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theardentone's review
3.0
3.5 stars. Olivia Laing's writing style is beautiful and made me want to round up, but in the end this one was just not my favourite of hers.
This book felt weaker to me than their essay collecion "Funny Weather" and previous analytical/art-critical non-ficion title "The Lonely City", mainly because I felt that the different people she discussed in this book were only strenuously linked, and how their life stories interacted with the concept of freedom and the body was analysed but much less deeply than I would have liked. This left me with a feeling that the book didn't deliver on what I thought it promised, and remained on a surface level. This was especially so in contrast to Maggie Nelson's book "On Freedom", which is still fresh in my mind from when I read it a couple months ago, and which I believe offers much deeper insights into freedom, art, sexuality and society.
This book felt weaker to me than their essay collecion "Funny Weather" and previous analytical/art-critical non-ficion title "The Lonely City", mainly because I felt that the different people she discussed in this book were only strenuously linked, and how their life stories interacted with the concept of freedom and the body was analysed but much less deeply than I would have liked. This left me with a feeling that the book didn't deliver on what I thought it promised, and remained on a surface level. This was especially so in contrast to Maggie Nelson's book "On Freedom", which is still fresh in my mind from when I read it a couple months ago, and which I believe offers much deeper insights into freedom, art, sexuality and society.
sarosecav's review against another edition
5.0
“Pleasure is frightening, and so too is freedom. It involves a kind of openness and unboundedness that’s deeply threatening both to the individual and to the society they inhabit. Freedom invokes a counter-wish to clamp down, to tense up, to forbid, even to destroy.”
Extraordinary in scope and insight.
The book is a bit hard to describe or pin down—the central organizing theme is following the life and writing of psychoanalyst and activist (and eventually, pseudoscientist) Wilhelm Reich, but also the main freedom movements of the last century (feminism, civil rights, gay liberation), but also the author’s own life as a body—but despite its slipperiness, fascinating and well-written.
Like Reich, and like me in my newest book, Laing is trying to understand “the body itself: why it’s so difficult to inhabit, why you might want to escape or subdue it, why it remains a naked source of power, even now” and also how this power exists “not despite but because of [its] manifest vulnerabilities.”
Extraordinary in scope and insight.
The book is a bit hard to describe or pin down—the central organizing theme is following the life and writing of psychoanalyst and activist (and eventually, pseudoscientist) Wilhelm Reich, but also the main freedom movements of the last century (feminism, civil rights, gay liberation), but also the author’s own life as a body—but despite its slipperiness, fascinating and well-written.
Like Reich, and like me in my newest book, Laing is trying to understand “the body itself: why it’s so difficult to inhabit, why you might want to escape or subdue it, why it remains a naked source of power, even now” and also how this power exists “not despite but because of [its] manifest vulnerabilities.”
ursulamonarch's review against another edition
I found this book bracing, challenging, and variable. I tended to find the first portion of the book, focusing on Laing's training and Reich's biography and influence, most interesting. Maybe I should have read it more slowly or more separately, but I personally found that the book did not hold together as well as it went along. Maybe this was just my inability to incorporate Laing's thinking, which was expansive and wide-ranging. I also did tend to appreciate this book more than some of Laing's earlier work.
jufira42's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
marybeier's review against another edition
5.0
Most people I’ve come into contact with in the past 3 months have heard me talk about this book. I loved it. This was my first time reading Olivia Laing, and I’m going to get another of her books the first chance I get. She is contemplative, bright and optimistic even when facing the nadir of humanity.
Can’t stop listening to cloud busting by Kate Bush!!
Can’t stop listening to cloud busting by Kate Bush!!
mitaluimmekerran's review against another edition
5.0
Tämä oli upea. En edes muista missä törmäsin Laingiin, mutta onneksi törmäsin.
Everybodyssa Olivia Laing hahmottelee maailmaa, jossa kehomme olisivat vapaita. Sen tieltä täytyy ensin poistaa este jos toinenkin, ja upeassa, eheässä esseekokoelmassaan Laing pureutuu vuorotellen näihin esteisiin aina vankiloista kehon sairauksiin, rasismista aktivismiliikkeisiin. Erona perinteiseen yhteiskunnalliseen esseekirjallisuuteen Laing ottaa koko teoksen kantavaksi voimaksi itävaltalaisen psykoanalyytikon Wilhelm Reichin, hänen elämänsä vivahteikkaat, raa'at ja traagisetkin vaiheet, ja kokoaa koko laajan ja syvästi filosofisen aiheensa Reichin elämäntarinan – sekä Reichin kehittämän orgonikammion, jolla ko. psykologi ajatteli voivan poistaa traumat ja sairaudet kehosta - varaan.
