Caliban notes. Just some main points I want to remember about what it was saying.

women’s bodies and labor as the new commons to make up for the loss of access to land and communal living. Nuclear family emerged to systematically disappear womens labor and isolate people so they are less able to organize 

dissection of the body and breaking it down into working parts was necessary to force bodies into the unnatural capitalist work cycle. destroy the magic and the nature of the body and make it nothing more than a tool and then what are you to do with a tool but use it 

magic is allowed to return now in pop culture because it is no longer a threat to capitalism. our society is so orderly and regimented that commodified magic is no threat. 

LETTING THE SOFT ANIMAL OF YOUR BODY LOVE WHAT IT LOVES IS RESISTING 

“The stakes on which witches and other practitioners of magic died, and the chambers in which their tortures were executed, were a laboratory in which much social discipline was sedimented, and much knowledge about the body was gained. Here those irrationalities were eliminated that stood in the way of the transformation of the individual and social body into a set of predictable and controllable mechanisms. And it was here again that the scientific use of torture was born, for blood and torture were necessary to ‘breed an animal’ capable of regular, homogeneous, and uniform behavior, indelibly marked with the memory of the new rules.”

In places where land enclosures were not happening the witch trials were not present. Access to land has a community building effect on humans and once you remove people from the land it becomes easier to remove them from their rights and consideration for each other as a united whole. 

Persecution in the Americas mirroring what was “perfected” in Europe as a way to break up organizers. Fear and suspicion of the neighbor as a means of bringing the other to order. 

I usually don’t love a memoir but I picked this one up in my attempt to read some different voices and life experiences and I figured I’d enjoy it because I love growing things. It was stupendous! I’ve never read a story with a garden map in the front and it made my little fantasy loving heart so happy to see that. I say “story” just like it’s used in the title because there really is a story being told here. Alongside the beautiful and intimate observations of the land and history is the real experience of a Black woman, a mother, in pandemic era america and she so artfully brings both her mind and her garden alive in these pages. It was a beautiful and at times challenging read but I enjoyed it. The values she shares through her storytelling are aligned with my own yet she offered historical context and personal impact to them that has broadened my own understanding. I read a library copy but I look forward to getting my own copy so I can underline the shit out of it. 

uggggggggh this was so good but I’ll never get over the ending and that we will never get the third book.

also her brother did her so dirty and I’d never forgive his ass either

 

This book was a lot like watching a glass fall from the counter in slow motion. It was predictable in ways that illustrate the harm and oppression rampant in our world. In other ways it was hopeful and tenacious. Overall a good read. 

it’s been weeks and I’m still thinking about this book. Reading this in 2023, the year before the events of the book, is more than a little spooky. We’re not quite there but gosh does it feel possible. I think there’s so much here about the human spirit in crisis and ways our systems of oppression enact violence on all of us. I’ve already requested the second book and I’m gutted that Octavia never got to finish the third. Definitely would recommend if dystopian fiction is your thing and as someone with religious traumas I found it particularly interesting. 

I really enjoyed this book. It’s wild how much of what she was seeing in 1910 is still so relevant. Some good quotes: 

“True social harmony grows naturally out of solidarity of interests. In a society where those who always work never have anything, while those who never work enjoy everything, solidarity of interests is nonexistent; hence social harmony is but a myth.”

“America is particularly boastful of her great power, her enormous, national wealth. Poor America, of what avail is all her wealth. If the individuals comprising the nation are wretchedly poor? If they live in squalor, in filth, in crime, with hope and joy gone, a homeless, soil-less, army of human prey.“

This book was wonderful. I really appreciate the structure and there’s so many good things cited and included in the further reading section. Along with the “Ambe” or “let’s go!” sections, it really supports making direct actions in your life. It definitely taught me a lot about indigenous history and restoration. If you’re in that space of recognizing you’re living on stolen land but not sure how that impacts your life definitely read this book and then come talk to me about it so we can learn together!! <3