•  The inclusion of Valerie is incredibly important. To centre the story of a persecuted lesbian woman of integrity as the manifesto for resilience, resistance, hope, and love is just perfect.“...it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little, but it’s all we have in this place. It is the very last inch of us, but in that inch we are free....It is strange that my life should end in such a terrible place, but for three years I had roses and apologized to nobody. I shall die here, every inch of me shall perish—except one” (156, 160).
• The inclusion of arts as well as the sciences and philosophy. The symbolism of the roses is particuarly beautiful for socialists and communists, referencing Rose Schneiderman's "bread for all, and roses too". 
• The pacing and aesthetic was bang on for a dystopian vision. Heavy shade, stylised thought 'bubbles', interesting strip arrangement. 
• Accurate portrayal of various supporting systems of oppression propping up fascism; racism, homophobia, and notably patriarchy. At first I wanted to put the appallingly frequent slut shaming, misogyny, and sexism into the cons bucket as I didn't enjoy it, but tbh it's a hallmark of fascism so is probably best accepted charitably as accurate and not unecessarily used. 

• Dare I say, too much focus on the fascist government and not enough on the oppressed people? The novel does a good job at exploring the nuances of consciousness in the people in power; how they are negatively affected by fascism too. But in a graphic novel that claims to want to upset that very balance of power, it would have been nice to have the same nuance and diversity explored within people not in power (excluding V and Evey).
• The
  capture and torture of Evey
  was VERY problematic. It was unjustified as a plotline and completely undermines the anarchism point the novel was trying to make in my opinion. I think Evey's liberation could and should have been achieved in a different way, and the story of Valerie could have been included via a different mechanism.
• I would love a follow up about the BUILDING PHASE. Most dystopian fiction focuses on the destruction phase of anarchy. The building phase in V for Vendetta was at least mentioned, but was never focussed upon. The building phase is not as gritty, glorified, or glamorised, but it is still tough and a worthwhile story to tell. I think V for Vendetta missed a trick by not creating a short sequal or appendix covering the hardships of healing and creating. 
  
  Favorite Quotes: 
  
  

“Everybody is special. Everybody. Everybody is a hero, a lover, a fool, a villain. Everybody. Everybody has their story to tell.”

“Knowledge, like air, is vital to life. Like air, no one should be denied it.”

• The demographic transition model
• The doughnut of social and planetary boundaries - by Kate Raworth. 
• The shifting baseline syndrome 
• Degrowth (a just transition to sustainable energy, considering equitable social and infrastructure factors)
• Rewilding, habitat conservation, and protecting biodiversity 
• Circular economy (biological and technical cycles 

"We have become Accustomed to an impoverished planet. We have replaced the wild with the tame. We regard the earth as our planet, run by humankind for humankind. There is little left for the rest of the living world. That truly human world, that non human world, has gone. We have overun the earth." 

 "To restore stability to our planet therefore we must restore biodiversity, the very thing we have removed" 

 "We have all the tools we need plans minds and imagination of a future. All we require is the will". 

• Conservation -  Protecting a percentage from all interference 
• Silviculture  (aka plenterwälder)
• Coexistence with forests - community based forestry
• Species appropriate treatment/management in their ideal habitat
• Breaking down moral barriers between animals and plants 

 "In these times of dramatic environmental upheaval, our yearning for undisturbed nature is increasing". 

"We like to apply our own situation to others, we overlook the fact that an (intact forest) has completely different priorities /needs"

 "The main reason we misunderstand trees, however, is that they are so incredibly slow" 

 "This is what this ecosystem achieves: the fullness of life with tens of thousands of species interwoven and interdependent" (and processes e.g. leaves, acidity, plankton production in oceans, food chain) 

• I identified with being in a family that's not your own/familiar (The Barbours, class divides), and the description of Theo's Dad/Xandra (in relation to my own Dad)
• Walden - "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation". Examining city life vs country life e.g. car dependency
• Boris, anti-capitalist
• Boris - "None of us ever find enough kindness in this world do we" 
• The Goldfinch painting itself, in particular the bird's torturous chain. The description on pg 342 "fluttering briefly, forced always to land in the same hopeless place."
  
  
  

• "There is nothing so good on this earth that did not have something bad about its origin"
• Human connection - is this dependent upong thinking and intellectual pursuits? Arguably not. 
• "People intellectualise reality to justify their own inaction". Case in point: Dr Ragin. 

1. Is the hallucination of the Black Monk 'normal'/acceptable, or a mental illness/unacceptable? It questions why the hallucination could not be seen as a natural thing, since the person and mind is part of nature. ("I exist in your imagination, and your imagination is part of nature, so I exist in nature.") This could be read as romanticism of mental illness. Or a criticism of unnecessarily treatment and value judging of certain mental experiences. There were frequent references to 'feeling ordinary', 'out of character', 'not authentic', I would be interested to read a Phenomenonological review of this story. 
2.  Spiritual emptiness, boredem, loneliness.
3.  Humans' relationship with nature - represented in the control of the beautiful and bountiful Garden. Then reflected more profoundly in the nature of the self (see point 1 above). 
4. Kovrin's suffering from 'delusions of grandeur' - his desire to be important and change the world and the stunting he felt from being limited in his ambitions. Are his feelings and views of himself justified or not?

