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A review by riotsquirrrl
Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility by Eric A. Stanley, Tourmaline, Johanna Burton
4.0
Rounded up from 3.5.
This collection is a mixed bag of pieces. Theoretical, practical, art, activism.
Thematically I think that Gossett did a good job at linking these somewhat disparate pieces together. The problem is one of momentum, though; Gossett spaces out her more theoretical pieces in between more approachable pieces such as roundtable discussions, which I actually found to be more difficult than, say, grouping all of the theoretical pieces together. Which is part of why it sat open halfway, unread, for about 3 months. While reading it, I kept thinking, who is this collection for, really?
I'd also like to thank the person who checked this book out before me as they put pencil marks next to all of the more theoretical articles in the index. It turns out that they were the articles that I liked the least but ignored all of the articles about more concrete ideas, such as archives, political organizing, and history-making. And they put a question mark next to Sara Ahmed's "An Affinity of Hammers," which imo they should not have passed on.
The main question that is the backbone of this book is, "what is the value of increased visibility & representation?" What might have been an interesting conversation in the summer of 2016 but is somewhat moot in October of 2020. Like no, no, please stop the representation! We would like to *not* be the visible part of the conservative backlash now.
I appreciate the introduction to people such as Chris E Vargas and MOTHRA, and Kai Lumumba Barrow. But in 5+ years, who will even read this?
This collection is a mixed bag of pieces. Theoretical, practical, art, activism.
Thematically I think that Gossett did a good job at linking these somewhat disparate pieces together. The problem is one of momentum, though; Gossett spaces out her more theoretical pieces in between more approachable pieces such as roundtable discussions, which I actually found to be more difficult than, say, grouping all of the theoretical pieces together. Which is part of why it sat open halfway, unread, for about 3 months. While reading it, I kept thinking, who is this collection for, really?
I'd also like to thank the person who checked this book out before me as they put pencil marks next to all of the more theoretical articles in the index. It turns out that they were the articles that I liked the least but ignored all of the articles about more concrete ideas, such as archives, political organizing, and history-making. And they put a question mark next to Sara Ahmed's "An Affinity of Hammers," which imo they should not have passed on.
The main question that is the backbone of this book is, "what is the value of increased visibility & representation?" What might have been an interesting conversation in the summer of 2016 but is somewhat moot in October of 2020. Like no, no, please stop the representation! We would like to *not* be the visible part of the conservative backlash now.
I appreciate the introduction to people such as Chris E Vargas and MOTHRA, and Kai Lumumba Barrow. But in 5+ years, who will even read this?