Books wot I have read.
May. 28th, 2008 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ishyfaceBecause sometimes I read shit. Crazy, I know.
Potential, by Ariel Schrag
I think when people write about high school years after the fact, their memories are all in soft focus. Schrag's comic memoir Potential was written immediately after she graduated and describes her coming out in high school, losing her virginity, and trying to make sense of her first real relationship. Except that makes it sound stupid and Potential is actually good. Schrag's drawings are messy and scritchy and make me itch, and her writing is clumsy in the good way- it makes you realize how young she is, how earnest she is even though she's trying to defend herself with irony. This book reminded me of how awesomely terrible high school was, both the parts of it I miss and the parts of it I never want to think about again.
Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi
What I love about Marjane Satrapi is that she takes one look at the stereotype of Middle Eastern women as long-suffering submissive victims of their culture and laughs it off the face of the fucking planet. The conversations in Embroideries are the kind of conversations people across the world are having ion their living rooms- conversations about love, about sex, about money, and, more than anything, about juicy gossip. Satrapi's minimalist cartoon style scans almost like film noir at times. That combined with her snappy, raunchy dialogue makes Embroideries... hm, how do I say this without sounding like a total douche or someone reviewing a restaurant? Oh, I got it, ROCK AWESOME.
Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, by Ariel Levy
Sigh.
Okay. I am going to put away my distaste for Levy's prose style for just five minutes (but seriously, could she maybe try to sound neutral? just once?), and concentrate on the things I did like about the book. I found her analysis of the "Uncle Tomming" done by women to benefit from raunch culture to be spot on. (How-fucking-ever, using racial analogies and implicitly comparing oppressions? Thank you, Ms. Levy, a truckload of FAIL shall be delivered to your doorstep post-haste.) I also enjoyed her take on the relationship between raunch culture and capitalism, particularly that "[m]aking sexiness into something simple, quantifiable makes it easier to explain and to market. If you remove the human factor from sex and make it about stuff- big fake boobs, bleached blonde hair, long nails, poles, thongs- then you can sell it. Suddenly, sex requires shopping; you need plastic surgery, peroxide, a manicure, a mall. What is really out of commercial control is that you still can't bottle attraction." (184) But throughout the book I found myself flipping to the author's picture on the back flap and scowling at her, because a lot of her writing is fucking sloppy. For example, she writes with the unstated assumption that her readers will agree with her ideological opposition to pornography and sex work; although she claims that pornography will FUCK YOU UP MAN, she does not include statistics.* Instead she quotes Jenna Jameson's autobiography and calls it a day. She criticizes the third wave for its perceived permissiveness and acceptance of marketed sexuality and idealizes the second wave as a totally radical space, ignoring its history of excluding women by their race or sexual practice (lesbians, leatherfolk, too "feminine", whatever). And oh, that charming chapter on those mean mannish lesbians objectifying women by... uh... sleeping with lots of them! And sometimes wearing men's clothing! And even TRANSITIONING, oh noes! (Don't even get me started on her back-asswards attitude towards trans folk. Say it with me, people: If I'm NOT transgendered, I DON'T get to use the word "tranny." I don't. Get. To. Use. It.)
All in all? Glad I read it once, will never read it again.
I've also been reading Runaways, but it is too awesome for me to write a proper review. Telepathic time-traveling raptors! Goth girls leading teams of superheroes! KILLER NAZI SCIENTISTS MADE OF BEES! \o/
ETA: BABY BABY BABY.
* Just for the record: I identify primarily as a pro-sex feminist. I feel very uneasy about many of the images propagated by the porn industry, especially in relation to women and sexual assault, and I think they can be harmful, especially when it's the only way younger people can learn about sexuality; however, I think the solution to that problem is encouraging a society that is more open and honest about sexuality, not by shutting people down and censoring them. End PSA.
Potential, by Ariel Schrag
I think when people write about high school years after the fact, their memories are all in soft focus. Schrag's comic memoir Potential was written immediately after she graduated and describes her coming out in high school, losing her virginity, and trying to make sense of her first real relationship. Except that makes it sound stupid and Potential is actually good. Schrag's drawings are messy and scritchy and make me itch, and her writing is clumsy in the good way- it makes you realize how young she is, how earnest she is even though she's trying to defend herself with irony. This book reminded me of how awesomely terrible high school was, both the parts of it I miss and the parts of it I never want to think about again.
Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi
What I love about Marjane Satrapi is that she takes one look at the stereotype of Middle Eastern women as long-suffering submissive victims of their culture and laughs it off the face of the fucking planet. The conversations in Embroideries are the kind of conversations people across the world are having ion their living rooms- conversations about love, about sex, about money, and, more than anything, about juicy gossip. Satrapi's minimalist cartoon style scans almost like film noir at times. That combined with her snappy, raunchy dialogue makes Embroideries... hm, how do I say this without sounding like a total douche or someone reviewing a restaurant? Oh, I got it, ROCK AWESOME.
Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, by Ariel Levy
Sigh.
Okay. I am going to put away my distaste for Levy's prose style for just five minutes (but seriously, could she maybe try to sound neutral? just once?), and concentrate on the things I did like about the book. I found her analysis of the "Uncle Tomming" done by women to benefit from raunch culture to be spot on. (How-fucking-ever, using racial analogies and implicitly comparing oppressions? Thank you, Ms. Levy, a truckload of FAIL shall be delivered to your doorstep post-haste.) I also enjoyed her take on the relationship between raunch culture and capitalism, particularly that "[m]aking sexiness into something simple, quantifiable makes it easier to explain and to market. If you remove the human factor from sex and make it about stuff- big fake boobs, bleached blonde hair, long nails, poles, thongs- then you can sell it. Suddenly, sex requires shopping; you need plastic surgery, peroxide, a manicure, a mall. What is really out of commercial control is that you still can't bottle attraction." (184) But throughout the book I found myself flipping to the author's picture on the back flap and scowling at her, because a lot of her writing is fucking sloppy. For example, she writes with the unstated assumption that her readers will agree with her ideological opposition to pornography and sex work; although she claims that pornography will FUCK YOU UP MAN, she does not include statistics.* Instead she quotes Jenna Jameson's autobiography and calls it a day. She criticizes the third wave for its perceived permissiveness and acceptance of marketed sexuality and idealizes the second wave as a totally radical space, ignoring its history of excluding women by their race or sexual practice (lesbians, leatherfolk, too "feminine", whatever). And oh, that charming chapter on those mean mannish lesbians objectifying women by... uh... sleeping with lots of them! And sometimes wearing men's clothing! And even TRANSITIONING, oh noes! (Don't even get me started on her back-asswards attitude towards trans folk. Say it with me, people: If I'm NOT transgendered, I DON'T get to use the word "tranny." I don't. Get. To. Use. It.)
All in all? Glad I read it once, will never read it again.
I've also been reading Runaways, but it is too awesome for me to write a proper review. Telepathic time-traveling raptors! Goth girls leading teams of superheroes! KILLER NAZI SCIENTISTS MADE OF BEES! \o/
ETA: BABY BABY BABY.
* Just for the record: I identify primarily as a pro-sex feminist. I feel very uneasy about many of the images propagated by the porn industry, especially in relation to women and sexual assault, and I think they can be harmful, especially when it's the only way younger people can learn about sexuality; however, I think the solution to that problem is encouraging a society that is more open and honest about sexuality, not by shutting people down and censoring them. End PSA.