Book Review: Representing Radicals

 

Image: The cover of the book shows a black and white photo that has been photoshopped to give it more contrast and less sharpness. It depicts a cop in a riot helmet on the left staring down into the face of a protestor on the right. The protestor has lighter skin, dark clothing, and bangs coming down to a cm or so above their eyebrows. In the background is a black and grey silhouette of someone moving past from right to left. The image is cut off about 2/3 of the way from the left side by a diagonal solid red panel. At the bottom of the cover, across the chests of both people in the photo is the title of the book in red and the authors in white.

Representing Radicals: A Guide for Lawyers and Movements, assembled by Tilted Scales Collective, is a nice little book that is valuable for organizers and should be required reading for attorneys. I am not a lawyer or legal scholar and thus cannot speak much to the accuracy or effectiveness of the broad range of legal topics and strategies contained in this guide. As a result, this review will be a bit shorter than usual. I have however been involved in legal support, have dealt with my own drama, have had many radical prisoner penpals, have organized a lot in the past, and have seen the results of the organizing of many others. With that background and what it has taught me, this guide seems pretty on point.

Representing Radicals is accessibly written such that lawyers and non-lawyers can read it. I read it cover to cover, but it is well organized such that a reader could skip around to the sections that are most relevant. Any references to already covered material refer to the section of the book in which it can be found. Tilted Scales Collective describe themselves on their website as, "a small collective of dedicated anarchist legal support workers who have spent years supporting and fighting for political prisoners, prisoner of war, and politicized prisoners in the so-called united states." These politics definitely shine through in the text which is unapologetically leftist, but it still remains appropriate for an audience outside of the far left.

The guide offers a breakdown of why specific and sometimes unique legal strategies are necessary when working with radical defendants. TSC covers the wide variety of ways to tackle cases of leftists with an emphasis on cooperation between legal counsel and defendants as well as the importance of non-cooperation with the state. (Meaning not snitching or otherwise endangering one's comrades.) They offer a lot of anecdotes which show their recommendations in practice which is an indispensable part of the book (though the font on these sections is VERY small and tough to read.) They also cover how to work with legal support organizers and the variety of ways media considerations are critical in defenses of radical activists. 

I got a lot out of this book, even though I was not the target audience. It's a quick read and definitely worth one's time, especially if they are involved in organizing in any way. For lawyers, I can't think of an excuse for not reading this book, except perhaps the public defenders who are sitting on 350 cases and haven't slept in 3 days. If you work in legal defense, this should be on your bookshelf with lots of bookmarks and highlights.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Saving Animals

 

Image: The cover of the book is a photo from an animal sanctuary. Depicted is a pic shown from their shoulders forward. They are pink with spots of dirt and plant debris. They are relaxed, their eyes are closed, and their expression of contentment resembles a smile. There are small orange pumpkins cut in half on the ground around them. In the distance to the right, a fence with what looks like people stands. Behind the fence is a bare tree. Across the bottom left is a whited out section with the authorr's name- Elan Abrell- in orange letters. Below that in larger stencil style black letters is "Saving Animals." Below that in smaller grey letters is, "Multispecies ecologies of rescue and care."

I was introduced to Elan Abrell's "Saving Animals: Multispecies Ecologies of Rescue and Care" through my participation in VINE Sanctuary's monthly book club. I knew it was an academic book, but was not sure exactly what to expect having not read this author before. I found the writing style to be more accessible than average for this type of text. The design of the book with fantastic photography peppered throughout is engaging. Most informative for me were the topics discussed therein.

 I have known for a long time that rescue of any kind is very hard work. Some people imagine rescue and related work is this odd fantasy where all you do all day is cuddle animals and that space for new ones is unlimited. The reality is that animal rescue of any sort is full of physically and mentally draining work, very tough decisions, meticulous management of resources, and a variety of techniques and theories as to how things should work. My personal experience in the past is with "companion" animals (cats, dogs, rats,) and wildlife, (mostly birds, sometimes others like groundhogs.) Due to health issues, I am not very active anymore. 

There was one very large rescue I was part of (I am not in that article for the record, also warning for some graphic images.) I was doing media for the organization I was with at the time, was working full time, and spending my weekends volunteering with the rescued cats that had survived, often trudging my way through a place whose smells I will never forget. We saw an incomprehensible level of suffering and neglect that affected all of us deeply- human and feline alike. What I can say is that the web of corruption and destruction was so far reaching- across multiple states, other rescues, and so on, and being one of the faces of it (not even a big or ever present one) made me a target for attacks by the people defending the unstable and highly histrionic owner and her abuses of other animals. I met so many individuals there that I will never forget who fought against, and sometimes even survived unimaginable horrors. Many were adopted out and the ones who could not be live(d) out their lives in a separate location. I mention this anecdote, not to make it about me, but because it affects how I read a text like this. If someone writing about rescue and sanctuary is feeding me rainbows and sunshine alone, I am going to call bullshit. Overall, I found the text to be in line with the kind of struggles that can be involved in rescue and sanctuary, along with the beauty that people often imagine- which also very much exists.

What I found unique about this ethnography was that Abrell didn't just investigate and perform interviews at sanctuaries. He actively volunteered and took part in the tough work involved in daily maintenance. He volunteered at well organized and managed sanctuaries as well as one that was overwhelmed by their inability to say "no" and the surrounding community taking advantage of that. This gave him more well rounded insight that observation of others, interviews, and statistics alone could not. Despite his personal involvement in these systems and sanctuaries, I still found him pretty objective in ways that would allow someone who wasn't fully on board with the importance of rescue to read this book and gain from it.

There are a lot of topics covered quite well. Abrell uses the term bestia sacer to discuss the ways that other animals as property are not allowed to have worth and function outside of what is taken from them to create products of consumption, be it for food or companionship- causing them to be in the realm of those who can be legally and culturally sacrified. In some sanctuary narratives, nonhuman animals are still absent, as the focus is often on the humans-as-saviors narrative. Abrell captures the reality of how other animals also make contributions to sanctuary life and design- when allowed to- instead of framing them as a catalogue of beings secondary to the humans involved in rescue. His observations at VINE were indicative of this in particular. But, he and the workers at the sanctuaries featured all seemed to agree that sanctuary is nowhere near being 100% liberation. It still involves confinement and control and various sanctuaries have different ways the manage the level of control they use. VINE allows some chickens to rewild themselves in forests while some other sanctuaries disagree with this due to possible exposure to dangers. Some sanctuaries allow themselves to come dangerously close to a vegan petting zoo, while others have very strict boundaries kept between humans and the animals living there. One thing is for sure though, nothing was 100% anywhere. That is to say, you can only control so much of the lives of others and the surrounding environment.

Abrell includes a long, somewhat dry section on budgeting and fund raising. (Maybe if you're into economics, it would not be dry for you.) Either way, it's a critically important topic. Some people expect anyone working for a cause to work for free, to give everything they have, to never say no, and to never make mistakes. Through his research, Abrell shows how these are all recipes for disaster. Management of funds, proper treatment of staff, well organized volunteers, and a hell of a lot of use of the word, "no," is how the longest running sanctuaries stay afloat.

One of the more interesting and simultaneously more uncomfortable and painful sections to read was that of necro-care which Abrell describes as, "a form of selective biopolitical intervention that relies on categories of difference similar to those from which they hoped to liberate animals." For example, like humans, other animals differ greatly between species and as individuals within species. Some want to cuddle with you, others want nothing to do with you, some may attack their fellow sanctuary residents, others may provide critical assistance to a disabled resident of a completely different species. 

Another dilemma is when sanctuaries must balance the rescue of obligate carnivores and predators that cannot subsist on vegan diets. Or, on a more common level, how we who share our homes with cats manage to feed them while being against killing the animals in their feed. In some ways, since my cat is on a prescription food that has slaughterhouse leftovers in it, I can quell my cognitive dissonance by telling myself animals aren't killed primarily for her food (a stretch,) or I can accept that she is in my care in an imperfect world and I am responsible for that and hopefully in the utopian vegan world of never never land, both problems will work themselves out. For sanctuaries that choose to raise and kill mice for birds of prey or reptiles to eat, it can be much more difficult to accept and manage. However, the people Abrell interviewed seemed to have been well chosen for the tasks of ethical ambiguity and killing of one animal to support another. This whole area leaves me with a queasy feeling. I am an idealist who also loves to put things, that cannot be boxed in, into tiny containers that I can easily grasp and analyze. That's not the reality of rescue or of life in general, and different sanctuaries deal with this in different ways. I came away from this section thinking a lot, not having any answers, and trying to be ok with not having any answers.

