Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada

3 reviews

reads2cope's review against another edition

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2.75

An interesting concept, but the execution fell flat for me. I didn’t like the humor, and there were too many plot holes to really connect with the setting. The ending was abrupt. By the last page, I felt like I needed an explanation about how the obsession with sex connected to the other themes. The treatment of Akash was also confusing - the other characters were so language-obsessed, was their refusal to see her as a woman an example of their prejudice? Or is the author just transphobic? 
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cass_lit's review against another edition

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2.75

I’m torn because I really, truly loved the plot and this story. The commentary on globalization and language was fascinating. However, the continuous, blatant transphobia and racist remarks throughout the book really ruined it for me. The racism was somewhat related to the themes of the book (still wasn’t necessary), but the transphobia was pointless and brought up so much that I can’t help but think it was an intentional topic of the author’s. Why give us ONE (early) pov of Akash’s making clear she’s a trans woman just to then misgender her and make comments on her appearance for the rest of the book? I would love to continue with the series and the characters, but I won’t be because I’m so turned off.  
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solenodon's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.0

So upset by the blatant transphobia and misgendering rampant in this book. It brought up really interesting questions of language, politics, identity and so on, with questions like what does it mean to be a native speaker of a language or to have a homeland, but literally every single character misgendered the trans character, and she was flattened used as a plot mechanism 
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