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alisarae's Reviews (1.65k)
"When we respond to real threats to our nation by distracting ourselves with imagined threats to femininity and family life ... when we blame our frailty on fifth-column feminists, in short, when we base our security on a mythical male strength that can only measure itself against a mythical female weakness, we should know that we are exhibiting the symptoms of a lethal, albeit curable, cultural affliction. Our reflexive reaction to 9/11, fantastical weirdly disconnected from the very real emergency at hand, exposed a counterfeit belief system. It reprised a bogus security drill that divided men from women and mobilized them to the defense of a myth instead of to the defense of a country."
Going into this book, I thought it would be more widely about broader cultural shifts post-9/11, but actually it's about a very specific reflexive return to delicate femininity and brawny manliness spearheaded by mainstream media that happened immediately, as in hours, after the attacks on the Twin Towers.
It sounds bizarre, but Faludi brings receipts. The first 75% of the book is quote after quote after quote from articles, talk shows, news reports, blogs, and broadcasts about women getting the marriage itch, a coming baby boom, women "opting out" of the workplace to prioritize family, stories of rescued women, etc etc that is in nearly all cases wildly stretched, isolated incidents, anonymous sources, or completely fabricated, against protests from the quite real women at the heart of the stories. It is, in short, shocking.
The last 25% of the book is a look back at different periods in American history where the same narrative structure (strong man rescues weak woman) came up, again with receipts that scrape away the layers of myth: King George's War (which I know as the French-Indian War), Westward Expansion, early 20th Century (iconized with Birth of a Nation), and the Cold War era.
Faludi did not touch on contemporary religion at all, and I would have liked to see that element included. I suppose that would be an entire book in itself. American Christianity is such a fundamental pillar to upholding these mythical structures, and it is sad how many well-meaning acquaintances of mine don't even realize when they are defending an idol.
Going into this book, I thought it would be more widely about broader cultural shifts post-9/11, but actually it's about a very specific reflexive return to delicate femininity and brawny manliness spearheaded by mainstream media that happened immediately, as in hours, after the attacks on the Twin Towers.
It sounds bizarre, but Faludi brings receipts. The first 75% of the book is quote after quote after quote from articles, talk shows, news reports, blogs, and broadcasts about women getting the marriage itch, a coming baby boom, women "opting out" of the workplace to prioritize family, stories of rescued women, etc etc that is in nearly all cases wildly stretched, isolated incidents, anonymous sources, or completely fabricated, against protests from the quite real women at the heart of the stories. It is, in short, shocking.
The last 25% of the book is a look back at different periods in American history where the same narrative structure (strong man rescues weak woman) came up, again with receipts that scrape away the layers of myth: King George's War (which I know as the French-Indian War), Westward Expansion, early 20th Century (iconized with Birth of a Nation), and the Cold War era.
Faludi did not touch on contemporary religion at all, and I would have liked to see that element included. I suppose that would be an entire book in itself. American Christianity is such a fundamental pillar to upholding these mythical structures, and it is sad how many well-meaning acquaintances of mine don't even realize when they are defending an idol.
I'm drooling. And I'm sad. This week when I made my way to the Asian grocery in my neighborhood, I couldn't get my usual favorite treats: it closed down. I was planning to buy Korean rice cakes to make New Year's tteokguk, and I'm truly sad that I couldn't make it this year. I'm not sure where I'll get my fresh tofu, bok choi, kimchi, mochi, rice paper, sea weed, etc etc etc. I guess I'll just be hungry forever now.
PS the introduction is such a sweet adoption story.
PS the introduction is such a sweet adoption story.
I read this as part of the #PoliceFreePenn book club. I randomly signed up on Twitter and I'm really glad I did because I enjoyed both reading the book and talking to the people I met there. I think the book club was a success in terms of outreach and education.
This book is pretty non-linear. Even within the chapters the information is not very systematic. One of my discussion group members said they wish there was a timeline for the history of prisons, and someone else did the homework and found two:
1. https://projectsouth.org/education/timelines/
2. https://chicagopiccollective.wordpress.com/resources/policing-timeline/
I had never heard of the history of the contemporary prison industrial complex before reading this book. After touring the Tower of London I remember wondering when and why people stopped being sentenced to torture. Short answer: Enlightenment ideals gave people the idea that they had individual rights to participate in society; rights which could be taken away from the individual as punishment, along with the idea that a monastic setting would cause someone to "pay penitence" hence the term penitentiary. Before that, prison for prison's sake didn't really exist. (Side note: Since women didn't have rights to begin with, they couldn't be sentenced to penitentiary and continued to receive torture punishment at home, yay.) So if our current system did not always exist, and it was in fact an improvement of the then-system at the time, it follows that we can re-imagine and create a different type of system that is more appropriate for our day and age.