To wrap the book up, Abrell summarizes his findings in as well organized a fashion as the rest of the book. He acknowledges all of the challenges and gray areas, yet still conveys a message of the critical importance of sanctuaries both for the individual animals therein and for the wider struggle against capitalist oppression. I am looking forward to listening to his and others' thoughts at tomorrow's book club.  If you are interested in signing up last minute, join us here. Even if you didn't read the book, you can always come and listen or ask questions.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Intersectional Class Struggle

Image: The cover of the book is a muted orange color. Across the top, in large red letters is "Intersectional class struggle." Below that in slightly smaller green letters is, "theory and practice." Below that in smalller black thin letters is the author's name- Michael Beyea Reagan. There are 4 line drawings of people on the front shown from different perspectives and drawn in different sizes. In the center in green is a woman with a hijab, to the right in black is a person with a mask on and short hair. To the center left is a person with short hair bent slightly forward. On the left, mostly cut off, is a person facing right and downward, focusing on a knife or similar object they are using to perform a task.

Michael Beyea Reagan's Intersectional Class Struggle: Theory and Practice seems to me to be a thesis modified to become book form. The structure, length, and writing style suggests this but I could be mistaken. Also, I am not sure if they are typos from the original, but there are many "we" statements in expressions of goals and outlines for the text even though there is only one author on the cover. Reagan's book is an academic text that sets out to explore and expand the understandings of intersectionality and class. This book is difficult for me to review because it seems to be a matter of personal taste and previous knowledge that affects my opinion of it. I found the text a bit dry and boring at times, but that doesn't mean it is objectively dry or boring. I have read a lot about these topics over time and thus, I was not introduced to much new information. That said, I think this book could be a great introductory text for anyone who is purposefully or accidentally class reductionist in their worldview. It diverges from the common trend- in discussions of class struggle found in the words of more mainstream politicians like Bernie Sanders and further left thinkers and activists- that labels any mention of race, gender, etc as divisive and distracting from "class." I use quotes there because race, gender, ability, etc and completely intertwined in class as Reagan explains in this text. 

I found the book to be sort of split into (unlabeled) thirds in terms of content where the first and third fit in well with the title and goals of the book and the middle section seems out of place. The introductory sections and end piece focusing on intersectionality are a decent overview of how class and intersectionality are inseparable. But, I felt a bit confused by the center. Reagan devotes the middle of the book to a drawn out description and analysis of a bunch of (ironically) mostly white male anarchist, communist, and socialist thinkers. I believe the intention was to pull together the theories therein with wider intersectionality and its precursors as a whole, but I didn't see many intersections aside from stray sentences here and there until Stuart Hall is discussed at the very end. It runs the counterproductive risk of portraying these men as the original people discussing class and Black liberation, anti-racist, intersectional feminist, lgbtq etc as far newer entities birthed by the civil rights movement, neither of which is true. Reagan also suggests (more than once) that thinkers like Kimberle Crenshaw lacked a class analysis which left me scratching my head. From what I recall, class was always a big part of her analysis. What didn't work for me, but what also can make this a good introductory text, is what a reductive view we got of certain schools of thought and movements outside the center section. A disproportionate amount of time was spent discussing theorists who did not focus on intersectional politics vs the small cameos many others received. I believe that the latter is likely because Reagan wanted to include as many people as possible, but why not write a longer book so they get the amount of attention that would match the stated goals of the text.

The last section was most informative for me because it introduced me to some people I had not previously known about. It also becomes clear in these highlights how class, race, gender, and sometimes sexuality were all connected according to the people discussed. I found how little LGBTQ issues were mentioned to be disappointing and the lack of discussion of disability while talking about the value of labor labor labor work work work was a missed opportunity. There is a small section on climate change, but this could have been more thorough as well and expanded to include other animals. I would have preferred if the author explored these specifics more instead of giving a drawn out analysis of Marxist materialism for instance. 

All of that said, I do see what the author was trying to accomplish: A general (and perhaps unintentionally introductory) knitting together different schools of thought by highlighting the works of key figures in history who clearly state and show that class is indivisible from race and gender. While this book was not really for me, I can envision a number of people it would be good for. I also found the book to be very well organized which allows for a wider audience because the reader can skip around if they choose and still be able to grasp Reagan's thesis.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Four Hundred Souls

 

Image: The cover of the book is an abstract painting of a slightly overhead and far away view of a long parade of people moving up or down the scene. The background of the painting is mixed big brush strokes of beige, cream, oranges, and blues. The large number of people walking are depicted through scattered brush strokes and line work. Their heads and bodies are black and what looks to be their clothing is mostly shades of blue with a stray bit of red or pink here and there. In large white capital letters, the center of the book says "four hundred souls." Across the top in smaller letters is, "a community history of African America, 1619-2019." Across the bottom is, "edited by Ibram X. Kenid (author of how to be antiracist,) Keisha N. Blain (author of set the world on fire.)"

Prior to reading Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited by Keisha N. Blain and Ibram X. Kendi, I can't recall reading a history book written in anthology form. I have definitely read plenty of anthologies that tackled history, but never in a focused sort of form like this. I think this worked extremely well, creating an interesting and engaging historical account while also covering a wide range of voices. There are some things in this book that I already knew about, and many others I did not. The execution of each essay is quite good which if often not the case in the world of mixed bags that make of anthologies. 

One of the things that stuck out to me in particular while reading this was how listening to these histories made me feel in reference to the time period depicted. In the USA's abysmal system of grade school education, we basically learn there's this horrible thing called slavery that is now over. If we're lucky, we also learn about Jim Crow. We tend to be told that things are constantly progressing and many people draw from this the conclusion that we live in some mythical post racial society. However, as the writings in this moved forward in time, I often found myself more horrified rather than less. The reader will likely find themselves drawing parallels between these histories and the present day state of affairs. It lends more support for the idea that oppression doesn't disappear, it just changes shape, and the struggle continues.

It's pretty difficult to think of things worse that existing as an enslaved person. So, what I am saying here is not that after slavery people were worse off. However, I think the mixture of the expectation that things should get better with the fact that they only changed shape is what is really disturbing. At every step of the way, people fought, often losing their lives and freedom, for the most basic of rights and needs. But, because those in power generally did not want to give in, the way these successes were executed often placed new hardships and burdens on people. It is not that I did not already know this. I think that the way all of this was executed created a clearer picture and experience of these histories to the point that it is quite disturbing.

This is not to say that the book is purely a history of suffering. There are a great many stories of triumph and creativity. Some of the entries give us glimpses into well known peoples lives that I had not heard before. Others highlight movements such as Black anti-fascist organizing that are often forgotten in the current day misrepresentation of anti-fascism being a white-invented and white-dominated fight. There was also inclusion of LGBTQ struggles and disabled figures in history. Disability is often neglected despite the fact that a massive number of enslaved people were given disabilities by those who abused them- including well known figures like Harriet Tubman.

I think the editors did a great job putting this book together. If you are the type of person who wants to learn history, but lacks the attention span for long books about it, this kind of format might better suit you. The introduction of each new voice with each entry creates an excellent and engaging experience using complex voices to speak on complex topics.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Hummingbird Salamander

Image: The cover of the book is a stylized realistic illustration or edited photo (I cannot tell) or a hummingbird in flight. The background is a blurry mix of teal, pink, and white. In the foreground, there is a profile of a hummingbird in the center, wings extended perpendicular to her body, tail spread out and pointed downward. She has a body that is a mix of blues and teal with pinkish purple wings and tail. There are also water droplets scattered throughout the air in the foreground making it look almost like the scene is underwater. Across the top, in outlined block letters is the title, and across the bottom, the author's name. To the left of the bird in small letters is, "A novel by the New York Times Bestselling author of Annihilation."

