Some books I read, May 2022

 Scorched Earth: Jonathan Crary

The author of this text really does not like modernity. And in this book he explains why. I think the only real problem with it is that he talks about the inevitable post-capitalist future but he doesn't really align with any sort of positive post-capitalist future. With path dependency it's hard to see how we go from here to anything good. Perhaps it will be in his next text.

Undoing the Demos: Wendy Brown

Before I say anything about the content of this book I think I need to say something about the physical nature of it. For some reason the Press decided to make it about an inch wider than a normal paperback should be so that it's really awkward to read.

As for the content, it's pretty good. Basically she tracks a social shift from a political creature to an economic creature on the broader umbrella of what neoliberalism is. My only real complaint is that it might lean a little too heavily on Foucault. I kept joking to myself when I was reading the difference between economics as a discipline as it exists and everything else is that economics doesn't mention Foucault, but once you mention Foucault they become sociology. I feel as if the work in her argument gets stronger towards the end as she leans less heavily on Foucault directly and develops her own evidence. Definitely worth reading but it took a minute to get through.

Squire: Sara Alfageeh & Nadia Shammas

Squire is a cute little story about a young girl who comes from a subordinate class in an Empire. To gain citizenship and to have Adventure she joins the army but over the course of the text she realizes that these Adventures and the violence that's part of it are too much. So what you end up here is an anti-war book starring a young girl and her friend group. It's not too didactic and I would say overall it works..

Dead Dog’s Bite: Tyler Boss

This book is kind of like a small town murder mystery where people are going missing and the main character is trying to uncover what's going on. It's not bad, just not really memorable. I'd say it's got some Shirley Jackson The Lottery vibes.

Fine: Rhea Ewing

I have a sense that gender is like sexuality and that it is a spectrum but also that it is fluid and that it could change over time. But also that how we talk about gender is also shaped by what's available in the culture. Trying to figure out who you are is a huge part of growing up and I think it's good that right now at least in the culture we're allowed to talk about where we fit in instead of trying to shove everything down. It's probably healthier psychologically for everybody involved. In this graphic examination Ewing Interviews a number of people about their own experience with gender over time. It's not systemic or scientific but it's a good journalistic examination. And I think that it's good that they did it in a graphic form so that it's more accessible than someone having to go pull Judith Butler off the shelf. The reader can see there are all sorts of types of gender expressions available to them and they are not stuck into a hard-and-fast binary. And this goes for everybody, not just anyone who might be questioning their own gender expressions. I think we'd all be best served if we understood that there isn't a hard-and-fast binary.

Hyperion: Dan Simmons

I came across this book when I was researching my Master's thesis on science fiction. It was mentioned that there was a book structured like the Canterbury Tales and I thought that was interesting. I have some mixed emotions about this text. because it is kind of like the Canterbury Tales in that there are pilgrims going to a place and they're telling a tale. The difference is that all the tales the pilgrims are telling here are related to the larger frame story. so there is more thematic coherence. 

I think the problem is that the larger frame story is kind of interesting in itself but I don't know if the structure that the author chose is the best way to develop the idea he had. Additionally, only a couple of the Pilgrim's Tales are actually interesting. It's a real slog to read as you transition from one story to another. He does some stuff with making each of the individual stories such that they could be stand-alone novellas. Two of them really work like that, and one doesn't fully rely on the frame story at all. So it's like this really ambitious book that doesn't fully come together. Finally. I think the worst sin of all for me is that it doesn't resolve within one text. So instead of a coherent novel it really more feels like a setup to a series and I'm not interested in reading more of the series. 

The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction: Istvan Csicsey-Ronay Jr.

I really enjoyed the Seven Beauties of Science Fiction. It is a book of theory but it also has little bits of how the author would apply the theory to different texts and it shows how his theoretical concepts apply in practice. It's a very beautiful way of going about it. I think what was best for me is that he really gave me a vocabulary to describe and criticize science fiction in a academic manner. There are a lot of themes and tropes and characters and settings n that are present in science fiction that don't really have a place of your come from a place of criticism of realistic fiction,  and so it gives you a way to talk about it. This is the book I would give anybody who was trying to write a paper or to think more critically about science fiction. It's a very good starting place and you'll be glad you read it.

Mistaken Identity: Asad Haider

This book, when it comes down to it, is more than anything a call to solidarity across whatever traditional identity category you might draw. I think it is important because a lot of times as he points out that whatever these categories are drawn by the oppressor so that we really need to make sure we have solidarity because the world is hard and it's relentless.