Bookish Thoughts

Rebecca Solnit always makes me feel better about the world at large. Her essays deal with heavy, depressing subjects. These latest are all about various crimes that seem baked into the very DNA of America. But she's also always able to pinpoint how things are getting better, and give me hope that things will continue to get better. The crimes Solnit discusses in this book aren't the sort that are traditionally talked about as crimes. The longest essay by far is called "Death by Gentrification" and it uses a case study to dive in to the ways the historic neighborhoods are being broken up and becoming more dangerous for the minorities who have always lived there, because of a perceived threat on the part of the new, white, wealthy residents and the system that backs them up. She also looks at the ways various voices have been silenced over America's history, the things we choose to celebrate and memorialize. And of course it all comes back to Trump and the backw...

When the world gets hard, when it seems like politicians don't care or that progress is being eroded away, when I feel myself giving in to anger and despair, I turn to Rebecca Solnit. She never fails to make me feel better. Her essays give me perspective about how far we've come in a remarkably short time. They give me a sense of solidarity that helps me raise my voice and continue to fight. She reminds me that despair is for lazy people, and we have to work for hope, but it's worth it. This collection opens with an extended rumination on silence and all the ways it harms us. Then there are several shorter essays, including "Men Explain Lolita to Me". This essay was actually my introduction to Rebecca Solnit several years ago, and I've re-read it several time. It was a treat to come across it again. Solnit's essay collections are all slim, but they pack an incredible punch. She just released a new one, and I'm excited to get my hands on it (though ...

Rebecca Solnit is probably my favorite essayist at this point. I don't agree with everything she says. In fact, my experience of reading her is similar to my experience with LeGuin. It's like having a conversation with a mentor. Someone who has decades more experience than I do, but with whom I can disagree. Someone who gets me thinking. I'm actually coming around to Solnit's definition of hope and it's reliance on not making any assumptions about the future. I still need to believe that things will get better, but Solnit's definition demands action. I've said before that Octavia Butler taught me, in Earthseed , how to hold despair and hope together in my heart and choose hope. Solnit teaches me again and again what that decision means and how to keep making it on a daily basis. This collection of essays was actually written when W was president, shortly after we declared war on Iraq. In some ways that feels like a simpler time, though that could just be...

This book was basically perfect, and not just because I managed to read the entire thing during one of Gavin's naps. It's been a long time since I inhaled an entire book in one sitting, and it was a good feeling. Men Explain Things to Me  was expertly constructed, allowing the essays to build off of and inform each other. Each essay is preceded by an oil painting by Ana Teresa Fernandez. In the middle of the book, Solnit includes an essay about one of these paintings and the series that it's from. It helps clarify why she chose to include this artist's work, which speaks to the goal of the book. Perhaps it's a bit on the nose for Solnit to spell out her intentions like that. But essays, unlike fiction, need to be crystal clear. I hadn't read the titular essay in total before picking up this book, though I had read a later spin on it,  Men Explain Lolita to Me , which was published after this book. Despite this, I remember when the original essay was publishe...