11corvus11's reviews
904 reviews

While this doesn't quite match my more dismal and urgent views of the present and future and the writing can be a little heavy handed at times, I appreciate when someone REALLY researches and thinks HARD through what a better world could look like if we were to survive the apocalypse were currently living through. That's not easy. So, this is probably 4ish stars for my taste and more... aggressively left(?) politics, but 5 for effort. I'm making my way through this and next The Deluge before reading Dean Spade's critical piece on both so I'm curious how my thoughts may change.

Updating to add a link to Taylor's coauthored important article that was just published:
If the left is serious about saving democracy, there’s one more cause to add to the list

Original review:
The bar was already set very high for Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert before I even had my hands on the book. I have been a massive fan of Sunaura Taylor's work- both artistically and academically for some time. Her paintings are uniquely stunning and her book, Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation was a groundbreaking text regarding discussions of the ableism central to nonhuman animal and human exploitation. I'm happy to say that this book met my expectations and then some.

One of the best things about this text is that it has all of the meticulous research and information of an academic dissertation without all of the absurdly unnecessary jargon. It reads like an academic text for sure because that's what it is, but it can actually be read by people outside the field which is something that should be true for any disability scholarship but often isn't. Taylor also had a clear intention with how she used footnotes that gives the reader a variety of ways to choose how to engage with them without requiring them to skip to the back of the book where they are often found. The research materials of the book are also used in a very engaging way. We have the usual statistics here and there as well as lots of newspaper clippings and photographs from a time before everything was easily found online. Taylor also offers reportbacks from activist community meetings and other events that she attended in person. Taylor clearly put a ton of work into this book. It not only adds to the credibility of her claims. It allows her to highlight marginalized voices often silenced in these discussions. It also makes the book more readable in general and breaks up the text well.

Disabled Ecologies is an interesting academic exercise because it has a very personal note at the center. Taylor uses her experiences from Tuscon, AZ of aquifer and other pollution caused by the military (which likely led to her being born with her disability,) as an anchor for the rest of the book. Such an intimate exercise navigated the personal connection to disability with the global field well. This is an important skill as none of us is able to divorce ourselves from our own experience and position in the working. This framing also allows her to discuss the thorny issue of disability liberation in the context of when environmental destruction is the cause of disablement.

Taylor grapples with the disabling nature of ecodestruction and the idea of illness, cure, eugenics, and public health in general. She does not glamorize disability nor does she take away from the positive idea of a disabled future with the care and support that could entail in an ideal situation. She gathers the words of others like Eli Clare who have also discussed the politics around the idea of cure. In all of these elements, Taylor makes clear the need for disability to always be part of discussions around environment including how environmental injury occurs.

Much of these sections made me think about the idea of body neutrality as opposed to body positivity. We do not need every narrative of success to be a happy story where each person is/feels uniquely beautiful within a fairy tale as our only response to the negative, pitying, blaming narratives around disability and other body-related issues The body can just be a body that has an amalgamation of characteristics coming from many sources and experiences.

A good chunk of the book is spent discussing the methods that polluters use to redirect their responsibility for the destruction of the planet and the lives of everyone on it. This fits into disability and eugenecist capitalism in how they turn health into an individual issue. When disability is depoliticized and characterized only as an individual medical problem, it allows those in power to shift blame onto (often also racist, classist, colonialist, etc) notions of culture, behavior, etc. Polluters manage this even when entire communities are suffering and dying from high rates of illness unique to their location for generations matching up perfectly with the polluters' activities. Polluters knew then just as they do now the effects of their industry. They are even skilled at turning science/medicine against us claiming to always need more research to "prove" their pollution causes illness- a level of burden always just out of reach. One little historical tidbit that surprised me was that Raegan's "war on cancer," was instrumental in changing the focus to genetics and individual and rather than environmental research. I've had cancer 3 times (which I do believe may have environmental causes) and even personally I can see how this culture affected every aspect of my treatment. Even if Raegan was well intentioned for once, flooding one form of the research market and neglecting the other undoubtedly backfired. I had genetic testing and infusions but no one asked about my polluted water or examined why my roommate and I both had cancers with recurrences in our 30s.

