Book Review: Feather Trails

Image: The cover of the book is a nature shot with a light blue sky background and a snow covered branch sticking out from the bottom left. A peregrine falcon- a bird with a dark mask, pointed wings, bright yellow legs and around eyes and bill and barred belly and wings- launches themself off of the branch to the right. Across the top in blue is "Feather Trails," below that in yellow, "A Journey of Discover Among Endangered Birds," below that in white, "One Conservationist's effort to save the peregrine falcon, hawaiian crows, and california condor," and in the bottom right in yellow, "Sophie A. H. Osborn, foreword by Pete Dunne."

This is going to be a ranting, rambling review full of animal liberationist opinions as it's impossible for it not to be with how many feelings, some old and some new, were awakened by this beautiful book. The author and I have many agreements and a few disagreements, so be careful not to project all of my opinions onto her writing if I happen to convey this jumbled mess without enough organization. Sophie A. H. Osborn's Feather Trails is a standout in the genres it spans (memoir, nature writing, science, and more.) The writing is excellent, engrossing, and drew me in completely, making me feel like I was there. Her ability to immerse the reader with details about locations, visuals, feelings, experiences, etc is strengthened by her simultaneous ponderings on what things are like for the individual birds of the species she worked to support and conserve. Her passion about birds and conservation is clear and reading this book added to my own passion and understanding.

Learning Osborn's history with peregrine falcons had me thinking of every time I have had the luxury of seeing this no longer endangered bird with the awe of knowing they may never have had a chance without people like her and the challenging work they did. The stories of the alala crows tore at and touched my heart. You can tell from my name that I have a soft spot for corvids and to know these crafty creatures are extinct in the wild is devastating. Learning how the remaining individuals in captivity still maintain some wildness and ability to enjoy life makes the reality easier to digest. The section on the California condors was by far the hardest, yet still full of beauty. The pitfalls and absolute cruelty and callousness of so many humans, how they killed so many birds, and damaged conservation efforts over and over has infuriated and haunted me since. 

Frankly, I already found the propaganda of hunters all being the "greatest conservationists" to be gross. Taking a history where regulations had to be created and rigidly enforced because hunting drove many species to, or close to, extinction (including deer, canada geese, and other now abundant species,) then rebranding the entire story with hunters as the heroes is dishonest at best. (Not to mention how current subsets of conservation that are partly funded by hunting licenses end abruptly when their ability to kill who they want when they want, or the profits of loggers and ranchers, are affected.) After Osborn telling the stories of lead poisonings, individual condor by condor, all dying extremely prematurely, while the NRA and "conservationist" hunters clung (and still cling) to lead shot because "gun rights" frankly made me so infuriated by this hunting propaganda that I could barely breathe. For the record, Osborn herself does not claim to be anti-hunting, just anti-lead ammunition. Osborn's stories of individual birds, their relationships, explorations and adventures, and the short lives they did get to lead made out for a book that is not purely trauma. However, it is never easy to read sensitive, thoughtful, honest accounts of how we got here, where we have succeeded, and where we have failed. That honesty leads me to my next point.

I often go in to books about the greater than human world open-minded but with low expectations. There are tons of books out there that disappoint, not so much in their lack of research and information, but in their objectification of their subjects. I am so tired of reading books that treat birds and other animals as a monolith of beings with no personalities and only a single minded focus (usually reproduction.) I did not know much about Osborn before this book (because I am out of touch, she is in fact a rather large name in ornithology and conservation.) I was pleasantly surprised by how she told these stories for a variety of reasons.

Despite sometimes falling into the dreaded "it" designation that many humans continue to give animals, Osborn focuses on each bird that she worked with and knew as an individual being. We learn about their personalities, how they interact with one another in different ways, how human interference affects things, and so on. She also does not shy away from the ethical conundrums of working with endangered birds. While I don't always agree with her, I found so much value in her discussion of the realities of how righting human wrongs can be very complicated. From DDT and lead contamination to the introduction of feral cats and killing birds to feed other birds, Osborn does not shy away from discussing her feelings and overall ethics (topics often woefully absent in science literature.) She discusses her uneasiness with the practice of killing quail to save falcons and how seeing a feral cat be killed to protect other species taught her to transition her own cats to be indoor only. I did not notice her analyzing the killing of cows for condors, though, which I think could have pushed the ethical convo further when discussing animal agribusiness and its contributions to climate change and species extinction- especially given the focus on hunting (which presently has less overall impact than animal exploitation agribusiness.) Not only do the wastefulness, greenhouse gases, land use, groundwater pollution, etc, cause issues, but many vulture species have become endangered due to poisoning from drugs given to cows, but I digress.

She discusses the human fault for introducing non native species in much more honest ways than many scientists, though in my opinion she still put too much blame on said species at times for endangering other animals by condoning their slaughter. The big picture is more complicated than that. In reality, humans (aside from introducing said species in the first place) have far worse impacts than any feral cat. Overfishing/hunting, habitat destruction, pollutions, animal agribusiness, etc are all massive threats to birds and other animals. Even the first humans who traveled outside Africa to colonize other continents began to cause imbalances, extinctions, etc upon arrival (no shade to folks just trying to survive without this knowledge centuries ago.) With European colonization, industrialization, etc, those problems were intensely magnified. Yet, humans believe that we and our luxuries are worth more, so we call the other animals "invaders" and blame it all on them. Osborn is unafraid to have this discussion which I truly appreciate, even if she and I disagree on a fraction of the solutions.

Osborn also is willing to acknowledge the ethical conundrums in terms of conservation, study, and breeding of endangered species. She does not shy away from the reality that handling birds is stressful. I have seen bird banding posts with people taking selfies with terrified animals or claiming they're "smilin for the camera!" (I support banding research efforts, for the record, and respect the efforts of scientists to reduce stress as much as possible. Unfortunately, nonconsensual contact with other animals is sometimes needed for conservation and research. I also support questioning everything we do without another animal's consent and how we characterize those actions.) Osborn discusses the practice of separating animals who choose one another as partners in order to place them with another animal with a higher chance of breeding. This is a practice I oppose, but I see the logic. She does not discuss artificial insemination as much as one should as it ranges from stressful to horrific depending on the species. I think zoos playing a part increases the problem (reminder: wherein the majority of animals are not endangered and are bred/purchased just for entertainment/profit.) Zoos tend to want to breed species so that they have more of that species to display in captivity, despite the fact that the stresses of the zoo tend to hinder various species interest in breeding. You can see the difference between zoo-run conservation and other types not driven by profit in this book and elsewhere. Even so, the Alala crow efforts are important and sometimes a zoo will hold the only members of an endangered or extinct-in-the-wild species available and thus one must work with them in order to participate.

In terms of herself, Osborn is excellent at describing her strengths, shortcomings, successes, and mistakes along the way. She discusses being a woman in the sciences and which people were her allies vs which ones treated her as subservient. She interrogates her own biases and examines her feelings. Rather than drawing conclusions that all emotion is bad in science, she examines which way her emotions may lead her and why. I don't know if she realized she was using this sort of wisdom around feelings or if it is just evident to me as an outsider. Afterall, isn't the desire to care for and conserve an entire species partly an emotional one? Humans are an extremely emotional species, much like many other animals. I think we benefit far more from these discussions than we do from humans who think that emotion has no place in the sciences (as if that would even be possible with us involved.) But, again, I digress.