Jeff Vandermeer is one of my all time favorite fiction authors. He has a way of combining things I love such as weird horror and science fiction while also using them to explore environmentalism, ecology, technology, humanity, animality, and many other factors of existence. His new eco-thriller Hummingbird Salamander is a bit different from his other books I have read. It brings the story down a bit from the fantastical world of mutated creatures surviving dystopia or alien colonization to a story that situates itself well into current times.

The story focuses on a security consultant ("Jane") who becomes immersed in worlds quite opposite her own in order to follow the trail left for her by an "eco-terrorist," (Silvina.) One thing that never becomes clear to me in this book is why the word eco-terrorist was used so freely. There is a great deal of story that occurs that forces the reader to grapple with the reasoning for why someone may or may not commit crimes in the name of eco-defense or animal liberation. This I appreciated. Yet, at the same time, I still found the t-word to be overused. Perhaps I am more sensitive to it as a person who has lived through some of the worst manifestations of The Green Scare. I do like how Vandermeer wrote his character and her journey to a better understanding.

This book has a lot of the markers of a thriller complete with tension, mystery, action, and plenty of twists and turns. The protagonist is quite and interesting character as a woman who does not fit into many conventional boundaries set for her. This serves her well in her journey. The way Vandermeer writes this character is careful and with skill. Even though I find her choices to leave everything behind including her family to be a bit unlikely, I like that we have a flawed female character who explores the story despite the harm she causes to others in the process. Her journey seems to begin as a purely selfish pursuit, but later becomes more about finding some sort of justice or at least solving the mystery for the sake of Silvina.

This was an enjoyable read, but not my favorite from Vandermeer. The style explored in the Area X and Borne series is still my preferred and favorite medium for Vandermeer's work. But, if he put out another eco-thriller, I still be excited to read it. I will always appreciate how he brings issues of environmentalism and animal liberation into a palatable mainstream understanding through bizarre and creative means.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Let the Record Show

 

Image: The cover of the book shows a black and white photo of a group of ACT UP activists protesting in mid chant, many holding signs or with their fist in the air. Over top of it is a  red section designed like a poster or sticker that was scraped off in many sections to reveal the image underneath. Across the top of the section in smaller black uppercase letters is, "A POLITICAL HISTORY OF ACT UP NEW YORK, 1987-1993." Below that in very large black letters is, "LET THE RECORD SHOW." Below that in smaller black letters is the author's name: Sarah Schulman.

 I feel so grateful to have read Sarah Schulman's "Let the Record Show" for a wide variety of personal and communal reasons. Buckle up, this is a long review of a long book that could never be long enough to capture my appreciation but I will try.

I consider myself to be very interested in radical and LGBTQ history. It is frustrating how the tellings of history often get so muddled and distorted over time, sometimes intentionally, but often just by accident and well intentioned ignorance. For instance, have you heard that Stonewall was mainly trans women of color throwing rocks at cops? Usually people will name drop Sylvia Rivera or Marsha P Johnson when they state this. However, if you watch, read, and/or listen to the vastly available interviews by both of them, they will tell you this is not true. In this interview, Sylvia states:

"The Stonewall wasn’t a bar for drag queens.  Everybody keeps saying it was.  So this is where I get into arguments with people.  They say, “Oh, no, it’s always a drag queen bar and it was a black bar.  No, Washington Square Bar was the drag queen bar.  Okay, you could get into the Stonewall if they knew you and there were only a certain amount of drag queens that were allowed into the Stonewall at that time. 

We had just come back in from, um, from Washington, my first lover and I.  We were passing forged checks and what not.  But we were making good money.  And so, well, let’s go to the Stonewall.  Let’s do our thing.  Let’s go there, you know.  Actually it was the first time that I had even been to friggin’ Stonewall."

Someone behind Sylvia threw the first bottle. So, she becomes merely a token in some of today's newer narratives who are happy to invoke her name in an argument but aren't willing to listen to her voice. Do you know about the Compton's Cafeteria Uprising? That fits the narrative of trans women of color fighting back against cops and injustice, but it's not as well known precisely because it was actually trans women of color making up a large majority of people there and the people with the least power rarely get to write history.

Discovering these things in my search for knowledge of the past has always left me eager to look things up when people- particularly those of a generation who were not alive when certain events happened,  make sweeping or reductive statements about history. I have sought out multiple books and documentaries about or including ACT UP and none of them came even close to Schulman's book. In fact, while reading it, I often felt like I had been lied to for so long. Schulman addresses certain histories in the book in more detailed ways. But, in short, if you've learned that ACT UP was "run" by a gay man who was the "leader," that the group belonged to one of these said men who near single handedly started it, or that women were not/barely involved aside from in caregiving, that was false. If you didn't realize how IV drug users were a huge part of the death toll, who had far less access to community and resources, and who also joined the movement, the truth was omitted. If you have been told that a few white gay men lifted up as celebrities were what ACT UP was, that was a lie. If you know little of the vast diversity of very effective tactics used by ACT UP and the organization that went into them, it's a shame, and so was I. Have you ever heard that AIDS was first discovered in the early 1900s, long before it was called a "gay disease?" Did you know that Haitian prisoners with AIDS were kept in Guantanamo Bay? Me neither. Did you know that even while people were dying in horrific ways around and inside ACT UP, people still managed to have fun, find joy, find love, and live the best lives they could in the circumstances? Probably not because we rarely talk about that part of history. Even the limited or misleading histories still offered so much importance and knowledge, don't get me wrong. I don't mean to say they're useless. But, Schulman wrote this book to share what really happened and to lift up voices and organizing efforts that most of us who weren't there never knew existed- even if we've sought the history out. The labor of the huge amount of interviews alone that went into creating this is difficult to even imagine. The task of whittling this book down to over 700 pages is an immense one.

I found this book to be an experience from cover to cover. The whole design of this heavy weight of knowledge was excellent. I recommend getting your hands on the physical book, even if you're usually an ebook or audiobook person (which are both also available if physical books are not accessible to you.) The cover art and images from a time before the digital age all add so much to the book. I like that Schulman didn't try to make it a linear story. It would have been impossible to do so. Even without being linear, the book is still fantastically organized. I could always tell whose interview I was reading, what general time period it was in and what else may have been going on, and so on. 

One of the things I learned in the biggest way was how a group of people made up of highly diverse backgrounds and identities managed to be so successful. When we discussed this in VINE Book Club, many of us mentioned trying to figure out how to mobilize people the way ACT UP did on other issues such as climate change. AIDS and climate change were/are causing endless unjustified and avoidable suffering and death, but climate change is such an abstract thing to many people in a way that AIDS was not. The level of detail this book goes into about what it was like to have people in and outside the organization dying horrific deaths captures something we don't usually discuss in histories of illness and disability. But, these details are critical to truly seeing the picture of what things were like during the time period covered in this book. There was also the reality that ACT UP allowed people to be messy, flawed, to have big disagreement, and room for illness and care giving by using affinity group models and parallel organizing structures. I asked Sarah Schulman at our book club if she had any advice on how to deal with big conflicts within movements of today. I will likely butcher this and not include all of what she said. But, it was something to the tune of taking things piece by piece, rather than focusing on abstract rules or flattening an organization or movement to only doing things one way. When I mentioned that some white single issue animal rights people have mentioned allowing plant based fash (yes, unfortunately this is a thing however small) into movements and how to deal with that question of knowing where to draw the line. Her answer was basically that if you don't want to organize with someone, don't. And don't use valuable time fighting the abstract. Is a fascist trying to organize with you on a project right now? The answer is no, I have only seen this phenomena on the internet. And these answers were so simple and helped me realize how much valuable time I may have squandered on enforcing these sort of rules and hypotheticals inside my head. Schulman shared a lot more with us as well, but I have a horrible memory and may have already quoted things wrong so I won't attempt to detail them all here. I was very grateful she was able to join the humble book club when she's probably massively busy.