The conclusion of the text is very well written and connects the local to the global in skilled and frankly horrifying ways. We learn that the same polluters in Tuscon manufactured bombs used in Yemen among other atrocities. She also connects the human to the more than human in discussions of how the rest of the animals on this planet are affected. She reframes narratives on Darwinism (while acknowledging his many faults) to include the reality that the message should not be about the "fittest," but about how consistent change, mutation, and variation are what have and continue to propagate life. It is a call to action to support this variation in order for us to continuously adapt to ecocide. When Taylor joined us at VINE book club to discuss the text, she elaborated more on her intention to avoid "one and done" apocalypse narratives, discussing the importance of seeing ourselves in an ongoing struggle. She also mentioned how the discussion of systemic pollution and authoritarianism do not remove the value and effectiveness of our individual participation in organizing and liberatory movements (such as veganism.)


A good chunk of the book is spent discussing the methods that polluters use to redirect their responsibility for the destruction of the planet and the lives of everyone on it. This fits into disability and eugenecist capitalism in how they turn health into an individual issue. When disability is depoliticized and characterized only as an individual medical problem, it allows those in power to shift blame onto (often also racist, classist, colonialist, etc) notions of culture, behavior, etc. Polluters manage this even when entire communities are suffering and dying from high rates of illness unique to their location for generations matching up perfectly with the polluters' activities. Polluters knew then just as they do now the effects of their industry. They are even skilled at turning science/medicine against us claiming to always need more research to "prove" their pollution causes illness- a level of burden always just out of reach. One little historical tidbit that surprised me was that Raegan's "war on cancer," was instrumental in changing the focus to genetics and individual and rather than environmental research. I've had cancer 3 times (which I do believe may have environmental causes) and even personally I can see how this culture affected every aspect of my treatment. Even if Raegan was well intentioned for once, flooding one form of the research market and neglecting the other undoubtedly backfired. I had genetic testing and infusions but no one asked about my polluted water or examined why my roommate and I both had cancers with recurrences in our 30s.

The conclusion of the text is very well written and connects the local to the global in skilled and frankly horrifying ways. We learn that the same polluters in Tuscon manufactured bombs used in Yemen among other atrocities. She also connects the human to the more than human in discussions of how the rest of the animals on this planet are affected. She reframes narratives on Darwinism (while acknowledging his many faults) to include the reality that the message should not be about the "fittest," but about how consistent change, mutation, and variation are what have and continue to propagate life. It is a call to action to support this variation in order for us to continuously adapt to ecocide. When Taylor joined us at VINE book club to discuss the text, she elaborated more on her intention to avoid "one and done" apocalypse narratives, discussing the importance of seeing ourselves in an ongoing struggle. She also mentioned how the discussion of systemic pollution and authoritarianism do not remove the value and effectiveness of our individual participation in organizing and liberatory movements (such as veganism.)

This review could have been even longer had I mentioned everything I learned and loved about this book. Sunaura Taylor has shown us yet again her ability to add something new and revelatory to ongoing discussions about disability and the environment at a time when it's more important than ever.

This was also posted to my blog and goodreads.

This important relic of queer history has sat in print on my shelf forever as I intended to eventually read it because of that significance. However, I don't much go for period pieces about the troubles of wealthy people nor do I much like romance (though this is mostly the misery of love more than romance.) I saw the audio available and figured I'm never going to get around to it and might as well listen.

It's very well written for what it is. But, it's clearly (white people) dated in terms of race in ways that I don't know enough what to say can be blamed on the time period. There is one scene with two Black performers that the authors descriptions of made me literally wanna crawl out of my skin and I felt bad for the narrator who had to read them out loud. It's also a miserable novel about the social suffering of an otherwise privileged butch lesbian and/or trans man depending on how you read it (the protagonist is referred to as she/her but expresses over and over from childhood that s/he IS a boy, does not feel like a girl/woman, IS NOT a girl/woman, etc which could apply to both given the understanding of gender then and now so...)