I've written plenty and have filled this review with so much of what this book brought up for me because I haven't been able to stop thinking about it every day since I finished. I hope that Osborn's style is a trend in writing that will continue in science, conservation, nature, etc topics. It not only draws people into the worlds of other animals, but it pushes us more towards possible solutions. The planet would not have lost so many of its species with more efforts like that of Osborn. With her and those like her still out there, maybe many still have a chance.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions

Image: the cover of the book is a painting by Joshua Mays of a Black woman from the chest up. She is looking to the right and the highlights on her right side fade into light blue with white dots swirled throughout. There are illustrations of purple thistles and flowers behind her and around her shoulders. At the bottom center is a grey pigeon like bird with a red-orange forehead. Across the top in white letters is "world fantasy award winner Nalo Hopkinson," and across the bottom, "Jamaica Ginger and other Concoctions."

Nalo Hopkinson ranks in the top tier of my favorite scifi and speculative fiction authors. I have read most of her excellent novels, but she stands out as an author whose short story collections actually end up being my favorites in her repertoire. Falling in Love with Hominids is one of the best short story collections I have read by either a single or multiple authors. Naturally, I was excited to see Tachyon putting out a new collection by Hopkinson: Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions. Nisi Shawl also aided Hopkinson and cowrote one of the stories in the collection as well.

While this collection did not hit as hard as Falling in Love with Hominids for me personally, it is still a strong collection that spans genres as Hopkinson is known to do. There are a couple stories that can be found in other collections, but many of these are ones that were written for specific projects- including a TED talk fiction performance by multiple authors gathered by Neil Gaiman- that are not so easily accessible. I really enjoyed that they included Nalo's words before each story, describing where the stories came from and what her writing process was. It enriched the experience of reading the book. Her description of the aforementioned TED story entry was the longest and most interesting in its discussion of how the stereotypical boundaries of science fiction must often be surpassed when marginalized characters are present. Hopkinson is also excessively humble in some of her assessments of stories. There were ones that were not her favorite that I ended up liking quite a lot.

The best stories in the collection in terms of my own tastes were Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story inspired by a Jamaican folksong and real life horrors of flooding, the satirical Clap Back telling truth through fiction about exploitative arts, Repatriation about a very special type of cruise, and my absolute favorite San Humanité which somehow, despite being only two pages, gripped me and left me craving an expansion of it into a full novel. I do not think I have ever felt that way from a 2 page story before. There are plenty of other excellent stories that people who are fans of all sorts of genres will enjoy as well.

Nalo Hopkinson is not just groundbreaking in her telling of stories with characters not often centered in SSFF genres, though that is definitely a draw for me. She is a damned good writer who continues to evolve with time and this collection is a good example of the many places her fiction has gone. I look forward to the next entry in her writing career, hopefully sooner rather than later.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: Meet the Neighbors

Image: The cover of the book is a blue background with a welcome mat at the bottom center. Superimposed on top of the mat are images of animals- a salamander, tortoise, goose, bear, racoon, donkey, sparrow, deer, and blackbird. Across the top in light yellow is "Meet the Neighbors" and below that in white, "Animal Minds and Life in a More-Than-Human World"

Brandon Keim's excellent book Meet the Neighbors seems to be one that suffers from a title and cover that don't quite match what is inside. (Though, I do love the subheading phrase "more-than-human worlds.") It's strange that the idiom, "don't judge a book by its cover" is still so popular when it is arguably less practiced today than it ever was given the wide reach of the internet and availability of graphic design. The welcome mat with all of the animals on it resembles a child's nature show to me, but Keim did not write a cutesie book about animals as one-dimensional cartoon characters. I assume the title and design were created to reach as wide an audience as possible- anyone who likes other-than-human animals and wants fun facts about them. This strategy sometimes works for sales but often results in disappointment by readers who expected something lighter.

Keim's book is grounded in reality and is written with great sensitivity, deep thought, and a level of honesty I often do not encounter in these kinds of texts- even from those whose entire goal is to de-center humans in discussions about other animals. This is not a buzzfeed-esque fun-fact book (though there are certainly many fun facts and heartwarming stories within) nor is it a book focused solely on more-than-human animal traits. The parts that mostly focused on facts about animals were the beginning sections of the book which I thought could have used more organization. This initially left me worried that I might be reading another run-of-the-mill book of animal facts, which is just fine, but moving forward took me into another world entirely. This book is includes a mixture of general info and research about other animal minds and experiences as well as discussion about how humans treat and view fellow creatures. The latter can make it tough to read at times. However, even as a person who generally has a hard boundary against reading detailed accounts of animal cruelty and exploitation, I encourage folks to push through those parts. I make exceptions to this rule when the information is used to make larger, complex points and to combat common knowledge in important ways that cannot be done accurately without including said details. Basically, when it makes me think about things in ways I had not before, I will make my way through it. I believe this book does this. It does so in ways that are exceptional in comparison to others in the genre. 

We are currently in a place, at least in much of western culture, where it is super cool to talk about climate change, but not to actually take responsibility for it. It is super cool to discuss amazing fun facts about other animals, as long as we always keep them a step below us and don't challenge the ways we exploit them. It is super cool to combat threats to endangered species, including blaming other species introduced by us, as long as the threats combatted aren't human (you know, the main threat.) Even in far left circles, these kinds of neoliberal and reactionary ways of thinking are common in regards to nonhuman animals. It's even fashionable to tokenize human struggles in reasoning as to why other species do not deserve respect and consideration. This book forces the reader to confront all of these anthropocentric biases and more. Keim acknowledges the great importance of the little bits of happiness we can gain from Dodo videos while also acknowledging that we "live in a world of wounds," as he said when he generously joined VINE book club last month. Keim also grapples with conflicts and questions that are often left out on the more liberatory side of things, such as when humans should intervene to help other animals and what kind of interventions are more wasteful or disruptive than they are helpful. He consistently asks the question- what would an individual from this species think or want? He ponders things such as the differences in opinion bears vs salmon might have in regards to habitat management and how humans choose which species to focus on helping or admiring. The most illuminating parts of the book for me personally, were those that discussed introduced/non-native, "overpopulated," and/or species labeled as "pests." I had not even realized just how much bias I had internalized about certain dilemmas even as a 18 year die hard (collective liberation) vegan with a ton of animal rescue experience who knows that these things are more complicated that the anthropocentric ways they are presented. 

This book is what I was hoping the the book Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains would have been. Even though MTN is not entirely about these species and conflicts, it tells multiple sides of the story in honest ways as much as a human can attempt to without being able to interview other species. I had no idea, for instance, that introduced (non-native) donkeys had rewilded in many places and helped other species survive through things like oasis digging in deserts. I had heard of "judas goats," but never knew about "judas donkeys," which were only mentioned in a footnote, but are truly one of the most heart wrenching examples of cruelty I have read about. I can't stop thinking about them, but do not regret learning this as part of the full story. I have read countless texts that explain how rats and feral cats threatened island nesting birds, which insisted that killing all of them was the only solution. Those texts neglected to mention that humans overfishing, habitat destruction, and killing of the ocean were countless times worse for said birds and everyone else. Keim also discussed how said purge of feral cats was also used to reduce competition with foxes, only to find that foxes at more threatened birds than the cats (who ate more rodents.) The culling of introduced pigs ended up taking away food from golden eagles, who then turned on the foxes, which then meant the eagles had to be "managed." I am a birder and often see people patting themselves on the back when telling people to keep their cats indoors (which I agree with for the record,) but will attack anyone who even questions how our actions affect birds (outside of the abstract or pointing the finger at other human groups- usually in oppressive ways.) We learn that feral cats are the "top killers" of birds when they aren't. We are. But, many writers (outside of animal rights and liberation niche texts) are encouraged not to talk about this as the reader needs the ability to channel the upset about what is happening onto someone else. Keim doesn't fall into that trap.