Another theme in the histories detailed in this book is that of growth and transformation. Would you ever work with a gentrifier? ACT UP turned a gentrifier into a lifelong housing activist. Do you think of gay cis men when you think of reproductive justice? Many gay men in ACT UP worked with women in ACT UP and joined the pro choice actions and movements during that time as well. There were youth caucuses, drug user advocacy, and people doing work with prisoners of all stripes. There were so many young people brand new to activism learning the ropes and doing profound work. There is also a lot of interesting discussion of how privilege was a double edged sword in ACT UP. White gay men with privilege and connections were able to get ACT UP access to people and agencies that women and/or people of color never could have. But, at the same time, this risked assimilation politics and white male agendas dominating the actions taken after those connections were made. 

There is also a lot of information on how Anthony Fauci fit into this history and it was interesting to read how problematic he was around AIDS work given how he is valorized by so many today. I was left wondering how much the AIDS crisis affected him over time and how it affected his approach to COVID-19. It would be great to have him read this book and respond, but I doubt he will make time for that (understandable during a global pandemic.)

Last, I want to say that I am alive because of the people in ACT UP featured in this book. They made the world safer and more accessible for me as a Queer and Trans person- because ACT UP was about much more than AIDS. But, there is another aspect this book helped me internalize that I initially did not, even though I should have from talking to friends who were there. I was an IV drug user over 16 years ago and was an addict for many years. Without the clean needle programs that ACT UP members put their lives on the line for- which were thankfully legal by the time I needed them, I would very likely have ended up with Hepatitis C and/or HIV as well as the other issues such as abscesses and sometimes deadly and permanently disablling infections. I don't talk about my addiction history super publicly like this very much, but it's also not a secret. I am stating it here to stress that I am not being hyperbolic when I say that ACT UP not only saved and improved countless lives during the history of this book, but they have continued to do so for all future generations- some of whom joined the ACT UP chapters of today. 

I can't recommend this book enough. It is a gift to LGBTQ people- especially those who weren't present for ACT UP's organizing and activity. But, it is also critical reading for everyone else- especially organizers of all stripes. I don't know how else to put my gratitude into words.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Sorrowland

 

Image: The cover of the book is a artists rendition of a collection of various wild plants. The color scheme is blue with the background of the cover fading from a darker blue to navy blue and the illustration being composed of a spectrum of light blues. The plants look like they could be sea life or above ground, it is difficult to tell. All lettering on the cover is gold. The font is a capitalized calligraphy style. Across the top in a curved banner is the title of the book. On the right side in small letters is "a novel" and across the bottom is the author's name.

I was a huge fan of Rivers Solomon's first novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, when I had the pleasure of reading an ARC that I chose from a long list on a bit of a whim. That novel set the bar really high for their future works in my mind, which is perhaps why the second novel, The Deep, didn't do it for me. Going into Sorrowland, I had more realistic expectations and was open to it being anywhere on the quality spectrum. I can say that this one is definitely much better than the last.

I have mentioned before that fantasy as a genre does not have a huge appeal to me, though I have been overcoming this recently. This book sits in a fantasy realm, but extends far outside that as well, which made it much more enjoyable to me. I found the way that Solomon handled themes of liberation and oppression throughout the book to be creative and well orchestrated. Solomon captures the complexity of human beings who find themselves attached to different belief systems. The compound in the book mirrors some Black nationalist movements of the past and today and offers a lot of thought provoking content to the reader. Seeing how Vern and others are treated by a system that pretends to have their well being centered shows us that we can all still do great harm even when coming from a marginalized group or with an idea or intention to do good.

Through these creative lenses, Solomon also becomes a historian, weaving pieces of the long and horrific past of the so-called USA- and how that past inspires places like the compound to come into existence. As Solomon's past writings have, this book is full of a lot of creative Queerness. I am often a person who isn't big on long detailed sex scenes in books- I honestly don't know why given my history. But, the few in this book were approached from such a creative standpoint that I did not mind them.

I am very glad that Solomon has continued to write and that smart publishers continue to publish their work. I am looking forward to their next contribution.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Long Division

 

Image: The cover of the book is a black background with multicolored illustrations on top. There are blue leaves and grass on the top and bottom with yellow zigzag lines behind them. In the upper left corner is a partially obscured illustration of a keyboard. In letters ranging from white to cream in a style of being painted capitalized with a wide brush is the title of the book, an elipsis, and under it the author's name. below that in small white letters is a blurb from Jesmyn Ward saying, "Smart and funny and sharp... I loved it."

I usually reserve posts on this blog for books to be released or that which have been released in the past year. In the case of this post, I am reviewing the newest edition of Kiese Laymon's "Long Division," despite it first being published in 2013. I did not read it back then, but can tell from the book design alone that it has been given a necessary makeover. 

In order to avoid spoilers, I will remain vague about why the cover matters here. But, I will say that the design of the print version of this book is grounded in what happens in the story more than the previous cover. This occurs in a way that I have previously never encountered and added to the direction the book took me on. I felt like part of the story in some ways.

I had previously only read nonfiction by Laymon, and knew he excelled immensely in that realm. But, I am always cautious going into a book that is a genre shift that the author or I am not used to. Some authors can write beautiful nonfiction and terrible fiction and vice versa. However, I was unsurprised to find that Kiese Laymon also excels in the fiction arena.

The book is a bit of a genre bender. At one point it is referred to as a "young adult book for adults" and I see how that fits. You follow teen and young adult characters throughout the story, but it strikes me as a bit different from the usual YA sort of style. (Though I completely admit, since I haven't enjoyed a lot of YA, I am no expert there.) This book also can be classified as scifi or even fantasy, but it doesn't settle directly into those genres either. Judging by the other books of Laymon's I have read, this is also a autobiography-inspired fiction, where characters in the story deal with similar things that Laymon has dealt with in his own life. One could likely attach a number of other genre labels to this as well.

I enjoyed this about this book and how Laymon did not allow the expectations of fiction genre to dictate the arc of this story. I loved how the design of the print book fit into it all. I found myself surprised by where it took me and enjoyed the ride. I have yet to meet a Kiese Laymon book that I did not like. I am looking forward to the next thing he puts out.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Body Shocks

 Image: The cover of the book is a busy mix of text and artwork. It is composed primarily of black, white, and shades of red. At the center is an eye, staring towards the reader with the lids wide open. Due to the color, one could assume this is only the muscles and flesh under the skin being shown. Around the eye is a circle of intertwined and broken nerves and blood vessels of various sizes and shades. The background is black with splotches of red resembling something like blood added to a petri dish of water. Across the top, in a stylized white font with sharp edges is the tite of the book. Below that is "edited by Ellen Datlow" in red and white, each line separated by a thin white line. Across the bottom of the book is a list of 15 of the many authors contained in the book in small white font. Below that is a gray line across the bottom.

As someone who is generally put off by what many call "torture porn" in film and writing, I found myself surprised by how much I enjoyed body horror stories. Perhaps enjoyment is the wrong word. While there is surely overlap between the two, the creative way that good body horror stories create a disconcerting tension around how we view and expect bodies to be separates it from the lazy technique of showing gratuitous violence (more often against women than not) in order to shallowly upset the viewer. Kameron Hurley's book "The Stars are Legion" and Cronenberg's film "The Fly" both come to mind immediately when I think about body horror that affected me in lasting ways. Both of these are considered to be mainly in the science fiction category, but manage to horrify nonetheless. 

 When I saw that the anthology, "Body Shocks: Extreme Tales of Body Horror," edited by Ellen Datlow, was coming out, I figured I should give it a shot. The draw for me were the names of some authors I really enjoy such as Tananarive Due and Carmen Maria Machado on the cover. I went in expecting new stories from these authors, but the entire collection is composed of stories that were previously published elsewhere. As a result, I had already read the ones included. On top of that, for these two authors in particular, the stories chosen are not good representations of or introductions to their talent.

One of the best things about this book is actually its visual design. The cover is not my favorite, but the inside of the book is full of artwork by John Coulthart. The works of his featured within all deal with manipulations of black and white educational anatomical imagery. Part of me wants to cut the pages out of this book and frame them were it not for the stories on the other side. The graphic design in general is also very good and creates a well rounded experience.

