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Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'
The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
4 reviews
tangleroot_eli's review against another edition
informative
sad
slow-paced
I've been following Alison Bechdel's work since the late '90s. This is by leaps and bounds (see what I did there?) my least favorite of her works that I've read.
I read it all because it's relatively short, and I kept wanting to find out what the point was going to be. But engagementwise I checked out on page 24, when Bechdel refers to the modern day as "these lax and decadent times." Which, OK, we have more sneaker choices than you did as a kid. But saying we live in "lax and decadent times" feels disingenuous at best and willfully obtuse at worst when legislatures and courts strip our civil rights pretty much daily and people have to crowdfund everything from housing and food to healthcare and funerals.
Near the end there's a Spaceballs-esque moment where Bechdel-the-character starts writing this book. She describes it as a "lighthearted" look at her relationship with exercise. Later she acknowledges that she's having trouble figuring out how to end the book because she's still not sure what it's about. At that moment I finally understood this book: it never knew what it was about, and so tried to be about everything, and therefore ended up not really being about anything. (Except maybe an ad for L.L. Bean and Patagonia.)
The parts about the Romantics, the Beatniks, Adrienne Rich, and Buddhism are... okay, I guess. I learned a thing or two. But I couldn't help noticing that these parts are most likely to appear whenever Bechdel comes really close to expressing and processing actual emotions. Maybe it's the hifalutin equivalent of a fade-to-black in a sex scene; we don't need to see someone's personal emotional catharsis, so we get poets instead. But it also feels like a dodge: just when it feels like Bechdel's really getting somewhere in dealing with her various issues, we suddenly get a page of Margaret Fuller's or Jack Kerouac's issues, instead.
I also felt dismay that Bechdel never acknowledges, or even seems to notice. that exercise is every bit as much an addiction for her as alcohol and prescription meds are. She starts exercising less; she starts drinking more. She stops drinking; she ramps up her exercise to what seem like unhealthy levels. But because our society says "drugs bad, exercise good!" Bechdel never has to face the fact that she's trading one ill-advised coping mechanism for another, despite repeated references to exertion-induced tachycardia and other health concerns indicating that exercise is not a universal good for her, at least not the way she's doing it.
In the end, Bechdel's own words from the beginning of the book sum up my feelings about it:
"You might well ask what use another book about fitness by a white lady could possibly be.
…"
I read it all because it's relatively short, and I kept wanting to find out what the point was going to be. But engagementwise I checked out on page 24, when Bechdel refers to the modern day as "these lax and decadent times." Which, OK, we have more sneaker choices than you did as a kid. But saying we live in "lax and decadent times" feels disingenuous at best and willfully obtuse at worst when legislatures and courts strip our civil rights pretty much daily and people have to crowdfund everything from housing and food to healthcare and funerals.
Near the end there's a Spaceballs-esque moment where Bechdel-the-character starts writing this book. She describes it as a "lighthearted" look at her relationship with exercise. Later she acknowledges that she's having trouble figuring out how to end the book because she's still not sure what it's about. At that moment I finally understood this book: it never knew what it was about, and so tried to be about everything, and therefore ended up not really being about anything. (Except maybe an ad for L.L. Bean and Patagonia.)
The parts about the Romantics, the Beatniks, Adrienne Rich, and Buddhism are... okay, I guess. I learned a thing or two. But I couldn't help noticing that these parts are most likely to appear whenever Bechdel comes really close to expressing and processing actual emotions. Maybe it's the hifalutin equivalent of a fade-to-black in a sex scene; we don't need to see someone's personal emotional catharsis, so we get poets instead. But it also feels like a dodge: just when it feels like Bechdel's really getting somewhere in dealing with her various issues, we suddenly get a page of Margaret Fuller's or Jack Kerouac's issues, instead.
I also felt dismay that Bechdel never acknowledges, or even seems to notice. that exercise is every bit as much an addiction for her as alcohol and prescription meds are. She starts exercising less; she starts drinking more. She stops drinking; she ramps up her exercise to what seem like unhealthy levels. But because our society says "drugs bad, exercise good!" Bechdel never has to face the fact that she's trading one ill-advised coping mechanism for another, despite repeated references to exertion-induced tachycardia and other health concerns indicating that exercise is not a universal good for her, at least not the way she's doing it.
In the end, Bechdel's own words from the beginning of the book sum up my feelings about it:
"You might well ask what use another book about fitness by a white lady could possibly be.
