Red State Revolt
The Jacobin and Verso partnership published a book based on
the Chicago teachers strikes a while back. And then after 2018 they published a
book about the broader teachers strikes that struck the nation. This is that
book.
I really liked what Eric Blanc does mainly because even
though he gets up close to the people who really worked with the strikes he
doesn't over invest in them which for me would be very easy to do as a non-journalist.
But you still do get a lot of empathy for the people. What makes this strong is
his comparison of the strikes in West Virginia and Arizona versus the ones in
Oklahoma. It makes it like points of comparison which could be useful as a
handbook for future work.
The thing that makes me sad reading this is thinking about
all the promise that we had based on Bernie’s run in 2016 and then the teacher
strikes in 2018 and then it felt like a letdown as a member of the left that we
didn't get more progress especially considering the pandemic. Reading it just
felt as if we had something within our grasp that slipped away a moment in time
in the ebbs and flows where you hope you could strike wear the iron is hot, but
you miss. And it's not missing that's sad.
Puppy Dog Ice Cream
I don't normally buy a book that would be a biography of a
band. But when I was a little bit younger Japanther became my favorite band.
The problem was that the time that I was becoming a big fan of them it was at
the very end of their cycle. I saw them at Riot Fest and then once later and
then I had tickets for a show in the spring of 2014 and then I got an email
that said they weren't going to do that tour. It made me very sad, and I didn't
know why it happened.
So, the thing was getting this book and seeing it offered -
I was excited at long last to see an explanation about what happened. My hope
was that I would get an entire view of the whole arc of the band. Which is
pretty much what this book’s got so that's good. The problem is that as a
reader and a story once most interesting is the conflict period and what we
have here is Ian's side of the whole thing and we don't really get mad side. So,
the subtitle is the story of Japanther, but it's only half the story. I enjoyed
reading it was a quick read, but I would like the sequel if it were Matt story
of Japanther.
I don't mean to disparage what Ian did because the book
itself is very well written and I think he is introspective and insightful
about his own experience. I think if you were a fan of the band, you would
enjoy this book.
The Secret to Superhuman Strength
I have been reading Allison Bechdel’s work for a while. It
started with Fun Home, but I also circled back and read her comics. I think
especially in her books Bechdel isn't necessarily just writing about the
subject matter at hand. What she's really writing about is herself and her own
inner journey. Nominally it could be about her mom or her dad or her lifelong
exploration of different kinds of exercise, but really, it's just a journey
inward looking at the self. Overall, it's not a bad journey and there's a very
good reason that she is an award-winning author and artist -- it's that she
really touches the soul, or the nub, she gets to the root of the problem. I
don't know. Whatever it is that she does she's very good at it. If you like
graphic novels and you like memoirs you are going to like The Secret to Superhuman
Strength.
The only quibble I have is that I read the whole thing and I
don't think I found what the secret was. But I do have to admit to sometimes
being an inattentive reader, so perhaps it's in there and I just missed it.
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