The stories, however, on the whole were mostly unimpressive. All anthologies tend to be a mixed bag, but this one leaned more to the side of lower quality stories unfortunately. Some of them have great promise, but are then abruptly cut off. Others just aren't very good. There are a few that really did shine though and they made reading the book worth it.

Of these, I found Seanan McGuire's "Spores," which focuses on a lesbian couple's unsettling experience with something so prevalent around us, to be the best in the book, hands down. I originally thought that McGuire usually wrote young adult novels, which is why I have not read much of her stuff. After this story, I am definitely adding things to my to-read list. Lucy Taylor's "Subsumption," is my second favorite story. If you like things similar to Jeff Vandermeer's work, you'll probably like this story. It's only fault is that it is far too short. It felt like something interesting enough to be a full book or at least a longer story. Kirstyn McDermott's "Painlessness" was pretty interesting, but it did lose me a bit in the ending where it takes an unnecessary turn away from thoughtful examination of the story to torture porn. "Welcome to Mengele's" by Simon Bestwick was intense and worth reading. The two aforementioned stories both deal with themes around sex work in interesting (and horrifying) ways. Gemma Files' "Skin City" was also worth reading, even if it lacked originality in some ways. 

This book is huge and has a large quantity of stories so, many things that did not float my boat may still appeal to others. The artwork in this book was a great complement and also stands quite well on its own. It's not the best anthology I have read, but there were still some great moments that made it worth my time.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: There is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart

 

Image: The cover of the book is divided in half from side to side by black and white separated by a paper torn edge. In the center is a realistic painting of a pomegranate, cut in half with the insides facing forward. There is one side full of seeds and the other with most seeds missing. Over the top in large white letters is "THERE IS NOTHING SO WHOLE AS A BROKEN HEART." Along the left side from bottom to top in red letters is, "MENDING THE WORLD AS JEWISH ANARCHISTS." On the right side in black letters is, "EDITED BY CINDY MILSTEIN."

There is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart: Mending the World as Jewish Anarchists is a book I have looked forward to since first hearing about its existence. (I will refer to the book as TNSWBH going forward for brevity's sake.) I did not realize at the time that a large chunk of the contributions in this book would either be from my city- Pittsburgh- or take place in it. Due to the atrocity that occurred at the Tree of Life Synagogue, I knew that it would undoubtedly be referenced, but that is only a small part of a much longer culture of Jewish anarchist community and resistance in Pittsburgh. I felt excited very early on to learn about all of the different Jewish organizing, art, creativity, and so on in the area that I had not known about before- and the book did not disappoint. I did have a little bit of anxiety. Of course, when reading and reviewing a book with contributors that I know personally and many others I have one degree of separation from, I want to give it a good review. I also do my best to be honest, so I really hoped it would live up to my expectations. It did and then some. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed everything written and edited by Cindy Milstein that I have had the pleasure to read. This book is yet another installment in their catalogue that is all around well edited and composed. I can honestly say I liked every entry in this and that is very rare for an anthology. TNSWBH is a diverse collection of nonfiction essays, folktales and mythology, and artworks from anarchist Jews in various locations. The graphic design of the book is lovely from cover to cover. The artwork inside is fantastic- I wanted to cover my walls with everything I saw in this book. I mentioned Pittsburgh already and I would say most of the essays actually come from people who lived there, formerly lived there, or who had done organizing there. This does limit the population and perspective of the book somewhat, but there are international contributions as well including that from other continents. 

I have been an atheist* since my early teens and was not raised with any more religion than a couple family members who mentioned they prayed to (Christian, I assume,) God. As a result, much of my education about different religions- outside of being told I was going to hell by far right Christians- has come later in life. Since Jewish religion is only part of the diverse and widespread Jewish heritage and culture throughout the world, I am even more ignorant of that than I am of Christian and religion-adjacent cultures. As a result, I am coming at a book like this with great wonder. I really appreciate how many of the entries included footnotes and descriptions for people like me to be able to understand and fully appreciate the words and content therein. This makes the book able to be appreciated by non-Jews while also, I assume, still giving Jews the ability to be centered. I learned a lot about various Jewish culture and history and how anarchist, radical, LGBTQ, Jews have made these things their own. I learned a lot about the struggles people have balancing oppression with privilege or finding their way in places that may lack understanding and acceptance. I learned a lot about the myriad of ways anarchist Jews have come together around celebration, tragedy, and everything in between to create community and effective organizing practices to heal themselves and the world. 

This book is delightfully Queer and that of course adds to the joy in reading the entries and viewing the artwork. The combination of Queer solidarity and Jewish community is a powerhouse of liberation. There was so much I didn't know about the history of Jewish anti-fascist resistance organized by Jewish women and other LGBTQ people. The book is also, unsurprisingly anti-Israeli-zionism and pro-Palestinian liberation, adding a chorus of voices to the conversation that is often dominated by right wing, zionist Jews. There are stories of dealing with anti-semitism across the board in everywhere from far right white supremacist attacks to your friendly neighborhood anti-semitic anarchist dude. I am so happy that the people in this book found each other because I cannot imagine going through any of these things alone. And that is another thing I learned: the power of radical left Jewish community is grand. At every atrocity, you can bet that there are likely anarchist and other far left Jewish organizers fighting for healing and liberation.

I would definitely put this book in the required reading category for pretty much all audiences. It was a gift to read.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

*I don't know if this is relevant, but just in case: I am not the kind of atheist that spends time in faux-intellectual debates about the existence of God(s) nor do I think religion is inherently bad or good. I find that to be a waste of time at best and highly oppressive or genocidal at worst. I think religion serves a great purpose for many people and scenarios and basically have a, "as long as your version of it isn't oppressive and calling for my and others' extermination, I am cool with it and want to learn more," sorta approach.

Book Review: Why We Fight

Image: The cover of the book is a candid photo of several protestors with gas masks, shields, and/or umbrellas fighting through tear gas on a city street. The photo has a greenish yellow filter tinting everything in it. The person on the left side is in mid stride and is holding a stick that may be a flag pole. From the center to the right side are all of the other protestors in the image. In off-center, slanted text is "Shane Burley" in white, "Why We Fight" in black, and "Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse," in greenish yellow. In small text down the right side it reads, "foreword by Natasha Lennard."

Shane Burley's new collection, Why We Fight: Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse brings quite a lot to the table. I had always known that there was likely much diversity between far right movements just as there is on the left. Nonetheless, I still always assumed the right to be far more united than we are. Like most people, I receive constant messages that the other side is a monolithic enemy. Burley's collection makes it clear they are indeed the enemies, but it taught me so much about the variations and diversity among fascist and other far right groups. This attention to the diversity of tactics and goals of far right, white supremacist, and/or fascist groups is critical in knowing how to resist them. This is not just a manifesto of sorts. Burley is a journalist and a good one at that. He provides copious footnotes and citations for his claims adding even more to the book's credit.

In his introduction to the book, Burley admits that he had made incorrect predictions about the (lack of) future threat of fascism in the past. He has since come to learn over time that the threat is all too real. In this collection, he examines various far right groups, histories, tactics, belief systems, and popularity. He includes a lot of information about key players, past and present, as well as fair analyses of their strengths and weaknesses. Groups and individuals covered include the alt right, alt light, kekistan, turning point, Richard Spencer, Andy Ngo, Jason Kessler, Atomwaffen, Incels, and many others. These essays show a fascinating amount of diversity among far right groups and their many detestable ideologies. It turns out, contrary to my thinking, they are not as united as I assumed. It feels odd to call this information "fascinating" when it is so horrific. But, I found myself completely immersed and intrigued by these glimpses into worlds that were not my own- often times using information gathered from infiltration online or other forms of cover skillfully executed by Burley.

Another thing that this book does quite well is that Burley manages to expose these far right individuals and groups and their abhorrent belief systems without platforming those beliefs. This can be difficult to do. Many more centrist journalists believe that we should allow Nazis plenty of air time to let us know what they believe, but this almost always backfires- especially with those who are skilled in word play and charisma. Burley details these groups and histories without giving them that sort of platform. This makes the book a good know-thy-enemy sort of resource as well as a resource that can be shared with someone who may not have their mind up or who simply lacked the information to know better.

