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A review by jenibus
The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley
3.0
I have a lot of complicated feelings regarding this collection. Although I can't fully remove my internal biases from my opinion of this work, I will certainly try to be as fair as I can possibly be.
Bias the first: I have not fully read any of Hurley's works before this one. I tried to read The Mirror Empire and decided that her flavor of grim dark epic fantasy was not for me. I am burnt out on dark and grim stories about the worst aspects of humanity and even if she tries to find what she calls "Grim Optimism" by the end, I do not want to go on that journey in this part of my life.
Bias the second: This collection was compiled in 2015 and it is now 2019. We have gone through 3 years of a Trump presidency, the near dismantling of the ACA, the #metoo movement, the Last Jedi controversy, the female Ghostbuster reboot, the continual rise of incels, MRAs and MGTOW groups and countless gatekeeping attempts in that time.
Bias the third: I want to ensure that I'm treating Hurley fairly and not projecting internal gut reactions to loud women stating their opinion and accolades often and for the world to see. I certainly hope that I am not letting any of those cultural instincts cloud my judgement, as a loud woman who doesn't do well keeping her opinions to herself.
That being said, a lot of this collection fell flat for me. I do not know if this is on Hurley herself or an editor because a lot of my issues with the collection have less to do with the content of the actual essays, but the structure of the collection and how often the same information is presented to the reader. It is very clear that these essays were written separately and put together some time later. The same analogies will be made, same references, same sentences. This is perfectly fine if you are reading that one essay and are unaware of her other works. But going from essay to essay and seeing the same points brought up with the same examples got tiring for me.
I thought going into this collection that the majority of the essays would be about being a feminist in geek and nerd spaces, the struggles we have to go through in male dominated spaces. And... it kinda is. Kinda. Every essay is written from the framework of Hurley's personal experiences, which is understandable, but what that means is that many of the essays speak primarily about the experience of being a sci-fi/fantasy writer. This is less a universal experience and one I struggled to relate to. When you then combine that with the redundant content, I felt myself often times going "yes, I get it. It was very hard to move past your internal biases when writing your award winning novel, God's War (we mention the awards a lot), I'm sure it was very hard and the award is deserving but I GET IT."
This is perhaps the most difficult criticism for me to parse through, because of the 3rd bias: I got so tired of how often she referenced her own books in specific and the award they've won. Perhaps when the essays were originally written it was meant as a way to help explain her credentials from the inevitable nerd men demanding to know why she feels she can speak on this topic. Perhaps if this was an author whose work I liked more I'd not be tired. Would I feel differently if this were a male author? I hope not.
I'm not entirely certain who the intended audience of these essays is for. The title Geek Feminist Revolution appeals to those of us already under that label. I'm a BIG ol' nerd. I'm a loud feminist. Perfect! This book is for me! Except.... a lot of the points aren't anything new. It's things I have read or heard from other writers. There isn't a lot of new perspective. She explains in detail what Gamergate was as if you the reader haven't heard of it. I feel that anyone who falls under "geek" and "feminist" was aware of Gamergate. We were painfully aware of what happened and what could happen to those of us who tweeted about it. You don't need to explain. So, is this collection for nerds who haven't considered these feminist issues? Maybe. It certainly feels closer to them being the intended audience. But if THAT'S the case, the title will not appeal to that demographic. I'm perplexed.
This isn't a bad collection of essays by any means. They're just perfunctory. They exist, they are a very basic "baby's first geek feminism with a white bias" guide. I will say, Hurley goes out of her way to include people across the gender spectrum, which I greatly appreciated. Due to the 2015 timeline, I was concerned that we'd have a very rigid few of feminist, but Hurley seems to understand how that isn't the case. I do think her comments on race somewhat fell flat, as it felt kinda Eat Pray Love-esque to me. "I lived in South Africa and THE DIVERSITY WAS LIFE CHANGING!" I'm sure it was, but the framing didn't fully sit well with me.