Keim also did a lot of research and got a lot of big names to interview. Bobby Corrigan on rodents for example. Again, the way he approached the book exceeds what you often find in nature and animal literature. He interviews scientists, environmentalists, lawyers, wildlife "management" services, philosophers, naturalists, animal sanctuary founders, zoo employees, and so on. He also presents one of the most honest sections on hunting and fishing- particularly westernized hunting that rebranded itself as "conservationist" (after hunting drove many species to, or near to, extinction.) I don't know if I have ever read a text that acknowledged the horrors hunters have committed, the trouble with ecosystem imbalance caused by overpopulation of certain species (and harm to other species,) the other human activities that often cause more harm but get less attention/ire than hunting (such as urbanization,) the conservation efforts of a subset of hunters, and how those conservation efforts ultimately serve hunters, ranchers, and loggers more than other animals or ecosystems (by prioritizing sport, profits, trophies, and species hunters want to kill even at cost of true balance and other species harmed by their "conservation" practices.) Keim even calls out the permission fallacy and idea of animals "giving their lives" as a way to redirect from the reality that their lives are taken. He is not claiming taking a life is always wrong, on the contrary, it is sometimes a necessity including for other species. But, he combats this view usually touted by people romanticizing hunting by claiming animals are super into being shot or stabbed for conservation, tradition, sport, trophy, food, or all of the above. It's very rare to find that level of honesty and diligent research on a topic so sensitive to many people on all sides. Keim truly seemed more interested in understanding the dilemma than taking a side. 

As a bird nerd, I learned so many new things about birds from this book. Some were depressing and far more were fascinating. Yet, he also has me thinking hard about what species I am fascinated by and how that affects my actions. I have lots of photos of birds eating insects and fishes. While I have definitely felt for these animals, especially when that damned ring-billed gull held that squirming fish for ages before finally killing them, what is it about birds that attracts me? And how does that affect my actions? I'm not saying I have never considered these things, but Keim gave me new ways to think about them. One might think based on what I have said here that there is a punishing way to these thought processes, but on the contrary, I actually found Keim's outlook freeing. It is often honesty, however painful, that is much less anxiety inducing in the long run. This book allows me to see myself as part of this world- an animal among many other animals- and to examine what that means to me.

As you may be able to tell, I could write a book on this book. I want to leave some surprises for the reader as well. I highly recommend Meet the Neighbors and I hope that if you find your expectations dashed a bit, that you can move forward and take what else the text has to offer because there is a lot here that I have rarely found elsewhere.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: The Zapatista Experience

Image description: The cover of the book is a Black background with an illustration of a woman standing on the left side with her first raised and flames surrounding her fist. She has brown skin and is wearing a black balaclava and a pinkish colored dress with multicolored square prints on the front, a white ruffled cowl, and sandals. In the top right in white letters is "the Zapatista experience." Bellow that in red letters is, "rebellion, resistance, and autonomy." The bottom left in white letters is, "Jérôme Baschet," and in smaller white letters, "translated by, "Traductores Rebeldes Autónomos Cronopios"

I must admit that I've been a bad anarchist ™. While I've read many references to the Zapatista movement, I've never spent a ton of time really learning about them in detail. The Zapatista Experience was a much needed and enjoyable remedy to that situation. I can truly see now why do many leftists of many stripes look up to the Zapatistas as a functioning movement and liberatory society in practice. (I should note that they don't specifically identify as an anarchist movement, but share much overlap in philosophy.)

The translation of Jérôme Baschet's text by Traductores Rebeldes Autónomos Cronopios is skillful and readable. This and the text's introduction explaining foundations of the Zapatista movement make this book accessible to a wide audience. My book is completely littered with page flags. It's highly quotable. While there is an academic nature to the text, it is not the kind of excessively wordy type meant only to be understood by a tiny PhD minority. 

I really enjoyed learning about just how far reaching and revolutionary the beliefs of the Zapatistas are and continue to be today. They offer a real example of successful autonomy and resistance rather than only theory, flawed/unsuccessful/hierarchical revolution, or state solutions to problems. Baschet did well discussing the many strengths of their practices and also the limitations and difficulties implementing such things. For instance, there is a lot of discussion around inescapable finances despite the fight against capitalism, which is something often neglected in revolutionary struggle (and as a result can cause a movement to fall into authoritarian structure.) Also, the discussions of autonomous vs "official" justice provides solutions to the common question thrown at as: What about the (murderers/abusers/etc)?

Another strength of Zapatista movements is the focus on dignity, joy, and humor. A cooperative society must include these things and organized effectively, leaves far more room for them than capitalist and authoritarian culture. The use of metaphor (the hydra, storm, and crack) in theoretical discussion was also very interesting. 

There are in depth discussions of the Zapatista view on various forms of identity politics such as indigenous/mestizo participation and gendered oppression. There is regular emphasis on cooperation across lines of identity and experience rather than creating binaries. The Zapatisas acknowledge that we cannot return to a precolonial era and must find liberatory ways that allow cooperation across power differentials. The only thing I was left frustrated with here is how little I learned about women in the movement. Almost all quotes are from men. While I understand that they did have spokespeople and thus the most available quotes may come from them, there were also women speaking out that I did not get to hear from aside from abstract references to women's liberation.

I was fascinated by the discussion of how the other-than-human world played into their philosophies. There was discussion of the "anthropocene" being problematically human centered, but they used the term "capitalocene" to explain how capitalism is linked to and exacerbates this process. There is also discussion of both respect for and moving beyond indigenous tradition. There is emphasis on more modern benefits of certain societies, particularly environmental sciences. Rather than a war between "the West" and indigenous and other societies, there is a push for cooperation, taking the best parts of each. Indigenous Zapatistas discuss both the importance of preserving AND not being tied down by traditions.

All of these things are wrapped up inside the oft quoted Zapatista foundation: a world in which many worlds fit. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know more about the ins and outs of this movement. The Zapatista Experience is a well written and skillfully translated volume that makes this important information accessible, and inspiring, to a wider audience.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: Disabled Ecologies

Image: The cover of the book is a close up photo of a cactus with green finger like projections reaching towards the top of the page with green flowering pieces atop each branch. In the background is a dark, cloudy grey-blue sky and the sun is shining onto the cactus from the left. In large orange letters across the top is "Disabled Ecologies." Below that in smaller yellow letters is, "lessons from a wounded desert." Below that is the author's name: Sunaura Taylor.

Updating to add a link to Taylor's coauthored important article that was just published:
If the left is serious about saving democracy, there’s one more cause to add to the list

Original review:

The bar was already set very high for Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert before I even had my hands on the book. I have been a massive fan of Sunaura Taylor's work- both artistically and academically for some time. Her paintings are uniquely stunning and her book, Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation was a groundbreaking text regarding discussions of the ableism central to nonhuman animal and human exploitation. I'm happy to say that this book met my expectations and then some. 

