sunn_bleach's Reviews (249)

An extremely influential series of stories that is at the curious spot of history where perhaps their influence is better than their content. The main stories are great gothic horror, though “The White People” was utterly interminable. Still, cool to see where began cosmic horror in Western literature, even from a more horrifying modernity.

At first I thought this was a sleepy midwestern fictional memoir, but as I got further I realized this is secretly one of the scariest books I’ve ever read. And extremely subtle about it - I certainly have to actively engage with it, but the more I ponder the events the more I’m like “what the fuuuuck”. A book that absolutely rewards reading so far between the lines, and realizing - as Gaiman says in the forward - that you trust the author in your conclusions…. But you do NOT trust the author. Incredible story and exactly what I want for mind bending, deep, and (dare I say it) lore-rich fantasy.

Adventure writing with ruminations on climate change and the Anthropocene.

This book seeks to counteract and provide potential answers to the overarching issue of "whiteness" (as in, the paradigm of implicit white supremacy masquerading as solidarity) within feminism. It contains several in-depth and impassioned arguments about how white feminism has been historically and currently practiced has been about the support of white women and white women's issues while facilitating patriarchal norms and diminishing the voices of non-white persons.

Some of these essays are phenomenal and extremely eye-opening. The chapters on tokenist solidarity within women's organizations in the USA, the impression of NGOs' "solving" problems without consulting the people impacted, and the imperialist/capitalist hegemonic forces of whiteness in (for example) military dramas are... painful, in a good way.

But then there's the Female Genital Mutilation chapter, which Zakaria tries to euphemistically obfuscate by calling it Female Genital Cutting and saying it is often performed voluntarily. Here, Zakaria can't adequately state her opinions on the practice, at one point saying it's not really a problem and then another time saying how Black women have overwhelmingly rallied around reducing the practice prior to/without white NGOs' involvement. She also references a study that compares opinions of breast augmentation to FGM - saying it's not to conflate the two, then immediately does so anyway, almost implying a defense of extreme cultural relativism. Then there are her multiple assumptions (such as the very beginning of the book) that white women around her cannot have possibly experienced what she has, which provides the exact kind of identity-assumptions Zakaria eviscerates when applied to women of color.

There's also the "sex positivity" chapter, in which there's an important kernel of truth in how sex-as-empowerment is so strongly pushed among women. But Zakaria completely misdefines "sex positivity" to the extent I was pretty surprised it got through the publisher. Sex positivity is *not*, as she claims, the idea of talking openly about having sex or lots of sex as feminist empowerment. Sex positivity in all literature is defined as the ability to make personal decisions about sex based on one's own virtues free of coercion - be it from partners or social constructs. This is such a glaring omission that it undercuts the real importance of the rest of the text.

These aren't the only examples of this kind of inconsistency, but they are the most glaring ones - an inconsistency and implied inability to argue against it without defending whiteness that is similar to "White Fragility", though the latter is far more egregious.

Still, I cannot say I was bored by this book - and it certainly gave me plenty of things to consider and critique both toward white feminism and the answers provided here.

Totally fine, with some chapters more interesting than others - as to be expected. Unintentional hilarity at Gardner dedicating an entire chapter to a sculptor he doesn’t like.

Secretly the angriest book I’ve read in years. Also the most loving, with Kantner’s stark prose delivering the strongest.

Impossible to read without practice or intuiting the rope systems - but that’s just mountaineering! My one glaring issue is that the book (or at least my edition) pays a lot of unnecessary attention to historical travel/rescue techniques that have been completely obviated. While important for those who choose to travel without gear and technique, the kind of person reading this book doesn’t need that.

An American classic in nature writing - with all the implications of latent sexism and racism that accompanies a “classic” written by a middle aged white man in the sixties. Still, that’s part of the importance and even charm - this book is a study in contradiction, all the more because Abbey is intensely self-aware. But is that awareness enough? Abbey would probably say no, as his college self rolls a tire into the Grand Canyon.

If the word “surreal” implies dreamlike, then this is nightmarelike. This is like stress dreams turned to print, and with obsession and paranoia seeping in the next morning from being continuously woken up by those dreams.

Solid primer on wilderness first aid. Chapters 27-29 are the most important for decision making in the field, and I do with that NOLS expanded those given medical and expedition decision making are as vital to a successful operation as the skills themselves.