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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
A text that transforms the reader as you witness George Jackson evolve within his captivity. This is how the revolutionary learns not only about critical theory and practice, but also the rigor of a love and spirit that has the ability to reach beyond the cell and embrace the socially dead slave. Jackson has written more than letters, he has penned a journey, an analysis, a living organism that is teaching as the pages are turned. There is no shortage of rage, curiosity, and supplicatin in George's pen. No hesitance in the fervor he induces upon all who choose to reckon with their reality. Soledad Brother has and will continue to speak beyond the grave to those doomed to the tomb from the moment they leave the womb.
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I appreciate feeling how I grew along with Jackson as I followed along with his letters over his decade of imprisonment.
For someone filled with so much righteous rage (if at times it felt a bit juvenile - he was picked up at 18), it is eye opening to see that white hot anger hone itself into a constant smolder and direct itself with discipline.
If at the beginning he sounds misogynistic to his mother and sisters, you can see the growth he undergoes when you compare the letters he writes to Angela Davis and someone named “Joan”, as well as his lawyer, Faye.
There are desperate and despairing letters to his father where you can see him searching for his place in his new radical world, trying to save his father which is reminiscent of liberal children trying to speak to their MAGA parents.
By the midpoint, we are treated to essays to his lawyer on his views on capitalism, depression, as well as the carceral system and towards the end, we see him begin to come into his own (he is only 28 now) with stunning and, more often than not, tender, letters to Angela Davis and Joan, discussing not only the resistance but their womanhood and his love and respect for them, a marked difference from his early, youthful letters to his family that indicated women needed to know their place.
All in all, we are treated to a brief glimpse of someone that was taken from the world too soon for too little but made the most with the little he was allowed by a system bent on his destruction.
For someone filled with so much righteous rage (if at times it felt a bit juvenile - he was picked up at 18), it is eye opening to see that white hot anger hone itself into a constant smolder and direct itself with discipline.
If at the beginning he sounds misogynistic to his mother and sisters, you can see the growth he undergoes when you compare the letters he writes to Angela Davis and someone named “Joan”, as well as his lawyer, Faye.
There are desperate and despairing letters to his father where you can see him searching for his place in his new radical world, trying to save his father which is reminiscent of liberal children trying to speak to their MAGA parents.
By the midpoint, we are treated to essays to his lawyer on his views on capitalism, depression, as well as the carceral system and towards the end, we see him begin to come into his own (he is only 28 now) with stunning and, more often than not, tender, letters to Angela Davis and Joan, discussing not only the resistance but their womanhood and his love and respect for them, a marked difference from his early, youthful letters to his family that indicated women needed to know their place.
All in all, we are treated to a brief glimpse of someone that was taken from the world too soon for too little but made the most with the little he was allowed by a system bent on his destruction.
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
"Don't mistake this as a message from George to Fay, it's a message from the hunted...blacks to those people of this society who profess to want to change the conditions that destroy life.
These blacks are still in doubt as to whether those elements across the tracks want this change badly enough to accept the U.S. being physically brought to its knees to attain it."
These blacks are still in doubt as to whether those elements across the tracks want this change badly enough to accept the U.S. being physically brought to its knees to attain it."
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
DNF @ 23%
I giveth up. I don’t rate books I don’t hit 50% in. I will say, this is way more misogynistic than I expected it to be and he doesn’t seem like he respects his family all that much. But, of course, maybe reading further would have contextualized this more. Young people do change. I did poke around the letters to Angela Davis though, which suggest there was still some room to grow. But surely, the political arguments might grow clearer if I’d read farther? But just too hard to get through. Sometimes horrible, sinful things happen to people and them being a bit gruff doesn’t wash the stain of our country’s behavior away.
I giveth up. I don’t rate books I don’t hit 50% in. I will say, this is way more misogynistic than I expected it to be and he doesn’t seem like he respects his family all that much. But, of course, maybe reading further would have contextualized this more. Young people do change. I did poke around the letters to Angela Davis though, which suggest there was still some room to grow. But surely, the political arguments might grow clearer if I’d read farther? But just too hard to get through. Sometimes horrible, sinful things happen to people and them being a bit gruff doesn’t wash the stain of our country’s behavior away.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
“blood in my eye” by george jackson was one of those foundational leftist texts that radicalized me in college. ive been meaning to read this one for awhile now— which covers about 6 years of his letters to various people (family, friends, comrades) while in prison. though it read a little disjointedly, it was FASCINATING to witness his relationship / communication with his parents who still believe in america’s assimilationist neoliberal promise, how his prison education evolved over time, how his views on issues (esp on women) changed over time, etc. jackson writes POWERFULLY, with a fiery punch and palpable rage— too many fire quotes in here to list out.
This was not a book but a revolutionary manifesto. George Jackson wrote from his prison cell. While he did not view himself as an intellectual, he most certainly was. There are too many quotes m, he dropped gems.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced