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Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown
1 review
helhas3letters's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
2.0
This book is a collection of articles, essays, and interviews, arranged into 6 sections and with the aim of exploring/explaining the use of platforming pleasure in one's life and activism.
I personally found this book quite difficult to read, as it oscillated between articles which used academic language and advanced concepts, and interviews with very casual language and little discernible focus.
The former could have benefitted from explanations of some terminology and concepts as it seemed to assume significant existing knowledge on the part of the reader. I did find some of the explanations that were presented to be unhelpful and confusing, e.g. I felt that the explanation of the practice of 'somatics' did not tell me anything about what it actually was and could have benefitted from clear examples.
On the other hand, the interviews seemed to lack a clear goal and just felt like a transcription of some casual conversations between friends. I personally didn't gain anything of value from reading them.
I also felt that the book spent lots of time describing (many) individuals who were either interviewed or just briefly mentioned. The volume of people described felt overwhelming and I found it hard to locate which of these descriptions were going to be useful and worth remembering. There were some descriptions devoted to a person simply mentioned in passing in conversation, which felt totally unnecessary and irrelevant.
The descriptions themselves also became very personal to the author, e.g. rather than 'X is an expert in Y and works with the organisation Z', it was more like 'X is a good friend of mine and makes me feel Y and we met Z years ago'. Because of this, it was hard to understand the relevance and expertise of lots of these people.
Finally, I felt that a lot of the footnotes in this book were extraneous and didn't add anything of value. I normally love the extra information provided by footnotes, but with this book I ended up ignoring them by the halfway point.
Despite my issues with the structure and formatting of this book, the core concept is interesting and there were gems of thought throughout. I believe however that the topic was too sprawling and it could have been presented best as one long article or a short manifesto, cutting many of the interviews or simply using quotes from them occasionally.
I personally found this book quite difficult to read, as it oscillated between articles which used academic language and advanced concepts, and interviews with very casual language and little discernible focus.
The former could have benefitted from explanations of some terminology and concepts as it seemed to assume significant existing knowledge on the part of the reader. I did find some of the explanations that were presented to be unhelpful and confusing, e.g. I felt that the explanation of the practice of 'somatics' did not tell me anything about what it actually was and could have benefitted from clear examples.
On the other hand, the interviews seemed to lack a clear goal and just felt like a transcription of some casual conversations between friends. I personally didn't gain anything of value from reading them.
I also felt that the book spent lots of time describing (many) individuals who were either interviewed or just briefly mentioned. The volume of people described felt overwhelming and I found it hard to locate which of these descriptions were going to be useful and worth remembering. There were some descriptions devoted to a person simply mentioned in passing in conversation, which felt totally unnecessary and irrelevant.
The descriptions themselves also became very personal to the author, e.g. rather than 'X is an expert in Y and works with the organisation Z', it was more like 'X is a good friend of mine and makes me feel Y and we met Z years ago'. Because of this, it was hard to understand the relevance and expertise of lots of these people.
Finally, I felt that a lot of the footnotes in this book were extraneous and didn't add anything of value. I normally love the extra information provided by footnotes, but with this book I ended up ignoring them by the halfway point.
Despite my issues with the structure and formatting of this book, the core concept is interesting and there were gems of thought throughout. I believe however that the topic was too sprawling and it could have been presented best as one long article or a short manifesto, cutting many of the interviews or simply using quotes from them occasionally.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault
Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexism, Transphobia, and Cultural appropriation