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A review by anneklein
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This immediately became one of the best books I have read so far this year; it kinda gave me a lot of hope for the future, despite being extremely clear and honest about all the ways the world is messed up and imperialism and white supremacy are an absolute threat to humanity.
The first essay in the collection really surprised me because I did not expect a recollection of moments in communist Russia to be the opener! I figured it would all be like the "Poetry is not a luxury" essay, or like "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house", but this first essay was really different. It was more like journal excerpts, and was actually really compelling once I got into it because it offered glimpses of what a socialist/communist society could look like. Lorde is so honest about the things that don't quite work so well, then compares them to the way they work under capitalist western societies and makes the reader realise that there isn't anything that capitalism can actually do better than such alternatives. It was so interesting!
The last essay on Grenada was also very insightful, because I knew about US interference with politics in Latin America, but the things they did in the Caribbean were so similar and I wasn't aware of those. It's truly criminal and the day the US empire core implodes and falls will be a day of great peace for the nations of this world.
Aside from these essays on historical and current politics, the ones that go into theory and philosophy are what I would say Lorde is most known for, and it's absolutely deserved because she has a way of reading the way we all relate to one another, and of figuring out where our impulses and feelings come from, that is just so lucid. I liked the ways she talked about masculinity in relation to motherhood, heterosexism and feminism, and her way of imagining how we can go about bringing revolution into existence.
So many of her passages hit me so hard that they feel like a compass to guide me and help me be a better human and generally the person I want to be. Specifically, when she said "pain either changes or ends" I felt so so so emotional, and I think of this in regards to my past suicidal impulses a lot. It's so true, and the kind of thing I will keep close to my heart to use as a reminder when I am going through a tough time.
Oh, and the other thing that resonated with me a lot was her background and her non-conventional journey into writing and academia and poetry. As someone who had a shitty time during part of my attempt at being and working in the academy, it's good and inspiring to see that art can flourish outside of the institutions that try to gatekeep it.
Very chaotic review because my thoughts about it are a little scattered, but I enjoyed and found all of it very, very good. This is the kind of book that you want to push into every person's hands because if we all read these words the world would get a little better. Thank you, Audre Lorde <3
The first essay in the collection really surprised me because I did not expect a recollection of moments in communist Russia to be the opener! I figured it would all be like the "Poetry is not a luxury" essay, or like "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house", but this first essay was really different. It was more like journal excerpts, and was actually really compelling once I got into it because it offered glimpses of what a socialist/communist society could look like. Lorde is so honest about the things that don't quite work so well, then compares them to the way they work under capitalist western societies and makes the reader realise that there isn't anything that capitalism can actually do better than such alternatives. It was so interesting!
The last essay on Grenada was also very insightful, because I knew about US interference with politics in Latin America, but the things they did in the Caribbean were so similar and I wasn't aware of those. It's truly criminal and the day the US empire core implodes and falls will be a day of great peace for the nations of this world.
Aside from these essays on historical and current politics, the ones that go into theory and philosophy are what I would say Lorde is most known for, and it's absolutely deserved because she has a way of reading the way we all relate to one another, and of figuring out where our impulses and feelings come from, that is just so lucid. I liked the ways she talked about masculinity in relation to motherhood, heterosexism and feminism, and her way of imagining how we can go about bringing revolution into existence.
So many of her passages hit me so hard that they feel like a compass to guide me and help me be a better human and generally the person I want to be. Specifically, when she said "pain either changes or ends" I felt so so so emotional, and I think of this in regards to my past suicidal impulses a lot. It's so true, and the kind of thing I will keep close to my heart to use as a reminder when I am going through a tough time.
Oh, and the other thing that resonated with me a lot was her background and her non-conventional journey into writing and academia and poetry. As someone who had a shitty time during part of my attempt at being and working in the academy, it's good and inspiring to see that art can flourish outside of the institutions that try to gatekeep it.
Very chaotic review because my thoughts about it are a little scattered, but I enjoyed and found all of it very, very good. This is the kind of book that you want to push into every person's hands because if we all read these words the world would get a little better. Thank you, Audre Lorde <3