Davis then goes into aspects needed to take into consideration: gender-specific issues of punishment, the capitalist system that is propping the entire prison industrial complex up, how race so often determines punishment and the history of prisoner leasing during the Reconstruction era. It's a short book so each of these topics are very brief.
The final chapter was what everyone wanted to skip ahead to talk about: What does an alternative look like, then? It will certainly not be a 1:1 substitution for the current system. "Put ankle bracelets on everyone and put them under house arrest" is a substitution, not a solution. Davis's idea is to address all the different aspects that lead people to commit crimes—poverty, mental/emotional illness, abuse, substance use, inequality, sheer greed, etc—and build robust support systems around those things. Also, decriminalizing things like drug use and sex work can start to dry up the system from the inside out. She also briefly touches on the need for restorative justice vs retributive justice.
Unfortunately Davis gives just a single extraordinary example of what restorative justice might be like, but my group found it kind of hard to believe that example could be applied to most offender-victim relationships. It's hard to imagine. (Imagination was something that came up repeatedly as vital to the work of social justice, btw. Creatives are desperately needed in this area to help people see a future.) We decided that restorative justice is the next thing we need to learn about because not a single one of us could give an example in practice outside of a school setting, and even then the ideas were vague. I realized that as a Christian, I should have an arm-length list of examples and ideas, but the fact is that it's a big blind spot for me. How sad is that I read a book that talks about this concept nearly every day of my life, know hundreds of other people who also read the Bible nearly every day, and I wasn't paying enough attention to be able to think of a way this could work at scale in society. "He who has eyes to see, let him see" indeed. Particularly apt now that we as a country are discussing that there can be no healing without justice.
Another thing that was brought to mind was the documentary The Act of Killing. In it, Indonesian death squad leaders are asked to play-act their war crimes in different Hollywood genres. In the beginning, it appears that they think it is all a game, that what they did wasn't really a crime, and they find it easy to re-enact the killings, until the main guy is asked to play a victim. It's like he literally never thought about what he did before. He did those terrible things and then tucked it away and went on with life. But when finally the deeds strike his conscious memory, the physical response his body has is visceral. I don't know. There's something there.
This book is pretty non-linear. Even within the chapters the information is not very systematic. One of my discussion group members said they wish there was a timeline for the history of prisons, and someone else did the homework and found two:
1. https://projectsouth.org/education/timelines/
2. https://chicagopiccollective.wordpress.com/resources/policing-timeline/
I had never heard of the history of the contemporary prison industrial complex before reading this book. After touring the Tower of London I remember wondering when and why people stopped being sentenced to torture. Short answer: Enlightenment ideals gave people the idea that they had individual rights to participate in society; rights which could be taken away from the individual as punishment, along with the idea that a monastic setting would cause someone to "pay penitence" hence the term penitentiary. Before that, prison for prison's sake didn't really exist. (Side note: Since women didn't have rights to begin with, they couldn't be sentenced to penitentiary and continued to receive torture punishment at home, yay.) So if our current system did not always exist, and it was in fact an improvement of the then-system at the time, it follows that we can re-imagine and create a different type of system that is more appropriate for our day and age.
Davis then goes into aspects needed to take into consideration: gender-specific issues of punishment, the capitalist system that is propping the entire prison industrial complex up, how race so often determines punishment and the history of prisoner leasing during the Reconstruction era. It's a short book so each of these topics are very brief.
The final chapter was what everyone wanted to skip ahead to talk about: What does an alternative look like, then? It will certainly not be a 1:1 substitution for the current system. "Put ankle bracelets on everyone and put them under house arrest" is a substitution, not a solution. Davis's idea is to address all the different aspects that lead people to commit crimes—poverty, mental/emotional illness, abuse, substance use, inequality, sheer greed, etc—and build robust support systems around those things. Also, decriminalizing things like drug use and sex work can start to dry up the system from the inside out. She also briefly touches on the need for restorative justice vs retributive justice.