It's tough because I wonder if it's based on the authors life and I've certainly had some similar experiences with cis women who are into cis dudes and lifestyle that comes with them vs with not cishet pairings. I don't wanna take away from how frustrating and hurtful that could be decades before I was even alive and the rage hit home especially with her first lover. But, every bisexual (or lesbian turned bi/straight) woman in this ends up choosing men like as soon as a slightly ok one shows up, it's every negative bisexual stereotype you can imagine, women in general are the worst offenders of any and all suffering in the book, women who tend to be stronger are all servants of some sort, etc. I guess it lives up to it's title. If I was a young person reading this when it came out though it would certainly not make me want to seek out love.

I guess I can say I read it now 🤷

This book was an interesting surprise. Usually going into any sort of pop psychology book I have somewhat low expectations. Part of this is because dominant culture is often woven throughout so much that it becomes frustrating. Part of it is that complex medical systems that are already problematic even at the academic level are simplified down too much. Part of it is that we sometimes get way too much of the author's bias or unethical oversharing.

The latter part ended up being a lot different than it usually is in this case. Borderline is a foray into history by Alexander Kriss that is composed alongside (mostly) a single case study. I often feel nervous about these sorts of things being shared even when identifying information is claimed to have been removed because psychological care should be 100% private. In this case though, it comes across that this was done quite thoughtfully and with consent and input from the patient whose case is at the center. There's even a clear discussion about the power dynamics at hand and if a patient can consent properly to something like this. I think the reason it works in this case is because the author is a psychoanalyst of the more classic type that spends multiple days a week over an extended period of time with their client. This results in a level of connection and intimacy that is inescapable. I found the accounts in this book to be honest in this regard as much as I can tell from the writing. The author was also open about his thought processes, mistakes, and shortcomings.

As much as my former advisors and professors would probably be disappointed, I love psychoanalysis. I love its fantastical focus on the unconscious and all of the things that we can't possibly measure. I love that it's near impossible to quantify and study like biopsychology or cognitive neuroscience, which is what most of my education was based on when I went to school for psychology.

I would say that this book is not really a biography of borderline personality disorder such that a complete beginner could pick it up and learn about it. I saw it as more of an expansion on the rather one-dimensional way that the disorder is viewed by many today. Kriss weaves together the long history of maladies attributed to women and argues that hysteria and related diagnoses of the past are older names for the same syndrome now known as borderline personality disorder. As a result, I think it will work better for folks with a foundational understanding of the current definition and manifestations of bpd diagnoses.

One of the best parts about how this book does history is that Kriss discusses the social position of the psychologists and theorists he is focused on. I went through years of school and psychology classes learning about dead men and their thoughts on the womens brains without ever learning which ones of them were slavers. We never discussed how Sigmund Freud being Jewish affected his place in the field and how he approached topics. We never discussed how American capitalism would be used to shape the direction of psychology when certain ideas arrived from overseas. There was rarely any discussion of patriarchy or privilege. Freud as a name was always attributed to Sigmund, not Anna, despite the latter having far more accurate and grounded beliefs albeit still problematic. I felt that I learned so much more about these various theorists by understanding their position in the world at the time.

One of the most surprising things to me is that Sigmund Freud, Sándor Ferenczi, and others were actually closer to reality in the beginning of their theories about why women are suffering (sexual abuse and exposure to trauma) before Freud decided to go extra misogynistic and buried his own history and Ferenczi's work. Through all of these histories, Kriss makes it pretty impossible to deny how current day treatment of borderline personality disorder isn't a whole lot better or more evolved than the treatment of Hysteria in the past. It might even be worse in terms of predicting the ability to heal because at least in the past it wasn't assumed that the patient was doomed as soon as the label was slapped on them.