I don't know who exactly I'd recommend this too. Maybe male friends who haven't taken up the feminist label yet but I feel I could persuade to join the cause. For myself, I think I'll seek out other voices that go a bit more in depth.
Bias the first: I have not fully read any of Hurley's works before this one. I tried to read The Mirror Empire and decided that her flavor of grim dark epic fantasy was not for me. I am burnt out on dark and grim stories about the worst aspects of humanity and even if she tries to find what she calls "Grim Optimism" by the end, I do not want to go on that journey in this part of my life.
Bias the second: This collection was compiled in 2015 and it is now 2019. We have gone through 3 years of a Trump presidency, the near dismantling of the ACA, the #metoo movement, the Last Jedi controversy, the female Ghostbuster reboot, the continual rise of incels, MRAs and MGTOW groups and countless gatekeeping attempts in that time.
Bias the third: I want to ensure that I'm treating Hurley fairly and not projecting internal gut reactions to loud women stating their opinion and accolades often and for the world to see. I certainly hope that I am not letting any of those cultural instincts cloud my judgement, as a loud woman who doesn't do well keeping her opinions to herself.
That being said, a lot of this collection fell flat for me. I do not know if this is on Hurley herself or an editor because a lot of my issues with the collection have less to do with the content of the actual essays, but the structure of the collection and how often the same information is presented to the reader. It is very clear that these essays were written separately and put together some time later. The same analogies will be made, same references, same sentences. This is perfectly fine if you are reading that one essay and are unaware of her other works. But going from essay to essay and seeing the same points brought up with the same examples got tiring for me.
I thought going into this collection that the majority of the essays would be about being a feminist in geek and nerd spaces, the struggles we have to go through in male dominated spaces. And... it kinda is. Kinda. Every essay is written from the framework of Hurley's personal experiences, which is understandable, but what that means is that many of the essays speak primarily about the experience of being a sci-fi/fantasy writer. This is less a universal experience and one I struggled to relate to. When you then combine that with the redundant content, I felt myself often times going "yes, I get it. It was very hard to move past your internal biases when writing your award winning novel, God's War (we mention the awards a lot), I'm sure it was very hard and the award is deserving but I GET IT."
This is perhaps the most difficult criticism for me to parse through, because of the 3rd bias: I got so tired of how often she referenced her own books in specific and the award they've won. Perhaps when the essays were originally written it was meant as a way to help explain her credentials from the inevitable nerd men demanding to know why she feels she can speak on this topic. Perhaps if this was an author whose work I liked more I'd not be tired. Would I feel differently if this were a male author? I hope not.
I'm not entirely certain who the intended audience of these essays is for. The title Geek Feminist Revolution appeals to those of us already under that label. I'm a BIG ol' nerd. I'm a loud feminist. Perfect! This book is for me! Except.... a lot of the points aren't anything new. It's things I have read or heard from other writers. There isn't a lot of new perspective. She explains in detail what Gamergate was as if you the reader haven't heard of it. I feel that anyone who falls under "geek" and "feminist" was aware of Gamergate. We were painfully aware of what happened and what could happen to those of us who tweeted about it. You don't need to explain. So, is this collection for nerds who haven't considered these feminist issues? Maybe. It certainly feels closer to them being the intended audience. But if THAT'S the case, the title will not appeal to that demographic. I'm perplexed.
This isn't a bad collection of essays by any means. They're just perfunctory. They exist, they are a very basic "baby's first geek feminism with a white bias" guide. I will say, Hurley goes out of her way to include people across the gender spectrum, which I greatly appreciated. Due to the 2015 timeline, I was concerned that we'd have a very rigid few of feminist, but Hurley seems to understand how that isn't the case. I do think her comments on race somewhat fell flat, as it felt kinda Eat Pray Love-esque to me. "I lived in South Africa and THE DIVERSITY WAS LIFE CHANGING!" I'm sure it was, but the framing didn't fully sit well with me.
I don't know who exactly I'd recommend this too. Maybe male friends who haven't taken up the feminist label yet but I feel I could persuade to join the cause. For myself, I think I'll seek out other voices that go a bit more in depth.