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.