My favorite essay in the entire book is "Contested Spaces." Much of my musical interest and focus since my early teens has been with industrial music and other dark and related genres. I can speak from experience that industrial has a very long far leftist political history, but has also attracted its share of fascists, misogynists, racists, and others. "Contested Spaces," begins as an examination of fascist forms of neofolk, then expands to highlight the anti-fascist neofolk artists who are reclaiming the genre. The essay continues to examine many other counterculture spaces in which a war between ideologies is waged. It is fascinating, well researched, and most of all offers a realistic depiction of the messy conflicted nature of the topic, rather than giving a watered down black and white description. 

All in all, I learned a ton from this book. I left it feeling as if I had graduated to an entirely new understanding of the topics and groups discussed therein. I definitely recommend this book for pretty much anyone, but especially for those center-to-left who desire a better understanding of the wide variety of people we are fighting against and why.

 This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Brotha Vegan

 

Image: The cover of the book is a Kelly Green background with an illustration of a medium brown skinned Black man standing to the right side. He is shown from the waist up and is holding a large basket of fresh fruits and vegetables. His t-shirt is also kelly green with a stencil of a raised fist in a circle. He wears a brown backpack and a purple bandana around his neck. He has natural black hair a few inches long and a cropped beard. He stares into the camera with a slight smile. To the left of his head in white letters is, "Brotha Vegan: Black men speak on food, identity, health, and society." Across the bottom in white letters is the editor's name: Omowale Adewale.

I finally had the opportunity to sit down and finish Brotha Vegan, edited by Omowale Adewale, and I will spare you the reasons for my delay. I want to start by saying that this is a book I am cautious about reviewing as a white vegan. Part of that is because this book, like Sistah Vegan that preceded it a ways back, is in part created to reclaim the narrative centering white vegan voices- especially those who tell Black vegans how they are allowed to discuss their lives and experiences with veganism. I also don't want to infantilize or treat Black vegans as incapable of being human or criticized. So, I am going to do my best and stay open to criticism myself.

Brotha Vegan was initially an effort by Breeze Harper intended to be published soon after Sistah Vegan, but many things got in her way and it never came to be. Luckily, Omowale Adewale picked up the torch as editor many years later, allowing it to be published today. I was very excited to pick up this book as soon as I heard about it.

One of the first things I will say is that the definition of vegan that I personally follow is an amalgamation of the vegan society's definition of avoiding all animal exploitation as far as is possible and practicable and an expansion based on tenets of collective liberation- meaning I see it as a social justice movement intertwining human and nonhuman animals. I do not believe any of these things can be divided from one another if something is called veganism. Not everyone agrees with that- including many authors in this book (and many also disagree with one another.) So, I admit that with the first few essays of this book, I struggled to power through. They focused mainly on plant based diets for health and weight loss. While I agree health is is a critical element in the equation, especially involving food justice aspects and healthcare empowerment, these discussions often teeter dangerously into the realms of making sweeping unsubstantiated claims based on anecdotes, ableism including the erasure of chronically ill and disabled vegans, and general fat antagonism (that also erases fat vegans.) The editor does acknowledge that there is ableism in vegan communities in the introduction and thus I assume he knows the danger in the texts. His goal is to foster conversation about these things rather than to offer a bible of perfection, which is definitely fair. I also can't get behind veganism without any inclusion of other animals, so I notice when there is no mention of them whatsoever. 

In the beginning, there is also an interview with brilliant food justice advocate and vegan chef Bryant Terry where I immediately got excited, only to find it cut off after only a few questions. After this, is a much longer interview with a man who basically claims that CBD cures cancer based on an anecdote and I began feeling frustrated. I asked myself if the Sistah Vegan book I got so much from was like this as well. I know there was at least one anti-vaxxer in there, but overall I recall it being quite enlightening. Did I just not remember due to it being so long ago?

I believe I answered my own question when I got to the entry that is a conversation between Dr Breeze Harper and Dr Ietef Vita. I was immediately taken back to how her writing has affected me over the years and the conversation between these two was lovely and stimulating to read. So, there was definitely something special about Sistah Vegan that I was having trouble grabbing at in Brotha Vegan at first.

I did appreciate that there was a gay contributor and a genderqueer trans person often read as male. The editor is the first person to really tackle the direct inclusion of nonhuman animals in his entry. But, Kezekial McWhinney-StLouis- the genderqueer contributor- is the first to mention oppression of animals as their primary motivation. I immediately became excited to hear all about what veganism meant to a Black, fellow genderqueer trans person. I was dismayed to find that the interview was almost entirely the same generic questions cis people ask trans people about their transition and gender. Some of them were worded more respectfully, but I honestly held my breath wondering if they'd ask invasive below the belt questions which is often where these things go. The interviewer thankfully did not. Kezekial brings up animals and their ethical veganism more than once, but for the most part, the interviewer keeps going back to their transition and trans women being murdered and so on. It's one thing when a trans person decides to write something about being trans, but this was not that. I left knowing very little about their veganism and found that to be really disappointing. I looked them up online but could not find much from them, so this was a missed opportunity to put their way of looking at the issue out there and instead was a nonbinary trans 101 for cis people.

I am glad I stuck with this book though because it really improves as it goes along. It almost seems as if they chose to keep more simplistic entries in the beginning and move on to the more complex vegan entries as it went along. With the exception of the entry by a former police officer- who, while acknowledging Black folks bad relationships with police, still manages to defend cops and policing as a whole- I liked almost all of these entries even when they veered into dangerous aforementioned territory. I would have loved to hear from a Black disabled and/or chronically ill vegan or two who were dealing with illnesses and disabilities not reversed, cured, or mostly healed by veganism. I'm a long-time vegan on permanent disability due to multiple conditions (some mentioned by people in these essays as being reversible by veganism.) So, those voices are missing, but many others are present and it was really interesting to read all of the perspectives out there.

I particularly liked Milton Mills' piece, but not for the reasons people often focus on him. He's a medical doctor actually trained in nutrition, but what I enjoyed most were his statements on the importance of redefining masculinity and what it means to be a man in resistance to the eurocentric and colonialist toxic masculinity forced upon us. His discussions about how Black men are only allowed to be villains or objects of sexuality and entertainment were very important to the wider discussion of veganism. I really wish he would have included citations though because he makes a ton of health claims from studies without citing sources. Other contributors definitely include sources, so I am not sure why he decided not to. A couple of things he mentioned are things I have had since before veganism and for me, they were not solved by plant based eating, thus I am interested in reading the studies themselves. But, my own experience doesn't take away from his really well rounded and accessible way of describing the ways that environmental racism, white patriarchy, food insecurity, healthcare inaccessibility, oppression of animals, and so on intersect with each other in discussions of veganism.

Both members of dead prez get their own interviews which were both great reads. Hip hop and other music play a big role in the lives and professions of many other contributors and their veganism as well. Multiple men discuss how plant based nutrition lead to them later embracing nonhuman animals as part of the struggle- an important lesson to people (self included) when they see people attracted to plant based eating for health alone and that being equated with vegan movements as a whole. There were lovely stories such as how Dr. Anteneh Roba's fostered-then-adopted dog opened his heart and being to an entire wider world of experience and how Charles McCoy's alter ego PlantHero not only brought joy and education to his child and her classmates, but landed him an excellent job that allowed him to take his education about plants and other animals to wider lengths. There is an interesting discussion about comparisons of Black human oppression and that of other animals by BabaBrother-D B. Aammaa Nubyahn that is a topic many people are very uncomfortable with. I still believe that that is definitely a conversation to continue between Black folks- particularly Black vegans- but was interesting to read nonetheless. 