One of the best things about this text is that it has all of the meticulous research and information of an academic dissertation without all of the absurdly unnecessary jargon. It reads like an academic text for sure because that's what it is, but it can actually be read by people outside the field which is something that should be true for any disability scholarship but often isn't. Taylor also had a clear intention with how she used footnotes that gives the reader a variety of ways to choose how to engage with them without requiring them to skip to the back of the book where they are often found. The research materials of the book are also used in a very engaging way. We have the usual statistics here and there as well as lots of newspaper clippings and photographs from a time before everything was easily found online. Taylor also offers reportbacks from activist community meetings and other events that she attended in person. Taylor clearly put a ton of work into this book. It not only adds to the credibility of her claims. It allows her to highlight marginalized voices often silenced in these discussions. It also makes the book more readable in general and breaks up the text well.

Disabled Ecologies is an interesting academic exercise because it has a very personal note at the center. Taylor uses her experiences from Tuscon, AZ of aquifer and other pollution caused by the military (which likely led to her being born with her disability,) as an anchor for the rest of the book. Such an intimate exercise navigated the personal connection to disability with the global field well. This is an important skill as none of us is able to divorce ourselves from our own experience and position in the working. This framing also allows her to discuss the thorny issue of disability liberation in the context of when environmental destruction is the cause of disablement. 

Taylor grapples with the disabling nature of ecodestruction and the idea of illness, cure, eugenics, and public health in general. She does not glamorize disability nor does she take away from the positive idea of a disabled future with the care and support that could entail in an ideal situation. She gathers the words of others like Eli Clare who have also discussed the politics around the idea of cure. In all of these elements, Taylor makes clear the need for disability to always be part of discussions around environment including how environmental injury occurs.

Much of these sections made me think about the idea of body neutrality as opposed to body positivity. We do not need every narrative of success to be a happy story where each person is/feels uniquely beautiful within a fairy tale as our only response to the negative, pitying, blaming narratives around disability and other body-related issues The body can just be a body that has an amalgamation of characteristics coming from many sources and experiences. 

A good chunk of the book is spent discussing the methods that polluters use to redirect their responsibility for the destruction of the planet and the lives of everyone on it. This fits into disability and eugenecist capitalism in how they turn health into an individual issue. When disability is depoliticized and characterized only as an individual medical problem, it allows those in power to shift blame onto (often also racist, classist, colonialist, etc) notions of culture, behavior, etc. Polluters manage this even when entire communities are suffering and dying from high rates of illness unique to their location for generations matching up perfectly with the polluters' activities. Polluters knew then just as they do now the effects of their industry. They are even skilled at turning science/medicine against us claiming to always need more research to "prove" their pollution causes illness- a level of burden always just out of reach. One little historical tidbit that surprised me was that Raegan's "war on cancer," was instrumental in changing the focus to genetics and individual and rather than environmental research. I've had cancer 3 times (which I do believe may have environmental causes) and even personally I can see how this culture affected every aspect of my treatment. Even if Raegan was well intentioned for once, flooding one form of the research market and neglecting the other undoubtedly backfired. I had genetic testing and infusions but no one asked about my polluted water or examined why my roommate and I both had cancers with recurrences in our 30s.

The conclusion of the text is very well written and connects the local to the global in skilled and frankly horrifying ways. We learn that the same polluters in Tuscon manufactured bombs used in Yemen among other atrocities. She also connects the human to the more than human in discussions of how the rest of the animals on this planet are affected. She reframes narratives on Darwinism (while acknowledging his many faults) to include the reality that the message should not be about the "fittest," but about how consistent change, mutation, and variation are what have and continue to propagate life. It is a call to action to support this variation in order for us to continuously adapt to ecocide. When Taylor joined us at VINE book club to discuss the text, she elaborated more on her intention to avoid "one and done" apocalypse narratives, discussing the importance of seeing ourselves in an ongoing struggle. She also mentioned how the discussion of systemic pollution and authoritarianism do not remove the value and effectiveness of our individual participation in organizing and liberatory movements (such as veganism.)

This review could have been even longer had I mentioned everything I learned and loved about this book. Sunaura Taylor has shown us yet again her ability to add something new and revelatory to ongoing discussions about disability and the environment at a time when it's more important than ever. 

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: Borderline

Image: the cover of the book is an off white background with a pointilized ribbon of black descending down the page. In the middle in red letters is borderline. Below that inside a mustard circle with black letters is "the biography of a personality disorder." In the upper left in red is "Alexander Kriss, PhD."
 

This book was an interesting surprise. Usually going into any sort of pop psychology book I have somewhat low expectations. Part of this is because dominant culture is often woven throughout so much that it becomes frustrating. Part of it is that complex medical systems that are already problematic even at the academic level are simplified down too much. Part of it is that we sometimes get way too much of the author's bias or unethical oversharing.

The latter part ended up being a lot different than it usually is in this case. Borderline is a foray into history by Alexander Kriss that is composed alongside (mostly) a single case study. I often feel nervous about these sorts of things being shared even when identifying information is claimed to have been removed because psychological care should be 100% private. In this case though, it comes across that this was done quite thoughtfully and with consent and input from the patient whose case is at the center. There's even a clear discussion about the power dynamics at hand and if a patient can consent properly to something like this. I think the reason it works in this case is because the author is a psychoanalyst of the more classic type that spends multiple days a week over an extended period of time with their client. This results in a level of connection and intimacy that is inescapable. I found the accounts in this book to be honest in this regard as much as I can tell from the writing. The author was also open about his thought processes, mistakes, and shortcomings.

As much as my former advisors and professors would probably be disappointed, I love psychoanalysis. I love its fantastical focus on the unconscious and all of the things that we can't possibly measure. I love that it's near impossible to quantify and study like biopsychology or cognitive neuroscience, which is what most of my education was based on when I went to school for psychology.

I would say that this book is not really a biography of borderline personality disorder such that a complete beginner could pick it up and learn about it. I saw it as more of an expansion on the rather one-dimensional way that the disorder is viewed by many today. Kriss weaves together the long history of maladies attributed to women and argues that hysteria and related diagnoses of the past are older names for the same syndrome now known as borderline personality disorder. As a result, I think it will work better for folks with a foundational understanding of the current definition and manifestations of bpd diagnoses.

One of the best parts about how this book does history is that Kriss discusses the social position of the psychologists and theorists he is focused on. I went through years of school and psychology classes learning about dead men and their thoughts on the womens brains without ever learning which ones of them were slavers. We never discussed how Sigmund Freud being Jewish affected his place in the field and how he approached topics. We never discussed how American capitalism would be used to shape the direction of psychology when certain ideas arrived from overseas. There was rarely any discussion of patriarchy or privilege. Freud as a name was always attributed to Sigmund, not Anna, despite the latter having far more accurate and grounded beliefs albeit still problematic. I felt that I learned so much more about these various theorists by understanding their position in the world at the time.

