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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
When I was in elementary school, I tried to write my own songs. I imitated the choppy melodies and promiscuous themes I heard on the radio, and the resulting "songs" were the hilarious fruit of an insane third-grader. Sometimes I hear new songs on the radio that sound like those dumb songs I wrote back then, and I hate the songwriters for not having the expertise to write better music than a third-grade Linda.
All this to say that The Mother of All Questions was disappointing mainly because Rebecca Solnit's writing reminded me of the crappy last-minute essays I wrote throughout high school and college. My writing is passable, and I can scrape together arguments with threads of evidence, but I expected more than that from an established essayist.
Solnit also mentions intersectional feminism throughout her essays. This is great, expect that she never dives deep enough into the specific issues that non-white women or trans women face to prove that she's done anything more than think about them in passing. Throw in the bland writing and you have a book that's really tough to finish.
All this to say that The Mother of All Questions was disappointing mainly because Rebecca Solnit's writing reminded me of the crappy last-minute essays I wrote throughout high school and college. My writing is passable, and I can scrape together arguments with threads of evidence, but I expected more than that from an established essayist.
Solnit also mentions intersectional feminism throughout her essays. This is great, expect that she never dives deep enough into the specific issues that non-white women or trans women face to prove that she's done anything more than think about them in passing. Throw in the bland writing and you have a book that's really tough to finish.
Insightful addition to the ongoing conversation and to feminist literature as a whole. Solnit is necessary reading for anyone.
I would quote a passage from the book to demonstrate what I find so entirely exemplary about Solnit's writing, but I'd end up typing out the entire book for you. just read it. please.
#ReadingWomen
#essay collection
This is my non-Fiction book of the year.
Can't believe it took me so long to read my first book by Rebecca Solnit.
I recommend it to EVERYONE.
#essay collection
This is my non-Fiction book of the year.
Can't believe it took me so long to read my first book by Rebecca Solnit.
I recommend it to EVERYONE.
This book of essays left me feeling angry against the privilege that begets the horrors of rape. That we continue to live in a world that denies women the agency they deserve is outrageous. However I am grateful for my protected upbringing in which I was not exposed to many of the thoughts that Solnit describes as self preservation.
Great read! Solnit is insightful and thoughtful about her voice and in fighting for those who lack one.
I wasn't too excited about the last essay that kind of explored the plot to a movie, even if it was revolutionary for its time. But whatever she writes, she writes so well.
I wasn't too excited about the last essay that kind of explored the plot to a movie, even if it was revolutionary for its time. But whatever she writes, she writes so well.
Like any essay collection, this was a mixed bag, so my rating is an average; some of the pieces like "An Insurrectionary Year" were depressing just because they're clearly products of a time when the political and social climate was much different than it is now. But others I absolutely loved, like "Men Explain Lolita To Me" and "The Case of the Missing Perpetrator," just for laying out the problems with (straight, white) masculinity as a default setting.
Another really good read from Solnit. I just love her writing style and I always have something to think over after reading her books.
This collection was a little more repetitive than Men Explain Things to Me, but still a really valuable and enlightening read.