Kriss also covers more modern day manifestations of care for borderline personality disorder and disorders related to traumatic experience. He has more favorable yet still nuanced takes on dialectical behavioral therapy and treatments around post-traumatic stress. He discusses as well the ways in which psychoanalytic concepts such as splitting were redefined as if they were new concepts with labels like multiple personality disorder. There is a case study he is careful to discuss with someone I would argue was manipulated by an internet "friend" into believing they have "dissociative identity disorder" and played the part. Kriss seems to argue more that people all have varying degrees of splitting into other personalities in one way or another, some of which are dysfunctional and some of which are just normal. It's more complicated than that, but that would make this a very long review.

Kriss has a lot to say about the DSM and modern day psychology centering it. Rightfully so. Something I learned in particular from this book was that PTSD being entered into the DSM was the first time that a disorder symptomology included an external event being the cause. Everything else is about problems with the individual. That is bananas to me. I knew this problematic aspect of diagnostic practices but had no idea that the environment was that absent from the DSM.

I will share one quote that stood out to me regarding how many paradigms claim we must create a new self while mourning the old one we somehow lost to a trauma or illness:

"We always add, never subtract. All the way down to the psychotic core, we can only be ourselves and the things that happen to us, that make us ill, also have the potential to serve as sources of empathy and ideas that challenge a toxic status quo."

Overall I really liked this compassionate psychoanalytic foray into the previously unknown to me long history of borderline personality disorder. I hope it will foster more empathy toward those with the label and lead to better outcomes for them and the world that we share.

This was also posted to my blog and goodreads.

Oof.

The callousness with which she discussed dissection and dismembering of each species without even mentioning the death that occurs between life and study harms the central thesis. How can you argue that other animals are so advanced and magnificent while also telling the reader they are merely objects to be taken apart? This is common in science books but this one is especially noticeable in how it discusses vivisection as if the animal just magically transformed into a happy clump of data.

I tried to push through but gave up when we got to the abuse and killing of owls. If you want to teach humans how wonderous other animals are, maybe consider the actual experiences and desires of the individual animals you're discussing, not just what pieces of their dead bodies look like under a microscope or how they act when their senses are mutilated and robbed from them. The only thing this book uses other animals to tell us about humans is to show how cruel we can be.

It's difficult not to invoke The Handmaid's Tale when talking about a book like Rae Giana Rashad's The Blueprint. There are many pieces of it that resemble popular texts that came before it. However, given that one of the main criticisms of books like THT, despite Atwood clearly saying that she never meant it as a depiction of something that had never happened, is that they often focus on oppression of white women that has already been enacted upon Black women and others throughout American history. The Blueprint is somewhat of a cyberpunk adjacent dystopia taking place in an alternate history, present, and future- told from alternating time periods in different chapters. Chattel slavery was not abolished but instead shifted to a system where Black women in particular are still purchased and abused through a high tech system involving an algorithm which assigns women to men based on their social class and profession among other dystopian characteristics. The book is told both from the point of view of the protagonist and her biography of her enslaved ancestor, making evident the myriad of ways in which the two timelines collide.

I found this book to be beautifully written and the world building to be immersive. The book is extremely dark, but it did not feel pointlessly so or like trauma porn. The stage felt real and the characters were all believable as people. Part of this is likely because they are also messy just like real life. There is a lot of focus on intercommunity dynamics and how oppressed groups of people can mistreat one another when individuals are grasping at and holding on to any little bit of power they can get when the rest is taken from them. There were lots of themes about Black love, hurt, expectation, suffering, and liberation. There were discussions of power dynamics and at what level power prevents love and respect from being able to occur.

I admit about 2/3 of the way through I felt myself less engaged with the book, but I can't quite pinpoint why. It may have been the shift in focus to specific relationships. It's interesting because at other less dark times I found myself thinking, "why is everyone focusing on creating this relationship drama at this moment?" and then remembering that in any situation I have been in no matter how dire, there is always relationship drama going on. So, it's not necessarily a poor creative choice.

