A review by stevendedalus
Black Madness :: Mad Blackness by Therí Alyce Pickens
3.0
A twisting jargon-heavy romp through the (self-admittedly) confusing interplay outside normativity that are Blackness and madness, Pickens sometimes stretches and wends, but still manages to dig and provoke.
The latter half is the strongest, where her examples struggle less to depict Blackness and madness (Butler and Hopkinson don't conform easily to white normativity or to theses). But throughout there are some great thoughts and barbs as to how we view the world and how much work can be done to examine and upturn those paradigms.
Pickens admits she does not have answers, and foregrounds so much thought, like a lot of academic writing, in previous thinkers that it bogs down at times, but it's definitely something you can return to, and will add some great books to your reading list.
The latter half is the strongest, where her examples struggle less to depict Blackness and madness (Butler and Hopkinson don't conform easily to white normativity or to theses). But throughout there are some great thoughts and barbs as to how we view the world and how much work can be done to examine and upturn those paradigms.
Pickens admits she does not have answers, and foregrounds so much thought, like a lot of academic writing, in previous thinkers that it bogs down at times, but it's definitely something you can return to, and will add some great books to your reading list.