This book kind of blew my mind. And it made me reflect on the role social media, novels (not to mention bookish social media) plays in politics and activism.

I just happened to read it in conjunction with another book (Seen and Unseen by Marc Lamont Hill and Todd Brewster) about social media and the BLM movement which basically argued that the shocking footage of police violence just "speaks for itself" and generates a movement.

Isabella Hammad’s speech, on the other hand, had this quote by Edward Said at its heart:
👉 “Facts do not at all speak for themselves, but require a socially acceptable narrative to absorb, sustain and circulate them.”

And I’m obsessed with the way Hammad brought this social narrative idea down to the level of her own novels. Particularly, her penchant for writing ‘recognition scenes’: when something important dawns on the character—the “oop I love them” or the “Luke I’m your father” scene. A great type of scene. But she suspects she writes so many because actually, she’s been “writing mostly about Palestine.”

So many things unlocked in my brain. When we share a video (from Gaza, for example), aren’t we trying to craft a recognition scene for the viewer? And don’t we have a video that acted as a recognition scene for us?

So reading is political. Because we don’t escape into narrative—everything is always already narrative.