One of the most surprising things to me is that Sigmund Freud, Sándor Ferenczi, and others were actually closer to reality in the beginning of their theories about why women are suffering (sexual abuse and exposure to trauma) before Freud decided to go extra misogynistic and buried his own history and Ferenczi's work. Through all of these histories, Kriss makes it pretty impossible to deny how current day treatment of borderline personality disorder isn't a whole lot better or more evolved than the treatment of Hysteria in the past. It might even be worse in terms of predicting the ability to heal because at least in the past it wasn't assumed that the patient was doomed as soon as the label was slapped on them.

Kriss also covers more modern day manifestations of care for borderline personality disorder and disorders related to traumatic experience. He has more favorable yet still nuanced takes on dialectical behavioral therapy and treatments around post-traumatic stress. He discusses as well the ways in which psychoanalytic concepts such as splitting were redefined as if they were new concepts with labels like multiple personality disorder. There is a case study he is careful to discuss with someone I would argue was manipulated by an internet "friend" into believing they have "dissociative identity disorder" and played the part. Kriss seems to argue more that people all have varying degrees of splitting into other personalities in one way or another, some of which are dysfunctional and some of which are just normal. It's more complicated than that, but that would make this a very long review.

Kriss has a lot to say about the DSM and modern day psychology centering it. Rightfully so. Something I learned in particular from this book was that PTSD being entered into the DSM was the first time that a disorder symptomology included an external event being the cause. Everything else is about problems with the individual. That is bananas to me. I knew this problematic aspect of diagnostic practices but had no idea that the environment was that absent from the DSM.

I will share one quote that stood out to me regarding how many paradigms claim we must create a new self while mourning the old one we somehow lost to a trauma or illness:
"We always add, never subtract. All the way down to the psychotic core, we can only be ourselves and the things that happen to us, that make us ill, also have the potential to serve as sources of empathy and ideas that challenge a toxic status quo."

Overall I really liked this compassionate psychoanalytic foray into the previously unknown to me long history of borderline personality disorder. I hope it will foster more empathy toward those with the label and lead to better outcomes for them and the world that we share.

 This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: The Blueprint

Image: the cover of the book is a yellow background with light grey rectangles repeating in toward the center. Weaving in and out of the rectangles is an illustration of olive colored bird entangled in the grip of an orange and yellow snake. On the upper left in black is "the blue print" and across the bottom is the authors name - Rae Giana Rashad.

It's difficult not to invoke The Handmaid's Tale when talking about a book like Rae Giana Rashad's The Blueprint. There are many pieces of it that resemble popular texts that came before it. However, given that one of the main criticisms of books like THT, despite Atwood clearly saying that she never meant it as a depiction of something that had never happened, is that they often focus on oppression of white women that has already been enacted upon Black women and others throughout American history. The Blueprint is somewhat of a cyberpunk adjacent dystopia taking place in an alternate history, present, and future- told from alternating time periods in different chapters. Chattel slavery was not abolished but instead shifted to a system where Black women in particular are still purchased and abused through a high tech system involving an algorithm which assigns women to men based on their social class and profession among other dystopian characteristics. The book is told both from the point of view of the protagonist and her biography of her enslaved ancestor, making evident the myriad of ways in which the two timelines collide.

I found this book to be beautifully written and the world building to be immersive. The book is extremely dark, but it did not feel pointlessly so or like trauma porn. The stage felt real and the characters were all believable as people. Part of this is likely because they are also messy just like real life. There is a lot of focus on intercommunity dynamics and how oppressed groups of people can mistreat one another when individuals are grasping at and holding on to any little bit of power they can get when the rest is taken from them. There were lots of themes about Black love, hurt, expectation, suffering, and liberation. There were discussions of power dynamics and at what level power prevents love and respect from being able to occur.

I admit about 2/3 of the way through I felt myself less engaged with the book, but I can't quite pinpoint why. It may have been the shift in focus to specific relationships. It's interesting because at other less dark times I found myself thinking, "why is everyone focusing on creating this relationship drama at this moment?" and then remembering that in any situation I have been in no matter how dire, there is always relationship drama going on. So, it's not necessarily a poor creative choice.

The best part of the book is Butters sharing her wisdom, but I won't say much more than that in order to avoid spoilers. I look forward to more writing from this author in the future as she expands on these genres in skillful and engaging ways.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph. 

Book Review: New Adventures in Space Opera

Image: The cover of the book is an illustrated outer space scene with a blue-black background and a speckled sphere in the center with light hitting it from the the lower left creating a crescent appearance. There are several cream and orange colored lines going through the center and a line of circles of different shapes and sizes going through in another direction. In orange letters across the top is "new adventures in," followed by large white letters for "space opera" on the top and bottom of the cover. In small teal and orange letters surrounding the planet at the center are the names of all of the contributing authors.
 

New Adventures in Space Opera first caught my eye due to the sheer number of excellent contributors that I was already at least somewhat familiar with. Even with this excitement, I tend to go into anthologies with below average expectations as I can often run into as many duds as I do excellent stories. This book surprised me by how solid it was across the board. Even the stories that genre-wise were not my cup of tea, were still well written enough to be entertaining. Some of the authors I already enjoyed brought their A-Game, but I was also introduced to a few others whose work I will be seeking out after having read this anthology.

As Jonathan Strahan discusses in the intro, the definition of what constitutes the "space opera" genre, like pretty much all scifi and fantasy, is debated. Though, there is often a common thread and that is that some see it as a lesser form of science fiction. A bunch of legit nerds like us scifi fans pretending anything we like is cooler than anything else is silly to me, but it is human nature I suppose. This anthology has a wide range of styles and subgenres well complemented by its talented authors, making it difficult for anyone to argue that space opera is lesser in any way.

I read the book cover to cover and one thing I really liked is how long many stories were. One of my biggest issues with short fiction is that I often feel like it's cut off before I am even invested in the story. These entries are still short, but with enough length to settle into. There were some stories that I would describe as war stories, spirituality themes, or space fantasy, that were not my taste (but as I mentioned, not poorly written.) The rest though, ranging from what I would describe as adjacent to cyberpunk, satire, and general space scifi were totally up my alley. The stories that were my favorites were Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee, A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime by Charlie Jane Anders, Immersion by Aliette de Bodard, Planetstuck by Sam J Miller, and The Last Voyage of  Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck with Miller and Anders being tied for the top spot. 

Representation in the book was also above average with many stories surrounding characters of demographics and nationalities that we don't often see centered in English language scifi. This was also a great pride month read. If you're familiar with many of the authors, you may already know that. If not, then I will tell you that many of these stories are wonderfully gay and spectacularly queer. I also tend to go into anthologies expecting otherwise, but since I was familiar with some of the authors, I knew they'd deliver.

Overall, New Adventures in Space Opera is a great collection of stories that both add new elements to the genre and celebrate its long and beloved history among non-pretentious science fiction lovers. Its inclusion of a wide variety of styles and topics means there's likely something in it for everyone. It's a great edition to any shelf for those who love scifi, and maybe many who don't yet realize that they do.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: (R)evolution

 

Image: the cover of the book is acloseup of gary numan staring into the camera. He is a pale skinned person with black hair falling onto his face and is wearing messy black eyeliner. He is holding his hands adorned with ripped nylon information of his face. Across the top in gold scribbled letters is revolution and in printed gold across the bottom is his name. Under that in smaller script is "the autobiography."