…"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Alcohol, Mental illness, Self harm, Addiction, and Drug use
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Animal death
Minor: Violence, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Car accident, and Infidelity
CN exercise addictionnnia's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.75
Coming from a family of undertakers, 'The Secret to Superhuman Strength' is a journey through struggle to acceptance of one's own human nature and mortality. Most of the book covers struggle. Struggling to understand what she is struggling with and how to give it up. A lot of learning to unlearn. A lot of following Allison’s own interests, studying her heroes, their journeys, Allison’s journey, giving up the struggle against aches, pains, human frailty, real and imagined and finally just enjoying what life you have.
I don’t think I’m giving anything away here. Learning to unlearn what we have learned is a common practice in the colonial world.
Would have liked more time, space, and panels on the concluding desirable outcome and more enjoyment of life.
Happy for Allison and her loved ones.
I don’t think I’m giving anything away here. Learning to unlearn what we have learned is a common practice in the colonial world.
Would have liked more time, space, and panels on the concluding desirable outcome and more enjoyment of life.
Happy for Allison and her loved ones.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Abandonment, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Violence
karolinaz's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, Addiction, Body horror, Car accident, Mental illness, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death of parent, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Drug abuse, Cultural appropriation, Animal death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Drug use, Alcoholism, Suicide, and Homophobia
adoras's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Thank you to Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC!
This is my first Alison Bechdel book--I own Fun Home, but have never gotten around to reading it, although I loved the musical. It's a philosophical, self-reflective and self-depreciating look at Bechdel's relationship with her body, her health (mental, physical, and emotional), exercise, and the feeling of transcendence. These are huge topics, and she covers her entire life up to very recently (the last few pages talk about her struggling to finish the memoir during quarantine).
However, the book never feels overstuffed, or unfocused. Bechdel also connects her personal experience to history, following a few poets, philosophers, and writers that she felt some kind of personal connection to, as they also thought and talked about transcendence, nature, their own troubled relationships, etc. These writers include Emerson, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Margaret Fuller, and Jack Kerouac. Despite not particularly being fans of or knowing a lot about any of these people, I enjoyed all of these connections. I did find it funny that there was such a focus on Eastern philosophy, but many of the people talked about were white.
The book is broken up into sections that follow a decade, of Bechdel's life (the 1980s, when Bechdel was in her 20s, etc). It was fascinating to see reflections both of her personal history, and of where the world was at the moment. For example, the book would cover some of Bechdel's relationships and the writing of Fun Home and Are You My Mother?, but also discuss the development of running shoes and active wear over the years, or the connection between the AIDS crisis and a focus on a different physique for men—lack of body hair, and use of steroids used more widely after first being prescribed to HIV-positive men.
Even if you have no particular interest in exercise and books about it, this graphic memoir is about so much more. She is incredibly honest about her problems with suppressing her emotions, throwing herself into her work, refusing to rely on others, and pushing herself too hard to the point of injury or illness. I also enjoyed the art style, full of funny little details, and the soft pastels used for the coloring.
This is my first Alison Bechdel book--I own Fun Home, but have never gotten around to reading it, although I loved the musical. It's a philosophical, self-reflective and self-depreciating look at Bechdel's relationship with her body, her health (mental, physical, and emotional), exercise, and the feeling of transcendence. These are huge topics, and she covers her entire life up to very recently (the last few pages talk about her struggling to finish the memoir during quarantine).
However, the book never feels overstuffed, or unfocused. Bechdel also connects her personal experience to history, following a few poets, philosophers, and writers that she felt some kind of personal connection to, as they also thought and talked about transcendence, nature, their own troubled relationships, etc. These writers include Emerson, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Margaret Fuller, and Jack Kerouac. Despite not particularly being fans of or knowing a lot about any of these people, I enjoyed all of these connections. I did find it funny that there was such a focus on Eastern philosophy, but many of the people talked about were white.
The book is broken up into sections that follow a decade, of Bechdel's life (the 1980s, when Bechdel was in her 20s, etc). It was fascinating to see reflections both of her personal history, and of where the world was at the moment. For example, the book would cover some of Bechdel's relationships and the writing of Fun Home and Are You My Mother?, but also discuss the development of running shoes and active wear over the years, or the connection between the AIDS crisis and a focus on a different physique for men—lack of body hair, and use of steroids used more widely after first being prescribed to HIV-positive men.
Even if you have no particular interest in exercise and books about it, this graphic memoir is about so much more. She is incredibly honest about her problems with suppressing her emotions, throwing herself into her work, refusing to rely on others, and pushing herself too hard to the point of injury or illness. I also enjoyed the art style, full of funny little details, and the soft pastels used for the coloring.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Grief
Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Sexual content
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