The best part of the book is Butters sharing her wisdom, but I won't say much more than that in order to avoid spoilers. I look forward to more writing from this author in the future as she expands on these genres in skillful and engaging ways.

This was also posted to my blog and goodreads. 

New Adventures in Space Opera first caught my eye due to the sheer number of excellent contributors that I was already at least somewhat familiar with. Even with this excitement, I tend to go into anthologies with below average expectations as I can often run into as many duds as I do excellent stories. This book surprised me by how solid it was across the board. Even the stories that genre-wise were not my cup of tea, were still well written enough to be entertaining. Some of the authors I already enjoyed brought their A-Game, but I was also introduced to a few others whose work I will be seeking out after having read this anthology.

As Jonathan Strahan discusses in the intro, the definition of what constitutes the "space opera" genre, like pretty much all scifi and fantasy, is debated. Though, there is often a common thread and that is that some see it as a lesser form of science fiction. A bunch of legit nerds like us scifi fans pretending anything we like is cooler than anything else is silly to me, but it is human nature I suppose. This anthology has a wide range of styles and subgenres well complemented by its talented authors, making it difficult for anyone to argue that space opera is lesser in any way.

I read the book cover to cover and one thing I really liked is how long many stories were. One of my biggest issues with short fiction is that I often feel like it's cut off before I am even invested in the story. These entries are still short, but with enough length to settle into. There were some stories that I would describe as war stories, spirituality themes, or space fantasy, that were not my taste (but as I mentioned, not poorly written.) The rest though, ranging from what I would describe as adjacent to cyberpunk, satire, and general space scifi were totally up my alley. The stories that were my favorites were Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee, A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime by Charlie Jane Anders, Immersion by Aliette de Bodard, Planetstuck by Sam J Miller, and The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck with Miller and Anders being tied for the top spot.

Representation in the book was also above average with many stories surrounding characters of demographics and nationalities that we don't often see centered in English language scifi. This was also a great pride month read. If you're familiar with many of the authors, you may already know that. If not, then I will tell you that many of these stories are wonderfully gay and spectacularly queer. I also tend to go into anthologies expecting otherwise, but since I was familiar with some of the authors, I knew they'd deliver.

Overall, New Adventures in Space Opera is a great collection of stories that both add new elements to the genre and celebrate its long and beloved history among non-pretentious science fiction lovers. Its inclusion of a wide variety of styles and topics means there's likely something in it for everyone. It's a great edition to any shelf for those who love scifi, and maybe many who don't yet realize that they do.

This was also posted to my goodreads and blog.

Tried the audiobook and was ok with the format at first. But the longer it went on, the more it felt like a completely unedited conversational podcast where I'm constantly waiting for her to get to each point. So, I gave up, just not for me.

Before writing a review of Gary Numan's memoir, (R)evolution, I decided to catch up on his later releases. To be honest, my interest in this memoir was due to knowing him as a great electronic and goth/industrial adjacent pioneer. But, unlike many who, as detailed in the book, always wanted him to stick to the early hits, I found some of his early stuff a bit too upbeat for me. The saxophones and backup singer style are just not my cup of tea. I've come to find that most of what Numan released after the mid 90s is right up my alley as well as more of his earlier stuff than I realized. He's put out a massive amount of music throughout his career.

Numan discussed his process for many releases, describing some of the later stuff (from Pure onward) as darker and that is certainly the case. I'd also go as far to say that this is his best material. The sound is much more evolved and shows a maturity with electronic media as well as the ability to grow with the technology. I also just love the darkness that comes with a lot of artists' later work who started from a more pop place (Kite comes immediately to mind.) Now that I've started from the end, let's get back to the beginning.