Among the conversations about health benefits of plant based eating that did not veer close ableism, we hear multiple inspiring stories about people and communities able to take control of their health and food access that white supremacist society has worked hard to rob from them. Multiple men describe not only their health improving, but their entire lifestyles and ways of looking at the world. The things shown in a lot of studies to be lessened in severity or reversible by whole foods plant based eating- type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, etc- were overtaking the lives of many contributors before plant based diet education offered them a way out or at least great relief. Many describe their medical doctors offering no nutritional education, being very ill informed about nutrition, and/or being actively hostile towards the idea of plant based nutrition. Outside of general health trends suffered by men, Black men are disproportionately affected by many due to lack of access to care but also due to straight up lies still spread in medicine passed off as fact (such as the eGFR lab tests being separate for African Americans, leading to them often not being diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in time to properly take measures to halt its progress.) Plant based eating and lifestyles have allowed people treated as disposable by these systems to take control of themselves and their communities in greater ways.

Overall, I am glad I read this book and glad I stuck with it. There are a lot of important voices and stories in here. I definitely left thinking, "I want to speak with someone about what I just read," as the editor stated as his intent in his introduction. Brotha Vegan adds a valuable volume to books I'd recommend to those seeking a world of knowledge outside of mainstream white veganism.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era

 

Image: The cover of the book is a vintage painting of an escape elephant running through village streets. The large grey elephant stands at the center with her mouth open and trunk raised into the air. All around her are people running or jumping out of her way. To the right, a woman carries on child while dragging the other by the hand. In front, a man in a navy blue coat is nearly falling over. People watch from the sidelines and there is a buggy in the background. To the left of the image (the elephant's right) is what appears to be a worker chasing after her. The bottom of the cover has a light mustard color band with the title of the book in white letters. Below that in black small letters on a white background is the author's name: Sarat Colling.

My attention is immediately drawn to any discussion of animal resistance against oppression. It seems to be a woefully neglected area of discussion, even within the varying human-organized movements that exist to act on behalf of and in solidarity with other animals. Even the furthest left, most radical animal activists often still refer to other species as voiceless, innocent, monolithic victims that need saving rather than participants in their own stories of liberation. Sarat Colling's  "Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era" is a scholarly work that tackles the topic of animal agency and resistance head on and with style. Having read a lot of academic works on this subject, I can say that not only is Colling's work well researched, theorized, and informative, it is also entertaining and offers a glimpse of hope even among such dire circumstances. The fantastic use of images throughout the book of everything from memorial statues of escaped and liberated animals to paintings that have been done of them over the centuries exposed me to many things I never knew existed. They also complemented the text very well as part of making this book more than simply a hardback printing of someone's graduate thesis.

Critiquing the idea of "voiceless" animals right off the bat, Colling states, "...by recognizing animals' embodied and political voices, we acknowledge their subjectivity and remain open to the possibility of their participation in and impact on social and political realms." However, Colling goes much further than "remaining open" to the idea and uses a long history and a variety of analyses to drive these points home. There is also a decent amount of groundwork for these ideas in her critiques of other flaws in the ways humans think about other animals such as how people fetishize wildlife when it suits them, then turn on a dime and attack rewilded animals or wildlife in general when it does not. Many people support wildlife protection solely for the reason that they want to continue exploiting said species. Many of these people also see animals who have escaped imprisonment and exploitation with fear and annoyance, often expecting someone to kill/recapture them, or decry any sort of sanctuary for animals as "wasteful." They do not blame those who put the animals in the situation to begin with, only the animals for daring to escape said situation and being a nuisance. I am sure one can imagine how we use this line of thinking against other humans as well. Colling also discusses the divides between humans and domesticated animals humans often see as objects vs those they see as individuals. An example would be their love of a family dog or cheering for an escaped cow that makes the news before sitting down to eat the flesh of another cow killed at the same slaughterhouse.

I used to write regularly about animal agency and resistance among other topics in the very unprestigious form of an old personal blog that was not good enough to warrant archiving. As a result, I had a ton of google alerts set up to tell me every time animal escapes and other forms of resistance were reported on or written about online. Back then, the internet was not used as much as it is now for reporting, yet I still got multiple alerts every day- so many that I needed to get them in digest form so as not to be completely overwhelmed. On top of the general reports, any time I saw someone writing about animal resistance analytically, I devoured what they had written. Any time I found a book connecting the struggles of humans to that of other animals in ways that fostered solidarity, intersectionality, and/or collective liberation- depending on how you define and relate to those words- I did my best to get my hands on it. Colling does reference a lot of these books and authors (Jason Hribal, Jeffrey St Clair, Aph Ko, Pattrice Jones, Carol Adams, and many many others) in her work, which is not to say it was redundant. Much of it was a good refresher as well as an excellent organization of decades of information put into one space. What I had not realized though is just how far back extensive discussions of animal resistance had gone and how far reaching the implications were. So, while this book does tie everything together in relationship to the "global capitalist era," Colling also provides a lot of history outside this in quite a small space. That is to say, this book is well edited and efficient allowing one to gain a lot from its somewhat short length.

What Colling also brings to the table for me is a strengthening of the idea that resistance matters. The world can often feel defeating, especially when we stay around long enough to see how much oppression manages to change shape every time liberation makes an advancement. The author manages to acknowledge the growth of many industries that terrorize, exploit, and slaughter animals (due to everything from population growth to globalized capitalism) while also making the convincing case that the great many kinds of resistance and struggle that other animals enact against their own oppression are indeed effective and far reaching. The publicized escape of a circus elephant like Tyke manages to change the law, awaken many people to the plight of circus animals, cause people to see animal performers as individuals, and many other longer lasting impacts. Colling describes how one woman credited the escape of Emily the cow from a slaughterhouse with her own decision to finally leave an abusive relationship. The self-liberation of a cow or chicken from a slaughterhouse truck or kill line can wake up an entire city or country to the idea that the animal is an individual with not only a desire to live and be free of suffering, but bravery, resistance, planning, thoughtfulness, and luck depending on the eventual outcome of their scenarios. (These range from happy endings like sanctuary living and the radicalization of many animal advocates or horrific ones like long fights legally and financially with animal exploiters that will do everything they can to secure animals' place as property and to take their lives even if they can't even profit from the individual anymore.) Even the animals unfortunately fall into the latter category, their action often inspires change for others in their plight. Colling's expansive analysis shows that every bit of resistance can put a dent in the armor of oppression and supremacy, especially if the news of that resistance is far reaching- much like any sort of activism or action taken on behalf of the liberation of self and/or others.

The book also includes indepth discussions over the centuries of how different forms of liberation have intersected with one another either intentionally or not. It's a common line from animal industry PR executives that animals who resist or escape are simply confused or "psychotic," (an ableist intersection Colling also discusses in depth.) This becomes far more difficult for them to get away with when one is informed of a great many instances where animals not only broke themselves out of enclosures, but also traveled to other enclosures both within and outside their own species in order the liberate other animals. Though not mentioned in the book, it seems relevant to include that even in the oppressive and deadly realm of captive animal laboratories, rats will forego certain rewards and advantages in order to free another rat from imprisonment. These sort of things happen all over the place where animals are held captive. On the other side of the coin, sanctuaries show how many interspecies friendships come to be when animals are given a safer and more secure place to do something more than hang on to survive. It is not only humans who befriend other animals or cats and dogs that befriend one another, animals all over the spectrum have created relationships from friendship to organizational and arguably tactical relationships. Colling shows how often they show direct, well thought out, measured, and planned actions for their and others liberation rather than being limited to some sort of cartesian reaction that zoo, circus, animal agribusiness, and other industry reps would like you to believe. We also know that not only do humans help other animals, other animals both in the wild and of interdependent domesticated species have made the decision to help humans. This is especially intense to think about when we remember the power dynamic that often* has humans in the position of power, especially in domestication scenarios.

*I struggled to decide whether to say "often," "usually," or some other word here instead of "always" in order to leave room for scenarios such as that of colonization via conservation orgs who commit genocide of indigenous people in order to "conserve" some species of wildlife, usually who are endangered because of non-indigenous people and colonization. Also, to include how some (usually white) people will elevate a the ethical status of a dog on instagram who they have never met above a Black person in their own damned neighborhood. There are quite possible ways to care about everyone involved, but those in power choose to pin oppressed groups against one another or use one oppressed group as a smokescreen or token in order to oppress another group.