Unfortunately Davis gives just a single extraordinary example of what restorative justice might be like, but my group found it kind of hard to believe that example could be applied to most offender-victim relationships. It's hard to imagine. (Imagination was something that came up repeatedly as vital to the work of social justice, btw. Creatives are desperately needed in this area to help people see a future.) We decided that restorative justice is the next thing we need to learn about because not a single one of us could give an example in practice outside of a school setting, and even then the ideas were vague. I realized that as a Christian, I should have an arm-length list of examples and ideas, but the fact is that it's a big blind spot for me. How sad is that I read a book that talks about this concept nearly every day of my life, know hundreds of other people who also read the Bible nearly every day, and I wasn't paying enough attention to be able to think of a way this could work at scale in society. "He who has eyes to see, let him see" indeed. Particularly apt now that we as a country are discussing that there can be no healing without justice.
Another thing that was brought to mind was the documentary The Act of Killing. In it, Indonesian death squad leaders are asked to play-act their war crimes in different Hollywood genres. In the beginning, it appears that they think it is all a game, that what they did wasn't really a crime, and they find it easy to re-enact the killings, until the main guy is asked to play a victim. It's like he literally never thought about what he did before. He did those terrible things and then tucked it away and went on with life. But when finally the deeds strike his conscious memory, the physical response his body has is visceral. I don't know. There's something there.
Ok, so I didn't actually read this book. I read a few blog posts and then headed to youtube. I was mostly after Notion templates. I found several, but these are the best two:
1. https://hfactor.medium.com/building-slip-box-using-notion-a53b045c6f40
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3YKQ7JTqwU
I decided to go with option #2 even though it seems a bit more complicated. Even after watching the youtube video, I didn't fully understand how all the components work together until I started messing around with it. #2 appears to be more robust for handling larger amounts of information because of the tagging system. #1 is quicker to get up and running and doesn't really need much explanation if you are already familiar with the Zettelkasten concept.
The hardest thing about using this system is changing a lifetime of linear note taking into conceptualizing a web of notes. I mean, mentally switching. I'm not going to convert all my random notebooks of stuff. I really like mindmap-style note taking, and that is non-linear. One time I took a class where we had to submit a one-page mindmap of each chapter in the textbook and I was impressed at how much information I recalled with just a quick glance at my mindmap. What makes me apprehensive about Zettelkasten is that it isn't visual. It's both text heavy and non-linear. So I'm honestly not sure how much I will like going back through to find material, even though I can see its advantages.
1. https://hfactor.medium.com/building-slip-box-using-notion-a53b045c6f40
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3YKQ7JTqwU
I decided to go with option #2 even though it seems a bit more complicated. Even after watching the youtube video, I didn't fully understand how all the components work together until I started messing around with it. #2 appears to be more robust for handling larger amounts of information because of the tagging system. #1 is quicker to get up and running and doesn't really need much explanation if you are already familiar with the Zettelkasten concept.
The hardest thing about using this system is changing a lifetime of linear note taking into conceptualizing a web of notes. I mean, mentally switching. I'm not going to convert all my random notebooks of stuff. I really like mindmap-style note taking, and that is non-linear. One time I took a class where we had to submit a one-page mindmap of each chapter in the textbook and I was impressed at how much information I recalled with just a quick glance at my mindmap. What makes me apprehensive about Zettelkasten is that it isn't visual. It's both text heavy and non-linear. So I'm honestly not sure how much I will like going back through to find material, even though I can see its advantages.
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Philip Pullman is a phenominal writer and storyteller. His love of words and craft is so clear. This is the first fiction by him that I've read, but I've admired him as one of the most intelligent and thoughtful writers alive today after I read Daemon Voices. I should read that again this year.
At the very end of the book I could start to understand why Christians made such a stink about this. However, Pullman's interpretation of "dust" or original sin (as presented at this point in the series; I've successfully managed to avoid spoilers for over 2 decades--please keep it that way) or rather, the knowledge of good and evil, has deep roots even within Christianity. I suppose that the problems Christians have with the book are a symptom that Christians in the West have had for at least the last 100 years: the inability to dialogue with any branch of Christianity that does not mindlessly toe the evangelical line. How much less, then, with other religions or even the a-religious? For further thoughts on Pullman's view of the knowledge of good and evil, he has a very strong critique of Narnia and Lewis's [perhaps deliberate?] blind spot in Daemon Voices (I don't remember the name of the essay).
Well. I thought the story was exciting and clever, and the audio has a complete cast so it is quite good. I plan to read the rest of the series and digest the thoughts. It's heavy philosophical material wrapped up in a kid's costume.
Food Pairing: Even though characters repeatedly eat seal jerky, I'd go with a mince pasties and builder's tea instead ;) Lyra is always on the go, and she needs some hearty warm food to keep her energy up.
