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novella42's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
The passage that made me impulse-buy this book:
"Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time and the arena and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle wherever we are standing. It does not matter too much if it is in the radiation lab or a doctor's office or the telephone company, the streets, the welfare department, or the classroom. The real blessing is to be able to use whoever I am wherever I am, in concert with as many others as possible, or alone if needs be.
"This is no longer a time of waiting. It is a time for the real work's urgencies. It is a time enhanced by an iron reclamation of what I call the burst of light-that inescapable knowledge, in the bone, of my own physical limitation. Metabolized and integrated into the fabric of my days, that knowledge makes the particulars of what is coming seem less important. When I speak of wanting as much good time as possible, I mean time over which I maintain some relative measure of control."
Audrey Lorde
November 14, 1986
New York City
I'm so very glad I read this book. A friend of mine was just diagnosed with brain cancer as I was finishing the last half, and I cried through the final pages.
The only reason I'm not giving this phenomenal, powerful collection of essays five stars is the first essay. I disagree with Lorde's assessment of "sadomasochism," what is today called kink and BDSM. It's an interview from the early 1980s focused on controversy surrounding Samois, the first lesbian BDSM group in the US. I see where Lorde is coming from and absolutely respect fears around unhealthy power dynamics. I also respect that times were different and I don't know how healthy the practices were at Samois. But it breaks my heart that it seems like Lorde didn't talk directly to a single person who practiced BDSM. She seems to have no sense of why someone might try BDSM except to parrot and perpetuate existing harmful power dynamics in society. Or why playing with and exploring power dynamics within boundaries of negotiation and consent could be empowering and healing, a way to process trauma within containers we design ourselves. I can't help but wonder how much of the pushback against kink from feminists is still rooted in work like this.
Otherwise, a fantastic book. I feel like the passages about chronic illness and activism have given me so much to reflect on, and perhaps some small insight into what my friend might be going through.
"Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time and the arena and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle wherever we are standing. It does not matter too much if it is in the radiation lab or a doctor's office or the telephone company, the streets, the welfare department, or the classroom. The real blessing is to be able to use whoever I am wherever I am, in concert with as many others as possible, or alone if needs be.
"This is no longer a time of waiting. It is a time for the real work's urgencies. It is a time enhanced by an iron reclamation of what I call the burst of light-that inescapable knowledge, in the bone, of my own physical limitation. Metabolized and integrated into the fabric of my days, that knowledge makes the particulars of what is coming seem less important. When I speak of wanting as much good time as possible, I mean time over which I maintain some relative measure of control."
Audrey Lorde
November 14, 1986
New York City
I'm so very glad I read this book. A friend of mine was just diagnosed with brain cancer as I was finishing the last half, and I cried through the final pages.
The only reason I'm not giving this phenomenal, powerful collection of essays five stars is the first essay. I disagree with Lorde's assessment of "sadomasochism," what is today called kink and BDSM. It's an interview from the early 1980s focused on controversy surrounding Samois, the first lesbian BDSM group in the US. I see where Lorde is coming from and absolutely respect fears around unhealthy power dynamics. I also respect that times were different and I don't know how healthy the practices were at Samois. But it breaks my heart that it seems like Lorde didn't talk directly to a single person who practiced BDSM. She seems to have no sense of why someone might try BDSM except to parrot and perpetuate existing harmful power dynamics in society. Or why playing with and exploring power dynamics within boundaries of negotiation and consent could be empowering and healing, a way to process trauma within containers we design ourselves. I can't help but wonder how much of the pushback against kink from feminists is still rooted in work like this.
Otherwise, a fantastic book. I feel like the passages about chronic illness and activism have given me so much to reflect on, and perhaps some small insight into what my friend might be going through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Genocide, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and War