Before writing a review of Gary Numan's memoir, (R)evolution, I decided to catch up on his later releases. To be honest, my interest in this memoir was due to knowing him as a great electronic and goth/industrial adjacent pioneer. But, unlike many who, as detailed in the book, always wanted him to stick to the early hits, I found some of his early stuff a bit too upbeat for me. The saxophones and backup singer style are just not my cup of tea. I've come to find that most of what Numan released after the mid 90s is right up my alley as well as more of his earlier stuff than I realized. He's put out a massive amount of music throughout his career.

Numan discussed his process for many releases, describing some of the later stuff (from Pure onward) as darker and that is certainly the case. I'd also go as far to say that this is his best material. The sound is much more evolved and shows a maturity with electronic media as well as the ability to grow with the technology. I also just love the darkness that comes with a lot of artists' later work who started from a more pop place (Kite comes immediately to mind.) Now that I've started from the end, let's get back to the beginning.

(R)evolution is an interesting memoir and one I chose to listen to as the author himself was reading it. It stands out from many musician stories, especially that of pop stars, in how he chooses to gloss over many of the more wild days and instead focuses on family and career. I don't know if that's just what is most important to him now, or if he is deliberately choosing not to highlight things he's admittedly embarrassed of. I can't help wondering what he meant when he said he was a bad partner or what he was ashamed of when he and other stars interacted with groupies. I get it, though. He also discussed a documentary team doing their best to agitate him in interviews and focus on a small part of his career for entertainment value. I can't blame him for resisting that portrayal, but I would totally read a memory from his former partner.

Based on this memoir, Gary Numan is a nerdy scifi fanatic on the autism spectrum (he uses the term Asperger's,) whose creative expression was truly unique and individual, composing his own material, moreso than many famous pop artists. I never realized how many scifi stories he wrote before then writing songs and albums based on those stories. I love it. I also loved hearing about how gay clubs were a haven as they were when I was a young rivethead/goth kid long before I understood my own gender and sexuality. This sort of crossover always makes me happy even though there can be conflicts and problems with straight folks in gay bars. Perhaps the difference is coming together over subculture and performance rather than the spectacle or exploitation that comes with cishet bachelorette parties or other voyeurs seeking comedic entertainment which is something both lgbtq folks and dark subculture folks deal with.

Something baffling to me is how bad he was with money. I know it's common for people who get a lot of money and fame quickly to screw it up. But, my dude, maybe don't buy a castle if you're in so much debt. I was a little frustrated by how he spoke about his money troubles, maybe because I'm poor and meticulously plan every cent. But, there's also a reality that you could never pay me enough to be famous. I would rather die. So, I know it costs a certain amount to have any privacy or life once you're in it. Also, many of his struggles with money were because of his creative and elaborate set designs for live shows, which seems very wholesome as it's clear that he always wanted the fans to have the best possible experience.

A lot of the book is about things I find boring like trying to have kids, Gemma (his wife) and his endless struggles with IVF, as well as both of their multiple plastic surgeries. It was unexpected again because of my own biases of what I think musicians must be like. Me finding them boring is irrelevant to the books value, just personal taste.

He has interesting takes on mental illness, particularly depression. I liked seeing a middle ground take on the often polarized debates around mental health drugs. In his eyes, depression is curable with a course of meds, but you can also become dependent on the meds and turn into someone you're not. I don't agree with this across the board (some people recover better with no meds, some with lifelong meds, some never recover despite all efforts and hard work, etc) but it's a valuable perspective.

There are sections where he mentions musicians he either worked with or who covered his stuff and generally does not have anything negative to say (with the exception of Bowie who deserved it for acting like a giant baby which he apparently later regrets.) But, some of them like Marilyn Manson have since been outed as serial predators and I felt a little frustrated that there was no mention of that. There also was some glossing over discussions of racism around not liking hip hop despite earlier in the book being flattered by some artists crediting him as inspiration. On public social media Numan has been supportive of BLM and pride along other things, so maybe he doesn't know the details or just made a creative choice not to talk shit.

What I really enjoyed was his discussion of how he processes music. He thinks of music with every possible sense, as a multidimensional exercise. Each album was composed not just for how it sounds, but how it feels, how it looks when performed, how he would move when performing. He discusses wanting to be a pop star from a young age but also having crippling stage anxiety. He partly credits his Asperger's for how he decided to perform as well. Watching him, you would not know, but he would basically think of how things should be and practice movements and expressions he thought were supposed to go along with it. Perhaps this sort of thinking is why he was able to become one of the early electronic music pioneers despite being told that synths were going nowhere, which is hilarious to think back on given the state of music today- most of which contains at least one synth instrument or computerized processing of some sort.

Overall, I enjoyed this peek into Numan's life, career, and creative processes as well as the experience of a multi-decade time capsule. I'm also glad that it inspired me to add a slew of great albums to my music library.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: The Sexist Microphysics of Power

Image: The cover of the book is a collage of pieces of newspaper and magazines that create an image of a woman shown from the chest up with chin length hair and dark eyes looking back over her right shoulder. Along the left side is a white strip with "the sexist microphysics of power" in black letters. Across the image are other white strips at various angles. One says, "The Alcassar Case and the Construction of Sexual Terror." Another has the author's name: Nerea Barjola. The third has the text, "Translated by Emily Mack. Foreword by Silvia Frederici."

When I see people ask each other what their guilty pleasures are, I immediately know what comes to mind as my own, even though my experience with it is often far from pleasurable. Crime media. I am an anarchist that loves crime dramas, even as I watch them complaining to myself about the overt and insidious copaganda. I am also attracted to documentaries including those that include true crime and violence against women. To say I "love" them would be incorrect. I often have a terrible experience watching/listening to/reading about them. I believe that, as a person who tends to run towards things as a coping mechanism, it's a mix of trauma as well as my unadmirable attraction toward human spectacle as a former student of psychology. I know that this is not an uncommon thing, but I often sit there as I binge watch horrible docuseries going, "why am I doing this to myself?" When I saw the blurb for Nerea Barjola's book, The Sexist Microphysics of Power- particularly the line, "A groundbreaking feminist text that frames our obsession with true crime as a form of sexual terror," I knew I had to read it. 

I am no stranger to feminist and anti-authoritarian critiques of true crime and as a result, this book at times did not bring many new things to my consciousness. As an academic text, though, it must properly set up the entire scene in order for the argument to make sense. This makes it more accessible to a person new to many of these ideas, but it still falls into the realm of academia, and thus will be read predominantly by people in a field where many things therein are agreed upon. It's very academic but not offensively so- there is a point to it and all of the jargon. It is also very specialized around an event that I had never heard of. The author does not tell us exactly what happened until around 60 pages in, so in the beginning I did feel a little lost in understanding what some of her arguments were pertaining to. That said, to create a critique like this is to walk a very fine line. How does one write about this spectacle without doing further harm? How does one create this narrative without using information that was so gratuitously used for entertainment purposes by the media being critiqued? I do not envy Barjola in this task. 

As you may have already guessed, this is a rough read. I took frequent breaks. The abuse and murders of Miriam García Iborra, Antonia Gómez Rodríguez and Desirée Hernández Folch occurred in 1992 and were subject of abhorrent media spectacle which included exploitation of survivors, displaying of gratuitous imagery, sharing of unnecessary horrifying detail, amplifying of misogynistic critique and punditry, and the crafting of a narrative that furthered the trauma of the event far outside the initial victims and placed blame in all of the wrong places. Barjola's decision to only name the girls in the beginning and end is one I understand but disagree with. She discusses in the epilogue the inability of media to share the girls' stories without being flawed, but I found the lack of naming to actually contribute to their objectification in ways the author wanted to fight. Outside of this though, Barjola painstakingly details the ways the media took a horrific event and turned it into an even larger cultural trauma.

