Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes on by Franny Choi

11 reviews

wanderlust_romance's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

 Is it the end of the world as we know it? If so, why does it feel like we’ve been here before? How do individuals contend with their place in this cycle of anger, violence, revolt, and hope? This collection of poetry is filled with so many raw emotions. The poems examine and reflect on a multitude of themes - colonization, the Korean War, racial consciousness, environmental degradation, the COVID-19 pandemic, SA, gun violence - with much thoughtfulness and wisdom.

If you read Mohammed El-Kurd’s Rifqa and connected to the juxtaposition of nature, destruction, and resistance, then this collection by Franny Choi will also satisfy. It’s an honest reflection on the state of the world: it’s (sometimes) all kinds of awful, and yet we keep moving through it. Excellent on audio and read by the author. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Racism, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Genocide

michaelion's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

I've been feeling very hopeless / miserable lately and even just the first poem made me be like wow there really is hope for the future / humanity. I paid $28 for this book and it was worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, War, and Misogyny

Moderate: Death of parent, Gun violence, Police brutality, Hate crime, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Blood, Classism, and Genocide

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Racial slurs

panickedhonking's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

A strange mix of the most tragic and heartbreaking poems which gave me a sense that there's something after every apocalypse. Exhaustive list of content warnings somehow non-exhaustive still.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Death, Misogyny, Genocide, Eating disorder, Slavery, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, War, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Mass/school shootings, Body horror, Suicide, Sexual content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Child death, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Rape, Xenophobia, and Sexual assault

sakeriver's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

When I first read the title of this book, the image that came to mind was of a world—or perhaps a people—callously looking away and carrying on as if nothing had happened, one world ignorant of or insensitive to the ending of another. And this reading is present in the poems, though the poems’ speaker can never look away, from a family’s partition, a loved one’s suicide, one empire and then another crushing and raping those it has colonized, the grief of past endings, and the terror of those unfolding now. 

 

Yet the title also can suggest a world of persistence, of survival. A world that continues beyond the conflagration, coming out the other side. One where a future great-great-granddaughter might wonder about her ancestor’s life. Where life can still exist, even flourish. And this reading, too, is present in the poems. 

 

The poems hold both of these worlds in their hands, and they allow—require—the reader to hold them, too. They cry out in pain and fear, and whisper gently in comfort, too. Not the comfort of exoneration or complacency, but the comfort of a stranger’s milk offered to wash the tear gas from our eyes, of the thought that perhaps this will not all be in vain. That perhaps some future child will say: “thank you for healing / what you could; for passing down what you couldn’t.” 

 

I think I needed this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Colonisation, Death, Suicide, and Sexual violence

tmchopra's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, War, Genocide, Misogyny, Colonisation, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic

juney_'s review

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Grief, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Violence, War, Blood, Genocide, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

this poetry collection is amazing. Incredibly sad at points, but the use of sunsets and nature as something tragic, disturbing, and overbearing really is incredibly powerful and moving. I really enjoyed this book. 💝

words_and_coffee's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, War, Racism, Violence, Grief, Police brutality, Sexual assault, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexism, Suicide, Rape, and Police brutality

pabi's review

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Racism, War, Colonisation, Death, Police brutality, Classism, Genocide, Grief, and Gun violence

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Some things referenced went over my head especially the most personal poems that mentioned Sam. But that gives me reasons to come back and reread the book. 

I loved it and I loved Choi’s love and despair and grief and hope for the world. I think the book is very relatable to every one though some of the terms seem very modern or text/online slang or terms I’m not sure how an older audience may read it (tho there’s plenty of other things I had to look up).  I think it’s very relatable to the current feeling on the world on fire and grief for everyone everywhere, with specific reference to American tragedies such as masa shootings, the Atlanta spa shootings and violence to children in the name of care (such as Grace who’s news story flickered on the back of my mind while reading) that makes this book ache in a particular way as an American. But it’s also a book with global concerns and comments whether it’s from the authors Korean heritage or grief for the ongoing indigenous genocide in the Americas since Columbus or anti blackness or the imperialism America has export. And it’s a book with so much love and grief and also hope and I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Xenophobia, Torture, Stalking, Misogyny, Grief, Cursing, War, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Racism, Child abuse, Trafficking, Suicide, Slavery, Sexism, Self harm, Rape, Mass/school shootings, Sexual violence, Violence, Racial slurs, Murder, Genocide, Deportation, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Mental illness, and Death

jayisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

… and yet, the world keeps moving forward, despite its multiple endings. Choi pointedly reminds us that apocalypses have always been a part of our human history, but it happens to be that only certain populations are thrown into such catastrophe(s), while the rest of the world ignorantly (willful or not) continues on.

… and yet, despite the brokenness of this world, despite these ends, there is still something on the horizon to look forward to, a particular strength in surviving the end and living beyond it. So many of these poems are filled with grief and anger, but there lingers a burning hope for something more in Choi’s language. For those who have lived and/or are living through the apocalypse, their world continues on because there’s still so much to live for.

You are meant to grapple with the content of these poems, as well as sit with the emotions that come with these poems. This is a bit of a departure in tone and style from Choi’s previous works, but I think The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On reveals her incredible talent with form and language, as well as her ability to synthesize an array of ideas and concepts. There’s much to take away from this collection, especially living in the world we’re in today.

Some favorites: “The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On,” “Poem with an End in Sight,” “Science Fiction Poetry,” “Grief Is a Thing with Tense Issues,” “Unlove Poem,” “Dispatches from a Future Great-Great-Granddaughter,” and “Waste”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, War, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Sexual violence, Colonisation, and Gun violence

Minor: Suicide and Police brutality