcasts. I had mixed hopes for this as I expected it to be decent while also remembering that most short story collections are a mixed bag. That said, I really enjoyed this entire book. If I hadn't had so much going on, I would have finished it in days. 

The stories in this book span many genres, including scifi, fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror. Killjoy does a decent job creating immersive stories from each of these inspirations. There was one fantasy story near the end that wasn't my bag, but fantasy- especially the ye olde timey kind- tends to bore me in general. However, there are several other fantasy-like stories in the book that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Many stories begin with an interesting and real historical factoid that MK then builds a story from, which makes them feel all the more real. There is also plenty of LGBTQ love, friendship, and tenderness that is par for the course and was well executed. There is always something special about someone who can create Queer worlds believably with all of their glory and flaws.

Margaret's writing continues to capture topics and to create thought provoking imagery without beating you over the head with trauma or excessive and boring discourse. She has a way of exploring radical topics and using fiction in a way that does them justice while also being enjoyable to read. In the acknowledgments, Killjoy credits Ursula K Leguin for giving her the permission to write as her contribution to the revolution (even though she does much more than this as well.) I have said before that I think this plays a larger role in collective liberation than one may think. Being that we are constantly bombarded with harmful messages through much of popular fictional media and advertising, having something that combats that while also being enjoyable and entertaining is key. None of us wants to sit there all day arguing about or watching footage of the horrors of the world. This give us leisure activity that also keeps the revolution kicking around in our psyche. That's my favorite kind of fiction.

I highly recommend this anthology. It's not just for those in the anti-authoritarian left sphere, but I imagine it will find a special place in the hearts of those who call that sphere home.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Against White Feminism

Image: the cover of the book is a cream colored background with the word "against" in orange to pink hombre cascading down the page. In smaller letters of the same style is "white feminism." Below that in black is "Notes on Disruption" and below that in black is Rafia Zakaria.

 Rafia Zakaria's collection, Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption, undoubtedly ruffled some (white peoples) feathers. The title alone grabbed the attention of the kind of white women that need to read it most. Unfortunately, many of them won't, but there's not much in terms of respectability politics that can be done to sway them anyway. If they did take a moment to turn a few pages, they would find that Zakaria is very clear in both the very beginning and in the conclusion that there is a huge difference between white women who are feminists and women who practice white feminism- the latter being a sort of white supremacist capitalism that uses womens "empowerment" as a tool to gain profit and power at expense of the most marginalized women.

In some sections, Zakaria details her own experiences dealing with white women practicing white feminism. They are painful to read and I can only imagine how painful they were to experience. They show that tokenism, silencing, casual racism, microaggressions, and more problems can have humiliating, demoralizing, and traumatizing effects. Even though some saw this book as divisive or too angry, I noticed Zakaria self criticizing quite a bit. She would discuss her lack of preparation or experience leading her to make certain decisions that honestly, sounded unavoidable because, had she had the experience, they already would have happened to her. 

I am not seen as a white woman in the world much these days, but have most definitely made some mistakes that I thought of, cringing, as I read her experiences. I was luckily not the head of an NGO or a CEO or whatever, but still. I briefly note this to shy away from the thing many people do after their social justice educations- pretend they've always gotten it, eager to show their rage on behalf of others. This book should be read by imperfect white people, too. If you're willing to reckon with that, you will get the most out of it.

I imagine that this book is also quite validating for women of color, though I obviously cannot assume to speak for anyone. Zakaria discusses a lot of international cultural experiences of women throughout the world that aren't often discussed, even when people are discussing the issues with white feminism. There is a toxic tendency for white women practicing white feminism to place themselves in the roles of missionaries to save the women of color from their native cultures. White women often do this without even seeing the colonialist and white supremacist cultures that the white women themselves are coming from and how those affect women across the world.

She also critiques "sex positive" feminism and "choice" feminism at length. Some folks, especially those who think that the only thing produced by the second wave is TERFs, felt this to be too "second wave." But, I will again, disagree. As someone who got involved in feminism during the sex positive wave then later read a ton of radical feminist writings, I found a lot to be gained- and a lot that needed work- from both. I think Zakaria walks this line well. She says something like "if everything is feminist, then nothing is," which really hits to the root of it. Many movements, often started or co-created by the most marginalized of women, are capitalized upon by corporations or highly privileged women who change movements for social change into stories of individual empowerment through climbing ladders and stepping on people below you along the way.

In the end, the message is repeated that has been told time and again, yet not listened to nearly enough: helping women of color will help all women. Helping women at the margins and intersections helps all women. Centering the experiences of white women alone does not. It actively does harm. There is much to be done and much to be learned and this book is part of that.

This was also posted to my goodreads.