Barjola details and critiques the myriad of ways that the media exploited and reframed the narrative to place blame on the girls and on deviation from heteronormative society (in terms of the murderer.) Much of this was obvious to me, but a couple of her assessments really stuck out and gave me that aha! feeling. One was her collection of interviews with local or adjacent girls and women and their discussions of how the events and coverage affected them. We know that these events of course create fear and the media coverage of that affects how that manifests. But, these interviews, more than any analysis in the book, really showed how abhorrent and irresponsible coverage of violence can literally traumatize and create victims far outside the inner circle. I don't have the answer as to what perfect coverage looks like, but I know what it doesn't look like. This book details that and the interviews wrap it up. 

Another point Barjola made that really grabbed me was in her discussion of conspiracy theories surrounding the coverage. 1992 was nothing like the internet age we have today, but the media coverage and discussion of these events still birthed plenty of conspiracy. The idea of snuff was one topic that came up, and Barjola state what in hindsight should have been obvious to me. The media is the snuff film. The way true crime media in general, but especially in this case displayed the suffering of these girls while finding ways to blame and humiliate them (and in turn all girls and women) is far more affecting and terrifying than the idea of an under the table VHS of violence. We are watching snuff when we watch this footage. This part of her argument meant a lot to me and I will be using it when asking myself in the future what kinds of media I want to consume and how.

In the epilogue added to this edition, Barjola discusses the Netflix docuseries on the case which I did not see myself. She discussed the very interesting interplay of what might be called neoliberal feminism true crime or something of the sort, where a woman creating a show like this sees it as a feminist act despite being similarly exploitative. Barjola did not take part despite being invited- if one can call it that given that they weren't actually going to feature her- as it became clear that the series was another exercise in exploitation. She discusses the importance of counter-narratives to combat the flood of violence-against-women and women/girls-as-victims media coming at us from all angles. However, while there was a short section of the book discussing some women reclaiming things like hitchhiking, going out at night, and so on, I was also left wondering how this book itself fit into the spectacle. Barjola considers it a counter-narrative, but my experience of reading it did not quite match that. I did not leave it with images of happy women and girls in Spain going out together at night or of feminist resistance. I left it with a horrible story, an anger at so many (especially men) involved, and a question of how academia plays into true crime. Perhaps that says more about me than the book, though. I do not know.

It feels as if this book is both necessary as an exposure of the horrible ways in which media can create and amplify trauma as well as another chapter of true crime media. I do not know what the answer is to how to do this "right" as I do not think there is one. Barjola seems to believe the same thing in her discussion of using the girls' names. There is no way to perfectly write about misogynistic atrocity. But, there sure as hell are ways not to. I think this book is an important exercise in exposing those mistakes and also for the reader to think hard about the media they consume. I will be asking myself more going forward what things will do to me if I choose to venture into another episode of unpleasurable guilty "pleasure" that is crime media.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: Birding While Indian

 

Image: The cover of the book is a lime green background with birding while Indian in large white letters in the center on the top and bottom are two opposite facing illustrations of crows with wings held our in black and teal with red eyes. I'm the upper left corner in blue is things c Gannon's name and in the lower right corner is a mixed blood memoir.

I love encountering books that span genres and cultures, especially in the nonfiction realm. Birding While Indian by Thomas C Gannon is one of those books. Labeled as a "Mixed Blood Memoir," I expected less birding than there was in it. I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the book functioned as sort of a birding travelogue divided by species with philosophical and political commentary mixed in. He mentions the impossibility of discussing birds without being political- something I wish far more birders understood. I am frequently frustrated by the boring or even insultingly one-dimensional ways many writers discuss other species.

Gannon was kind enough to join us at VINE book club where I learned that the publisher really wanted him to lean in more to the memoir side of things when editing down a much longer initial draft. Based on my own experience and that of other reviewers, this seemed an odd choice on their part since it seems most of us wanted the birding/philosophical/political stuff and more of it! That said, the memoir outside of birding adventures was very interesting and engaging. The life Gannon has led is immensely interesting and often harrowing. This memoir shows how birding and nature can truly save us from the struggles of life that may otherwise destroy us. I can't express how much I relate to the idea that birding- and in relation, the existence and importance of the avian world and their sharing space with us- as being a life and sanity saving venture.

At the book club, Gannon mentioned his surprise that he received little critique on the structure of the book since to him it sometimes felt like a first draft. I had already spoken a lot, so I didn't get to mention in group that I would have liked a bit more structure. I would not say it reads like a first draft, it feels more organized than that. But, the book does jump from one category into another often by paragraph. This made things hard to follow or left me thinking, "Wait! Finish your thought on that," or, "I wanted to hear more about that." I would have liked it to be divided by chapter rather than hopping so quickly between paragraphs which, for instance, could go from experiences of childhood familial and boarding school abuse to a birding walk.

I also have criticism, as I do with 99% of birding and nature books, of Gannon referring to other birds as "it," even when they are dimorphic and very easy to refer to as s/he/they. He has valid criticisms of humans pushing systems onto other animals, which I generally agree with. But, I believe calling birds "it" is still pushing objectivity onto them rather than acknowledging them as living beings.

Gannon overall though navigates the complexity of his own identities and beliefs as well as that of his family and others around him deftly. There are no surefire, set in stone analyses in this book. He dwells in the contradictions and asks more questions than are answered, which to me, shows great self awareness and honesty often lacking in memoirs.

Something I thought of a lot was how he relates being a "lister" birder like myself to his other life experiences and beliefs. It's something I think about constantly in my own life. The book offers excellent analysis of colonialism and animality among other things. The discussions had about this in the book club were enriching as well. How do we as birders justify our exercise of a hobby which was in part highly designed or influenced by colonizers and slavers? Can we be more in touch with indigenous interpretations of birds without abandoning birding? At what point are we, also, as animals in this world, simply living in and experiencing these environments and when are we taxing resources or causing more harm than good?

A final side note: I was quite surprised to see so much Pittsburgh area action in the book! The book begins referencing a local birder, Frank Izaguirre's excellent labeling of the lifelook and fantastic cover designer- Melissa Dias-Mandoly who I had to Google- is Pittsburgh based as well.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading about Gannon's life and his travels birding across many locations. This book would hit the spot for both birders and people interested in memoirs and thoughts about indigeniety, identity, and the greater than human world. His analyses were engaging and refreshing even when the structure was a bit tough to follow. I hope that he pursues more writing and I look forward to reading more from him in the future.

This was also posted to my storygraph and goodreads.

Book Review: These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart

 

Image: the cover of the book is a pixelated and scrambled image of a feminine person from the neck up made of jumbled pinks, purples, and blues. The center of the face is very dark making it tough to make out their features. In large yellow letters going down word by word is the title of the book. I'm the center in small pink letters is the author Izzy Wasserstein.

Izzy Wasserstein's debut novella, These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart is what I would call a great start. It's a book I wanted more from, but there is something here worth expanding upon.   