Laingin kieli on pakotonta ja kerronta sujuu soljuvana, näkisin tämän kyllä toimivan ehdottomasti myös suomennettuna. Toivottavasti joku laatukustantamo nappaa Laingin käännösoikeuksista kiinni. Sillä välin jatkan itse hänen muuhun tuotantoonsa tutustumista englanniksi.
Everybodyssa Olivia Laing hahmottelee maailmaa, jossa kehomme olisivat vapaita. Sen tieltä täytyy ensin poistaa este jos toinenkin, ja upeassa, eheässä esseekokoelmassaan Laing pureutuu vuorotellen näihin esteisiin aina vankiloista kehon sairauksiin, rasismista aktivismiliikkeisiin. Erona perinteiseen yhteiskunnalliseen esseekirjallisuuteen Laing ottaa koko teoksen kantavaksi voimaksi itävaltalaisen psykoanalyytikon Wilhelm Reichin, hänen elämänsä vivahteikkaat, raa'at ja traagisetkin vaiheet, ja kokoaa koko laajan ja syvästi filosofisen aiheensa Reichin elämäntarinan – sekä Reichin kehittämän orgonikammion, jolla ko. psykologi ajatteli voivan poistaa traumat ja sairaudet kehosta - varaan.
Laingin kieli on pakotonta ja kerronta sujuu soljuvana, näkisin tämän kyllä toimivan ehdottomasti myös suomennettuna. Toivottavasti joku laatukustantamo nappaa Laingin käännösoikeuksista kiinni. Sillä välin jatkan itse hänen muuhun tuotantoonsa tutustumista englanniksi.
oddfigg's review against another edition
This is an excellent book in many ways. It explores different facets of the physical body, including how we fight for freedom through sexuality and bodily autonomy; how society understands and uses our bodies through racism, misogyny, and sexual violence; and how our bodies are shaped through illness. Laing's book posits that to truly embody freedom is a radical act and documents the historical struggles to gain that freedom.
While every topic introduces different thinkers and artists, including Susan Sontag, Audre Lorde, Bayard Rustin, Ana Mendieta, and many more, Laing uses psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich as a frame for the book, sharing his life, beliefs, and discoveries throughout every chapter. This choice felt aligned with the author's personal interests rather than what would best serve a book whose main thesis was about exploring the physical body and its freedom. It isn't that Laing doesn't lay out her evidence for Reich's inclusion, it's just that I felt the book could have benefitted from even more perspectives and did not need this framing device.
While the book did give me plenty to think about and many new topics and people to explore, I think perhaps it mostly felt as though it was only scratching the surface. Though it covers a wide range of topics, I expected more and was disappointed that more time was not spent on topics of gender, such as nonconforming, trans, and asexual bodies; or disability; or stigmas about weight and fatness. (It is not that the book doesn't touch on these topics at all, only that I wanted more of them.) Perhaps my expectations set the book up to fail because this is nearly a neverending topic that could branch out in so many ways, both deeper into topics that were explored and down paths that weren't touched on at all.
Whatever is going on in our inner selves or the image we project online, one consistent truth is that all humans inhabit physical bodies, and their variety is as neverending and everchanging as we are.
While every topic introduces different thinkers and artists, including Susan Sontag, Audre Lorde, Bayard Rustin, Ana Mendieta, and many more, Laing uses psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich as a frame for the book, sharing his life, beliefs, and discoveries throughout every chapter. This choice felt aligned with the author's personal interests rather than what would best serve a book whose main thesis was about exploring the physical body and its freedom. It isn't that Laing doesn't lay out her evidence for Reich's inclusion, it's just that I felt the book could have benefitted from even more perspectives and did not need this framing device.
While the book did give me plenty to think about and many new topics and people to explore, I think perhaps it mostly felt as though it was only scratching the surface. Though it covers a wide range of topics, I expected more and was disappointed that more time was not spent on topics of gender, such as nonconforming, trans, and asexual bodies; or disability; or stigmas about weight and fatness. (It is not that the book doesn't touch on these topics at all, only that I wanted more of them.) Perhaps my expectations set the book up to fail because this is nearly a neverending topic that could branch out in so many ways, both deeper into topics that were explored and down paths that weren't touched on at all.
Whatever is going on in our inner selves or the image we project online, one consistent truth is that all humans inhabit physical bodies, and their variety is as neverending and everchanging as we are.