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A review by half_book_and_co
Stranger Faces by Namwali Serpell
4.0
My favourite kind of non-fiction is a truly probing one, where you follow thought connected to next thought, consider theories. Texts which are associative in nature, and a bit troubling in effect (as in troubling your set way of thinking, as in uncanny, to spark new troubling questions).
Namwali Serpell’s small little book Stranger Faces – part of a new series of “undelivered lectures” – is such a kind of text. Starting from theories about The Ideal Face – which might signify things such as identity, authenticity, transparency, truth – Serpell turns to the kind of faces rarely envisioned in this kind of theoretical discussion. She turns to “stranger faces”, the double meaning very much intended, and complicates theories while uncovering some underlying assumptions on race, ability, and gender.
In five essays Serpell dissects different texts and films to discuss ideas about/around faces: from The Autobiography of Joseph Carey Merrick and disability to racial ambiguity and The Bondwoman’s Narrative to the emergence and use of emojis. Each of these essays got very interesting points, though I struggled a bit to follow the chapter on Hitchcock’s Psycho, especially as I have never seen the film (which is on me and not the book).
While reading the essays my mind also wandered to other texts. I thought of the Faces series in which Ruth Ozeki’s The Face: A Time Code Ruth Ozeki and Chris Abani’s The Face: Cartography of the Void were published. But I also Max Czollek’s Gegenwartsbewältigung in which he discusses a German right-wing/ conservative politician’s claim that to “show one’s face” is part of German culture (of course in the context of an anti-Muslim discourse) and how the discussion has changed now with the pandemic (nationalism so flexible).
In the end, I might not agree with every single point made in the book but these essays got me re/thinking and lightened a spark in me. I started to imagine how an autistic reply might look like (with regards to the importance of face impressions and ideas of humanity) or a reply which takes the thoughts of the Hitchcock essay and brings these together with discussions of the potential trans villain portrayal. So many possibilities. And this book is a wonderful door opener to all these thoughts.
Namwali Serpell’s small little book Stranger Faces – part of a new series of “undelivered lectures” – is such a kind of text. Starting from theories about The Ideal Face – which might signify things such as identity, authenticity, transparency, truth – Serpell turns to the kind of faces rarely envisioned in this kind of theoretical discussion. She turns to “stranger faces”, the double meaning very much intended, and complicates theories while uncovering some underlying assumptions on race, ability, and gender.
In five essays Serpell dissects different texts and films to discuss ideas about/around faces: from The Autobiography of Joseph Carey Merrick and disability to racial ambiguity and The Bondwoman’s Narrative to the emergence and use of emojis. Each of these essays got very interesting points, though I struggled a bit to follow the chapter on Hitchcock’s Psycho, especially as I have never seen the film (which is on me and not the book).
While reading the essays my mind also wandered to other texts. I thought of the Faces series in which Ruth Ozeki’s The Face: A Time Code Ruth Ozeki and Chris Abani’s The Face: Cartography of the Void were published. But I also Max Czollek’s Gegenwartsbewältigung in which he discusses a German right-wing/ conservative politician’s claim that to “show one’s face” is part of German culture (of course in the context of an anti-Muslim discourse) and how the discussion has changed now with the pandemic (nationalism so flexible).
In the end, I might not agree with every single point made in the book but these essays got me re/thinking and lightened a spark in me. I started to imagine how an autistic reply might look like (with regards to the importance of face impressions and ideas of humanity) or a reply which takes the thoughts of the Hitchcock essay and brings these together with discussions of the potential trans villain portrayal. So many possibilities. And this book is a wonderful door opener to all these thoughts.