The cover and title really caught my eye, both are great. The description sealed the deal- cyberpunk with an anarchist commune. The thing is that I believe this book had to be novel length to build the technothriller world the author wanted to create. Wasserstein's previous work is with short fiction, so it makes sense that she'd stick to a method she's familiar with. But, more time seemed to be spent on the political attributes which felt more real to me.   

Whenever I see a debut novel with a trans author and trans characters, I admit that I really want it to be good in a more personal way than other texts. I wanna give other trans folks praise, but I also don't write fake reviews. Luckily this book was at least giving me something to work with even if it wasn't perfect.  

 As other reviews have stated, Wasserstein makes the same error that many new writers do in not implementing the "show don't tell" aspect of good fiction writing. This is not the worst example I've seen, but I did frequently feel a rollercoaster of being immersed in the story then pulled back out by the telling aspect. I think, for instance, we could have understood the workings of the commune and corporations by what they were doing and how it felt to experience it rather than being told what they are and what they do and why like a pamphlet some of the time.   

There are lots of common cyberpunk noir themes that were executed ok enough to be enjoyable. But, they could have been expanded upon and meshed better with the world. I liked the juxtaposition of the commune life against the world of corporate rule though, it felt genuine.  

I liked the way being trans was used as a plot point in ways I won't expand too much upon to avoid spoilers. She might have gone a little too heavy on pre transition references (I heard more about the pre-t main character more than the present.) There is an interesting nature/nurture thing going on that also allows for choice rather than biological determinism (as should be our right) which I like. I like the idea of being faced with what others wanted us to be and learning to love all versions.   

I really did not like the sexual relationship that developed. If the book were not so mired in radical politics even in the ways character flaws were portrayed, it could have fit into high tech low life cyberpunk. Instead, the book portrayed something that was an inappropriate power dynamic at best as gee golly good and I felt a bit sick reading it.   

I found the afterword, written from the actual authors pov, to be somewhat off putting for this reason. It takes the tell over show thing to an even higher level by further analyzing her own story in language that is pretty academic when read right after the book. It then goes on to explain why said sexual relationship had to happen. I think the book would have been much better if a caring, platonic only relationship replaced it. Our culture always teaches us valid relationships have to be sexual.

I really do think this book has a good foundation though. The closing paragraphs before the afterword were very affecting. I really felt the last few melancholic sentences on a very intimate level. I wish it had ended there. I think this would be a great outline for a comic book or video game that has other media to help with world building. I think with some more time and practice that this author could put out a novel that really captures the world she has devised in her imagination.   

In the end, this book is short and imperfect, but interesting enough to give a chance especially given its length. I would definitely read the authors next book if it is written with things she learned from writing this one in mind and more time is spent with world building and show over tell.  

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.

Book Review: Constructing Worlds Otherwise

 

Image: The cover of the book has an watercolor landscape background with hills, mountains, and forests at the very bottom and the rest made of an orange-cream colored sky. In front of the landscape is an illustration of a woman using highly saturated colors so that her skin appears a rich red-orange, her hair a dark violet. She is looking to the right and perched on her shoulder is a large monarch butterfly. Behind her head is a large orange circle looking like a halo made of a sunset. In the same color as the circle in large letters is the title of the book "constructing worlds otherwise" across the cream colored sky. Above and below the title in smaller violet letters is the author's name- Raúl Zibechi and the byline "societies in movement and anticolonial paths in latin america," "translated by George Ygarza Quispe."

Constructing Worlds Otherwise: Societies in Movement and Anticolonial Paths in Latin America, written by Raúl Zibechi and translated by George Ygarza Quispe is a welcome window into the worlds of many radical movements and autonomous communities of resistance in Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Bolivia, as well as some non-latin America locations. Zibechi places much of his focus on movements that center indigenous resistance, womens liberation, Black liberation, and other such struggles. While he does also include the words and experiences of bigger name revolutionaries whose groups may have been more patriarchal in nature, he makes sure to discuss and include why the centering of women, Black, and/or indigenous people is not only ethically critical, but is strategically so as well. 

Let me first say that the translation by Quispe is quite good. I have not read the original as my Spanish is quite limited by what I have learned alone from duolingo and online classes, but I have read many translated texts from all over the world. One can often tell when a translation is dry, inaccurate, or simply a word for word reproduction that doesn't quite make sense to the new audience. Translation is an art form in both words and culture and I believe the passion of Zibechi was conveyed very well in this book. The book grips you from the start. 

I also like to inform the reader of my very unofficial assessment of the text's difficulty in terms of academia. On a 1 to 5 scale where 1 is "8th grade reading level" and 5 is "inexcusable big word crotch measuring contest," I would nestle this book somewhere around a fair 2.5. There are some words or referenced movements that a complete beginner may be unfamiliar with, but it is navigable with attention and effort.

I really enjoyed learning so much non-eurocentric history. As a USAmerican, even one who would like to know more about the world, we still tend to get buried by our country's false idea that we are the center of it and that there are a few other homogeneous continents. The variety of movements from different countries and cultures of Latin America as well as Rojava and Kurdish resistance are critical in understanding and thinking about how to build new worlds without capitalism and the state. I enjoyed learning a lot more about the Zapatistas, which I always knew I should know more about as well. It was also interesting to read more indepth about how critical women have been in these movements despite the universal assumption of maleness often hiding their efforts.

Zibechi is the kind of theorist that seeks out real life structures and analyzes them in order to ask new questions, rather than relying on idealist hypotheticals. While I am regularly accused of being an idealist, I also see how many of us can be naive when it comes to implementation of sustainable, long term, anti-authoritarian and autonomous communities. He discusses ways of resisting neoliberalism while avoiding stepping into the shoes of the oppressor (such as is the case with authoritarian communisms.) What stuck out to me in these ethnographies was how words and structures I often associate with authoritarians took on different meaning. There is discussion of the holding of territories and keeping them independent from paramilitary, authoritarian, and abusive structures. There is discussion of several different kinds of organized guards of communities that protect them without turning into cops. While I would like to read a larger book about the specifics of how these structures keep from turning authoritarian, we do get an idea of many of the ways that they both protect autonomous communities and resolve conflicts in ways that are needed. There is acknowledgement that even if we were to dismantle all oppression, people will still be human- flawed and conflicted at times - in need of guidance and occasionally ostracism or defense. 

The way Zibechi discusses nonhuman animals could have been better. There are sections where other animals are discussed solely as items of trade as if they are the same as inanimate objects. In another section, he mentions the importance of relationships with the nonhuman world, but I did not see this described much in practice. I do also think he falls a little bit into the infallible indigenous people trope, even though he is able to fairly critique the ways in which other movements may have issues with patriarchy for instance. He does acknowledge that indigenous people are highly variable, but seems to default to them having it "correct" so to speak. Being that things such as extinction of hunted species, various versions of strict gender roles, and other issues have followed humans everywhere they have migrated since leaving Africa, I would have liked more in depth analysis of those things in his discussion of indigenous communities. That said, this is a 200 page book and in that space, he can only cover so much.

Constructing Worlds Otherwise is an great look into the way new things can be created from the ashes of the old or simply outside of them. It is passionately written, well researched, and translated with great skill. I learned a lot and definitely recommend it to anyone seeking ways of being outside of oppressive systems of control and exploitation.

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.