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Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'
On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint by Maggie Nelson
3 reviews
nineadrianna's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Addiction, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Drug use, and Racism
ingridaleida's review against another edition
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual violence and Drug use
juditkovacs's review against another edition
slow-paced
This book takes the top spot for worst book I have ever read. Knocking out Infinite Jest, it is literally the worst book I have ever read.
Why did I finish reading it then? you might ask. Because I wanted to make sure that I will never-ever feel the slightest temptation to ever read anything written by this person again. I have read The Argonauts earlier this year (because that was also oh so praised), and was very disappointed by it, but was still tempted to start this one because of the topic.
But at least that was still in English. However in this book Nelson tries very hard to obscure the fact that she has nothing worthwhile to add to the discussion by (over)writing unreadibly bad, academic sentences that lead nowhere, and are meant to obscure the fact that she has no clue about the topic. Yes, she's read a few book, and some of them are oh so provocatively weird or scandalous, but all she does with this is give a book report, or review, or worse just takes out of context fragments of other people's thoughts and adds on someone else's other thoughts linking them in the typical academic journal article style. Resulting in horrible writing, that is not meant for the general public. So don't fear, it's not you who is too stupid/uneducated to understand professor Nelson's oh so intellectual thoughts here, but rather it's her unwillingness to communicate like a human being that is the problem. Not inability, but conscious effort to make the text as incomprehensible and difficult as possible. Her previous book, The Argonaouts, has normal English sentences. So it's not that she's unable to write normally, but a conscious choice on her part. And this is done to hostile levels. This book is actively working against you understanding it, because that makes it seem smart, I guess.
Honestly it feels like a post-modernist performance piece about how unpalatable liberal academic writing is, and how it doesn't actually need to make sense in any way, because the fans will love it, and the non-fans will just cower and think that they are not smart enough to "get it". It's the most cynical, and malevolent book I have ever read.
To hell with this book, and Maggie Nelson for writing it, and having it published this way.
Just read the books she quotes from, and skip this altogether. Your time will be better spent that way. There is a "Works Cited" section at the end to make this easier. This whole book should have been limited to a recommended reading list.
Why did I finish reading it then? you might ask. Because I wanted to make sure that I will never-ever feel the slightest temptation to ever read anything written by this person again. I have read The Argonauts earlier this year (because that was also oh so praised), and was very disappointed by it, but was still tempted to start this one because of the topic.
But at least that was still in English. However in this book Nelson tries very hard to obscure the fact that she has nothing worthwhile to add to the discussion by (over)writing unreadibly bad, academic sentences that lead nowhere, and are meant to obscure the fact that she has no clue about the topic. Yes, she's read a few book, and some of them are oh so provocatively weird or scandalous, but all she does with this is give a book report, or review, or worse just takes out of context fragments of other people's thoughts and adds on someone else's other thoughts linking them in the typical academic journal article style. Resulting in horrible writing, that is not meant for the general public. So don't fear, it's not you who is too stupid/uneducated to understand professor Nelson's oh so intellectual thoughts here, but rather it's her unwillingness to communicate like a human being that is the problem. Not inability, but conscious effort to make the text as incomprehensible and difficult as possible. Her previous book, The Argonaouts, has normal English sentences. So it's not that she's unable to write normally, but a conscious choice on her part. And this is done to hostile levels. This book is actively working against you understanding it, because that makes it seem smart, I guess.
Honestly it feels like a post-modernist performance piece about how unpalatable liberal academic writing is, and how it doesn't actually need to make sense in any way, because the fans will love it, and the non-fans will just cower and think that they are not smart enough to "get it". It's the most cynical, and malevolent book I have ever read.
To hell with this book, and Maggie Nelson for writing it, and having it published this way.
Just read the books she quotes from, and skip this altogether. Your time will be better spent that way. There is a "Works Cited" section at the end to make this easier. This whole book should have been limited to a recommended reading list.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, and Body horror
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