At the very end of the book I could start to understand why Christians made such a stink about this. However, Pullman's interpretation of "dust" or original sin (as presented at this point in the series; I've successfully managed to avoid spoilers for over 2 decades--please keep it that way) or rather, the knowledge of good and evil, has deep roots even within Christianity. I suppose that the problems Christians have with the book are a symptom that Christians in the West have had for at least the last 100 years: the inability to dialogue with any branch of Christianity that does not mindlessly toe the evangelical line. How much less, then, with other religions or even the a-religious? For further thoughts on Pullman's view of the knowledge of good and evil, he has a very strong critique of Narnia and Lewis's [perhaps deliberate?] blind spot in Daemon Voices (I don't remember the name of the essay).
Well. I thought the story was exciting and clever, and the audio has a complete cast so it is quite good. I plan to read the rest of the series and digest the thoughts. It's heavy philosophical material wrapped up in a kid's costume.
Food Pairing: Even though characters repeatedly eat seal jerky, I'd go with a mince pasties and builder's tea instead ;) Lyra is always on the go, and she needs some hearty warm food to keep her energy up.
Margaret Atwood is a storyteller at heart. Enter into these poems thinking of them more as short stories and less as poems. Then it's like little flash fiction gumdrops.
Themes include climate change, aging, and sci-fi.
BTW, did anyone else see a woman who looked a lot like Margaret Atwood at Biden's inauguration? She was wearing a black coat and red scarf and had the same hair. I looked on Twitter but no one could confirm, though others also had the same question.
Food pairing: lavender black tea and an almond scone. Treat yourself & take it easy while you still can.
Themes include climate change, aging, and sci-fi.
BTW, did anyone else see a woman who looked a lot like Margaret Atwood at Biden's inauguration? She was wearing a black coat and red scarf and had the same hair. I looked on Twitter but no one could confirm, though others also had the same question.
Food pairing: lavender black tea and an almond scone. Treat yourself & take it easy while you still can.
5 stars because it is really great for what it set out to be: a sappy heartwarming Christmas romance.
I really enjoyed the Bristol setting and I'm glad the language wasn't Americanized like so many books are. I had to google a few of the British Christmas traditions :)
Food Pairing: cozy hot chocolate and figgy pudding (note that you have to start early with this one, traditionally prepared on "stir up Sunday," the last Sunday before Advent starts. This is a plot point in the book—MC forgets to prep her pudding early enough).
I really enjoyed the Bristol setting and I'm glad the language wasn't Americanized like so many books are. I had to google a few of the British Christmas traditions :)
Food Pairing: cozy hot chocolate and figgy pudding (note that you have to start early with this one, traditionally prepared on "stir up Sunday," the last Sunday before Advent starts. This is a plot point in the book—MC forgets to prep her pudding early enough).
Fluffy and feely so cute!
Food Pairing: hot pockets and bagel bites. Teenage boys aren't good at much else.
Food Pairing: hot pockets and bagel bites. Teenage boys aren't good at much else.
I love watching Seinfeld reruns and I even named my cats Jerry and George. Listening to this book reminded me how important laughing is. I've consumed a lot of political content and books this year, so it felt good to cleanse my palate. Laughter really is the best medicine.
The material from the 00's onward was new to me. After the TV series wrapped up, Jerry got married and had kids so that's what a lot of the newer jokes are about. There's also jokes about social media, cell phones, and almond milk. I really like those modern-day Seinfeld spoof accounts on Twitter, but I think that the students have eclipsed the master: they gripe without relying on the boomer complaints of "kids these days."
The audio is quite good. In the beginning it sounds like Jerry is reading from the book, but by the end he is looser and the jokes hit the right beats. I wouldn't want to read this book myself; it's much better in his voice.
Food Pairing: breakfast cereal, I'd go with a simple bowl of corn flakes or cheerios.
The material from the 00's onward was new to me. After the TV series wrapped up, Jerry got married and had kids so that's what a lot of the newer jokes are about. There's also jokes about social media, cell phones, and almond milk. I really like those modern-day Seinfeld spoof accounts on Twitter, but I think that the students have eclipsed the master: they gripe without relying on the boomer complaints of "kids these days."
The audio is quite good. In the beginning it sounds like Jerry is reading from the book, but by the end he is looser and the jokes hit the right beats. I wouldn't want to read this book myself; it's much better in his voice.
Food Pairing: breakfast cereal, I'd go with a simple bowl of corn flakes or cheerios.