Overall, this book does a good job of weaving collective liberation throughout its stories and analyses of animal resistance. Colling discusses colonialism, ableism, gendered oppression, racialization, and other dynamics that occur when humans interact with each other and with other animals. She makes connections between how colonialist borders have an intertwined and damaging effect on both marginalized humans and other animals. She discusses the gendered ways humans exploit and assign value to other animals. She discusses the racialization of humans using the exploitation and oppression of other animals as a vehicle and excuse to harm humans pushed into the category of other, while also forcing racialized humans to do the dirty work of abusing and killing animals (such as the traumatic and dangerous work of slaughter and "processing.") Tying these together, the author discusses the myriad of ways that capitalism strengthens existing oppression of humans and other animals, breeds new insidious forms of said oppression, and continuously allows all ill effects to grow and worsen over time while creating the illusion that forced participation in such oppression is consent.

On a personal level, I have to be very careful with books like this. In short, I have a pretty significant trauma history that my brain has not adapted well to in regards to what I have experienced regarding the exploitation, abuse and suffering of other animals (and humans.) I no longer watch undercover videos or read books and see documentaries that are long portrayals or descriptions of animal suffering. This puts me in a tough situation at times because sometimes brilliant assessments and critiques are couched within those texts and videos. I did take my time reading this book, and Colling does indeed give details of harrowing scenarios regarding other animals' suffering. However, there is something about the way she put it all together which made the book not only bearable, but empowering, inspiring, and offering a feeling of hope grounded in reality. Colling manages to avoid both the trap of "trauma porn" as well as the trap of false hope and misinformation. She manages to be unapologetic and direct about the agency and deserved liberation of other animals while also providing a sound framework for these ideas that even those not on board will have a difficult time ignoring if they actually engage with them. I coated the entire book with page flags and will undoubtedly come back to it for quotes, images, citations, and refreshers. This book is an excellent edition to the field of animal studies as well as to more general knowledge and activist applications.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: In Defense of Looting

Image: the cover of the book has an off-white background with an image of a large crowbar in the center. Beneath the curve of the crowbar is the title of the book. To the left and lowercase letters is the byline, "a riotous history of uncivil action."  Across the bottom near the lower tip of the crowbar is the author's name in bold letters.

I've been dealing with some issues since losing internet, changing cellphone carriers who all suck, and blah blah blah so I'm writing on my phone with hands full of tremor and coordination issues and thus not doing a great job with reviews. 

The shorter version (than Vicky Osterweil's In Defense of Looting deserves) of this is that I liked Osterweil's overall thesis, but I think the title may be more accurate as, "in defense of rioting" or "in defense of property destruction." The looting history including people looting themselves from situations of slavery and imprisonment was an interesting way of putting things. I think the books flaw is that it romanticizes certain things a bit too much and flattens out situations of civil unrest and illegalism as being unified and automatically liberatory when the reality is, it's complicated, messy, and it depends on if the tactics were advantageous for various situations. 

With how much people all over the political spectrum rewrite history and pretend all movements have been won by unicorns, puppies, kittens, hugging cops, and voting, maybe a little romanticism for the violent nature of all effective revolution balances it out. 

Book Review: Undrowned

 

Image: The cover of the book is a teal background. In a short red rectangle at the top, center, in white capitalized letters, it says "emergent strategy series." Across the top, 1/3 of the way down the cover is the title of the book in capital yellow letters with a 3D texture where the front of the letter is stylized with thin black lines. The text is underlined with illustrated waves. Below that is a stencil in dark blue of three dolphins circling one another. Below that, in white letters is the second part of the title, "black feminist lessons from marine mammals" in white letters also underlined by waves. Across the bottom in yellow letters is the author's name: Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

My immediate impression upon beginning to read Alexis Pauling Gumbs', "Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals," was that I could tell that the author is a poet. I have read a lot of books which focus on the intersections or overlaps with human experiences and that of other animals. Most of these come from a scientific or critical theory standpoint, which is a very different place than where this book comes from. Gumbs' poetic and abstract approach to discussions of human and marine mammal experiences is one I had not encountered before. I like that she mentions not being objective in the introduction as it is true that nothing humans ever do is completely objective. I share her criticisms of how scientists use "language of deviance and denigration" in studies of other animals as a good example of this. While scientific approaches take a great many measures to promote a more objective approach and this should definitely never be ignored, these things are often filtered through a subjective lens- one in which many human scientists- especially those invested in captive animal exploitation/research- create a narrative which reinforces human supremacy over other species. Don't let my paragraph here fool you, though. This is not really a book about science or why animal liberation is important. It is a book of meditations that are inspired by facts the author has learned about marine mammals. I admit, I didn't fully realize just what a woo woo sort of book this was going to be. It's clear in the blurb that it's a meditation, not a science or theory book though, so that's on me. 

Although I have read and enjoyed Gumbs' writings in a variety of books and places, I did not fully realize just how much she has been involved in creating. She is, "a founding member of UBUNTU... a member leader of Southerners on New Ground, member of the founding vision circle of Kindred Healing Justice, a founding member of... Warrior Healers Organizing Trust, and a member of SpiritHouse," and other projects and initiatives. Having followed some of these and learning more about others, this is quite the impressive resume.

Undrowned is divided into different chapters, each of which is its own meditation. While the author claims to have written the book so that the reader can read non-linearly or skip around, I decided to read it cover to cover. The experience was interesting and I imagine someone choosing to take more time with it or use it as a meditation-a-day/week/etc text would have a different experience. So there's a bit of versatility there. 

Gumbs refers to herself as a "marine mammal apprentice" and admits to being a beginner regarding the topic. This will show at times to those of us who have read a bit about these animals already. But, as a result, it simultaneously makes the book accessible to a much wider audience rather than limiting it to PhDs as some books focused on certain topics do. Gumbs also uses fairly accessible language in this book which also makes it able to be read more widely. I will admit, a lot of this book was not really my thing. I am not a spiritual person, I don't do meditations, etc but there was also a lot in this book that appealed to me- particularly the "End Capitalism" chapter and others with a more praxis sort of focus.

My criticism of Gumbs work would be that she tends to create a hierarchy of animals in a way that I don't think she intended. She refers to "advanced marine mammals" in the beginning of the book, but never really defines what this means. Many of the lessons that she urges the reader to learn from marine mammals can also be taught by a great many fish species which make up a far larger portion of marine life than mammals. (I recommend the book "What a Fish Knows" if you want a better understanding of this.) But, fishes are treated- likely unintentionally- as disposable objects in some parts of the book. The book's focus is marine mammals, so I am not saying that the book should have focused on fishes. I'm saying that it falls into the same trap many humans' love of other animals falls into- it becomes limited to or more focused on animals humans (incorrectly) think are more like us and animals not traditionally used for food in the west. For instance, in discussing the commercial fishing industry and why it must end along with capitalism, the reasoning is mostly based on how it accidentally kills marine mammals and how it affects the environment for humans and marine mammals. The prime victims of the fishing industry- fishes by the trillion plus every year- are a side note if that. Even from the perspective of only caring about marine mammals and humans, destroying the fishes destroys both of those people and we're already looking at saltwater fish extinction by 2048 if we keep going the way we are going. There is also a bit of a noble savage trope where she positively discusses the owner of one of the largest commercial fishing operations in their country being Maori and their taking a couple welfare steps for marine mammals. This comes across a bit as if Maori people are monolithic and that saving a few dolphins somehow vastly separates this capitalist venture from that of other commercial fishing operations- even if said commercial fishing is harming the most marginalized of Maori people. She does mention her conflict in this and struggling to know when to give credit, so I get what she was trying to do there. But, I really hoped for a more nuanced look at marine life rather than the same old anthropocentric binary of the minority of "advanced" marine life vs everyone else.

So, all of that criticism is to say that this is definitely not an animal liberation book or a scientific book. I am not saying Alexis Pauline Gumbs is not for animal liberation personally, (I actually think she might be ethically vegan, but I am not sure.) I am just saying that this book is a meditation book for humans inspired by, and is sometimes a brief ode to, marine mammals. The focus is on the reader. Nonetheless, I am glad to have read this book. It tackled these topics in new ways I have not seen before and that is always a good thing. I think fans of Gumbs work- both poetry and activism- will find something they enjoy and learn from within it.

This was also posted to my goodreads.