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A review by oddfigg
Everybody by Olivia Laing
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.