• Ward 6 (3.5)
• The Kiss (2)
• Betrothed (2.5)
• The Black Monk (3.5)
• Neighbours (2)
• The Student (1.5)

• Commentary on ecology and Earth's environmental crises 
• Investigation into different sorts of power e.g. resource control (spice production, a clear metaphor to oil in the Middle East), 'soft' political control (bene gesserit and other religious sects), 'hard' militarised imperial political control (classism with the Landsraad, Emperor, salusa secundus, and racism against the Freman).
• Eugenics lack of morality e.g. the bene gesserit breeding program, and 'race conciousness'. I can see why the fascists love it so much. I read the book as criticising rather than advocating this point though.
• Beware of 'heroes'/'Messiahs/Leaders - Keynes's last words were explicitly that Dune did not need Paul the Hero. The Freman would have been better liberating themselves on their own terms with their own ecology and power plan.
• Investigation into the powers of the mind, mental capacities, and different ways of seeing. Perhaps influenced/inspired by 60s psychodelic drugs?

• I enjoyed this as an opposition to Assimov's Foundation series where everything is determined by computers and tehcnology and statistics etc. Dune felt like the mirror image demonstrated in the powers of the mentat and the butlerian jihad. 
•  Finally, women power! The bene gesserit. The Fremen women. Even Princess Irulan to a degree. Ok, they're not morally 'good' and don't have a lot of power, but women, with some agency, in a book from the 60s!
• The whole world building was beautiful and swept me up. Though detailed, long, and written a long time ago, I found it very easy to read.
• The three appendices: ecology of Dune, religion of Dune, Bene Gesserit motives and purposes.

• Alia. Just weird. I suppose that's the point of her, but, just nope. 
• I find it difficult to believe that the missionaria protectivia planted the religious seed of The Prophet. Although reasonable (and possibly a shrewd criticism of religion in general), I get the niggly sense that this may have some unconcious bias or tinged racism to it. The fact that an entire people (brown, Islamic inspired people) so easily adopted this narrative of an outsider arriving to be their saviour... just I don't know, it was the only thing I thought hmmm really, sounds a bit off? I'd like to read reviews from Middle Eastern people to hear their opinions about whether Dune is racist or not.
• Outdated homophobia painting Baron Harkonnen as a depraved homosexual. The film made a good call in updating this aspect. On this point, the film adapted the book brilliantly. It was largely true to the source material and anything it left out or embellished was to enhance the core story and update the text beyond homophobia, sexism, racism etc. So, bravo! I look forward to watching part II at the cinema when it's released.

• Well reasoned and well referenced. It was heartbreaking learning about the unique way patriachy harms our boys and men. But, also envigorating to focus on their particular experiences and identify points where we can most sucessfully break the cycle - spoiler alert, childhood and teenage years. This change needs to come from both women and men in a boy's life.
• Critical finding: violence is the necessary boyhood socialisation to continue the cycle of upholding capitalist white supremist patriachy
• Critical message: "replacing the dominator model with a partnership model that sees interbeing and interdependency as the organic relationship of all living beings".
• I particularly enjoyed the recognition of working class men, best summarised on page 138
• Core message:

Feminist masculinity presupposes that it is enough for males to have value, that they do not have to "do", to "perform" to be affirmed and loved.

• Frustratingly little discussion on how to actually solve the problems identified. There were a couple of examples (i.e. replicating the success of emotionally vulnerable enviornments like AA, and a couple of novels such as 'The Colour Purple'), but I'd loved a chapter on what we can incorporate in our everyday lives to support this mission of loving boys and men and freeing them from patriachy. Maybe a couple of exercises, or even a full blueprint of how a society/community could operate?

• Regulation = balance, love, care 
• Love = action (physical touch, being present, engaging)
• Trauma = EEE (event, experience, effects) trauma is always individualised
• Stress is natural and not inherently bad. The important bit is timing, pattern, and intensity
• ACE = Adverse Childhood Experiences
• Relational health = connectedness to others ( this has the power to counterbalance adversity)
• Therapeutic dosing = small individual 'moments' , with people being fully present, only seconds long
• Transgenerational transmission is an encompassing term (see figure)
• Sequence of (neurological state) engagement = regulate, relate, reason (this is crucial)
• The uses of dissociation - a personal insight, perhaps this could explain my fainting at the sight of blood?
• The chapters on healing, post-traumatic wisdom, and relational hunger hit very close to home for me - the neglect description and lonliness descriptions were accurate in all respects.
• The chapter on systems and the degradation of society and what we can learn from Indigenous people fits into my other reading on understanding the climate crisis and capitalism.
• The power of 'Intention'
• "We feel better with the certainty of misery rather than the misery of uncertainty" [Bruce Perry] - people are attracted to the familiar
• Malleable, not 'resilient'. redefinition of the word resilient
• Four aspects to healing:  rhythm, community, talking therapy, and pharmaceutical therapy
• Relationships and community are essential for regulation and healing
• Relational health = connectedness
• Trauma informed care (TIC) - important discussion on defintion, see 'Neurosequential Model'
• Question: How do we create opportunities for healing within our systems?
• Neurosequential Model - the latest and best developed model for trauma informed care in education
• Learnings from  Indigenous people - 'wholeness' way of thinking, world view - fragmentation and disconnection is at the heart of all trauma. Pain is shared.
• Advocation of 'Techno-Hygiene'
• Awareness + connectedness = transformation