(R)evolution is an interesting memoir and one I chose to listen to as the author himself was reading it. It stands out from many musician stories, especially that of pop stars, in how he chooses to gloss over many of the more wild days and instead focuses on family and career. I don't know if that's just what is most important to him now, or if he is deliberately choosing not to highlight things he's admittedly embarrassed of. I can't help wondering what he meant when he said he was a bad partner or what he was ashamed of when he and other stars interacted with groupies. I get it, though. He also discussed a documentary team doing their best to agitate him in interviews and focus on a small part of his career for entertainment value. I can't blame him for resisting that portrayal, but I would totally read a memory from his former partner.

Based on this memoir, Gary Numan is a nerdy scifi fanatic on the autism spectrum (he uses the term Asperger's,) whose creative expression was truly unique and individual, composing his own material, moreso than many famous pop artists. I never realized how many scifi stories he wrote before then writing songs and albums based on those stories. I love it. I also loved hearing about how gay clubs were a haven as they were when I was a young rivethead/goth kid long before I understood my own gender and sexuality. This sort of crossover always makes me happy even though there can be conflicts and problems with straight folks in gay bars. Perhaps the difference is coming together over subculture and performance rather than the spectacle or exploitation that comes with cishet bachelorette parties or other voyeurs seeking comedic entertainment which is something both lgbtq folks and dark subculture folks deal with.

Something baffling to me is how bad he was with money. I know it's common for people who get a lot of money and fame quickly to screw it up. But, my dude, maybe don't buy a castle if you're in so much debt. I was a little frustrated by how he spoke about his money troubles, maybe because I'm poor and meticulously plan every cent. But, there's also a reality that you could never pay me enough to be famous. I would rather die. So, I know it costs a certain amount to have any privacy or life once you're in it. Also, many of his struggles with money were because of his creative and elaborate set designs for live shows, which seems very wholesome as it's clear that he always wanted the fans to have the best possible experience.

A lot of the book is about things I find boring like trying to have kids, Gemma (his wife) and his endless struggles with IVF, as well as both of their multiple plastic surgeries. It was unexpected again because of my own biases of what I think musicians must be like. Me finding them boring is irrelevant to the books value, just personal taste.

He has interesting takes on mental illness, particularly depression. I liked seeing a middle ground take on the often polarized debates around mental health drugs. In his eyes, depression is curable with a course of meds, but you can also become dependent on the meds and turn into someone you're not. I don't agree with this across the board (some people recover better with no meds, some with lifelong meds, some never recover despite all efforts and hard work, etc) but it's a valuable perspective.

There are sections where he mentions musicians he either worked with or who covered his stuff and generally does not have anything negative to say (with the exception of Bowie who deserved it for acting like a giant baby which he apparently later regrets.) But, some of them like Marilyn Manson have since been outed as serial predators and I felt a little frustrated that there was no mention of that. There also was some glossing over discussions of racism around not liking hip hop despite earlier in the book being flattered by some artists crediting him as inspiration. On public social media Numan has been supportive of BLM and pride along other things, so maybe he doesn't know the details or just made a creative choice not to talk shit.

What I really enjoyed was his discussion of how he processes music. He thinks of music with every possible sense, as a multidimensional exercise. Each album was composed not just for how it sounds, but how it feels, how it looks when performed, how he would move when performing. He discusses wanting to be a pop star from a young age but also having crippling stage anxiety. He partly credits his Asperger's for how he decided to perform as well. Watching him, you would not know, but he would basically think of how things should be and practice movements and expressions he thought were supposed to go along with it. Perhaps this sort of thinking is why he was able to become one of the early electronic music pioneers despite being told that synths were going nowhere, which is hilarious to think back on given the state of music today- most of which contains at least one synth instrument or computerized processing of some sort.

Overall, I enjoyed this peek into Numan's life, career, and creative processes as well as the experience of a multi-decade time capsule. I'm also glad that it inspired me to add a slew of great albums to my music library.

This was also posted to my blog and goodreads.