yanked from poetrytoweasels
Sep. 18th, 2006 06:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tyresiasA few people have done a meme about books that have had an impact on them, books that they would take with them to a deserted island, books that shouldn't have been written, and so on. I'd like to list some of the books that I think have had a profound impact on me, books that have changed my life. Some are textbooks, some are novels, and some are non fiction.
1. L'étranger by Albert Camus
1st book I can remember being able to read from start to finish in one sitting. I have a very short attention span for reading on average, so anything that I can read for more than 45 minutes is doing something amazing. I could relate perhaps too much to the main character and reading about the parts I couldn't utterly fascinated me.
2. Is multiculturalism bad for women? edited by Susan Moller Okin
The 1st essay is writting by the editor and exposed much of her privilege as a US-centrict/racist feminist. But the fact that she includes the responses to it and her after thought is what make the whole package amazing. You see the arguments so rarely acknowledged by white feminists and the process of education with someone who took the time to rethink her original argument and challenge her own privilege with her new found awareness.
3. Una Donna by Sibila Aleramo
Another book I was able to read in one sitting. Heart breaking true story of a brave woman who left her shotgun wed abusive husband at a time this was practically unheard of in Italy and went on to make a living (also very rare at the time). If your heart hasn't sunk by the end of it, learning that through its publication her son found her but he never understood/forgave her for making the hardest decision any parent shouuld never have to make... well if that doesn't get to you, I don't know where your heart is. I had a copy in English but someone borrowed it and never returned it. If you're reading this, please please return it, it means a lot to me!
1. L'étranger by Albert Camus
1st book I can remember being able to read from start to finish in one sitting. I have a very short attention span for reading on average, so anything that I can read for more than 45 minutes is doing something amazing. I could relate perhaps too much to the main character and reading about the parts I couldn't utterly fascinated me.
2. Is multiculturalism bad for women? edited by Susan Moller Okin
The 1st essay is writting by the editor and exposed much of her privilege as a US-centrict/racist feminist. But the fact that she includes the responses to it and her after thought is what make the whole package amazing. You see the arguments so rarely acknowledged by white feminists and the process of education with someone who took the time to rethink her original argument and challenge her own privilege with her new found awareness.
3. Una Donna by Sibila Aleramo
Another book I was able to read in one sitting. Heart breaking true story of a brave woman who left her shotgun wed abusive husband at a time this was practically unheard of in Italy and went on to make a living (also very rare at the time). If your heart hasn't sunk by the end of it, learning that through its publication her son found her but he never understood/forgave her for making the hardest decision any parent shouuld never have to make... well if that doesn't get to you, I don't know where your heart is. I had a copy in English but someone borrowed it and never returned it. If you're reading this, please please return it, it means a lot to me!
4. So much poetry (1st & farmost) and The Handsmaid Tale by Margaret Atwood.
I've read most of her other novels, Orax & Crake being another all time favourite.
5. Animal Farm by George Orwell
Everything about it. The brillance of writting in symbolism and metaphors. It was one of the 1st books I was able to read entirely in English. Between the 1st and 2nd time I had to read the book in school, I had the privilege of going to a few places in the former Soviet regime and re-reading it I got to realise just how much he embedded within a story that is accessible to a wide ranging audience.
6. Rhinocéros by Llonesco
Another book, like Animal Farm, where the author morphes historical realities (in this case the rise of Nazism) and the end is beyond chilling. It was one of the 1st books I had to read in IB French and anytime I see it (as a play) or re-read it it brings back the life changing lessons Mr. B-man taught me.
7. The Trial & Death of Socrates by Plato
The Defence (aka The Apology) alone made me rethink so much what I actually "knew" and how to better argue my beliefs. It also taught me the hard pill lesson that even if one is "right" in this world, and most of it can agree, if it doesn' t suit most/specific folks (those in power positions) it doesn't matter much. I have gone on to study some of the shortfalls of the Socratic method but it still forms much of the base of my way of thinking.
8. Inferno by Dante Alleghieri.
Everything about it. The poetry scheme, the historical/political lessons incorporated into the religious doctrine of pre-Vatican 1, the vivid imagery surrounded by references to Ancient Greek Mythology => beyond awesome. The teacher who taugh me my course on the Commedia also changed my life. Finding the illusif reference to a Muslim who was crucified that Michelangelo depicted in the Sistine Chapel and being recognized by the Dante Society => icing on the cake :)
(your geekness has to reach new heights to appreciate that last point)
9.Public Sex by Patrick Califia
A series of essays that pushed even my comfort zone around some aspects of sex positivity, but it does it in an intelligent way that is far too rare within queer debates. His brutal honesty of the treatment of queers and trannies that don't comfort with the majority of LG folks came at the perfect time for me. The oppressed really can be the best at imulating the process and turning around to oppress those of us who are suppose to belong to "us" but get treated as "other". The politics of transgenderism is also an all time favourite of mine.
10. The Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons
It explores the all too often unseen or dismissed reality of passive aggressiveness and the ways females bully each other in school. A lot of it is limited by the author's limited awareness of her white and anglo-saxonness but as the experience largely exposed match much of my own, it was a very validating book for me to read. The fact that she goes on to recognize how she had been unfair towards others, when she began the book because of her hurt at the hand of more popular girls, really adds a dimension rarely done for this sort of book.
I've read most of her other novels, Orax & Crake being another all time favourite.
5. Animal Farm by George Orwell
Everything about it. The brillance of writting in symbolism and metaphors. It was one of the 1st books I was able to read entirely in English. Between the 1st and 2nd time I had to read the book in school, I had the privilege of going to a few places in the former Soviet regime and re-reading it I got to realise just how much he embedded within a story that is accessible to a wide ranging audience.
6. Rhinocéros by Llonesco
Another book, like Animal Farm, where the author morphes historical realities (in this case the rise of Nazism) and the end is beyond chilling. It was one of the 1st books I had to read in IB French and anytime I see it (as a play) or re-read it it brings back the life changing lessons Mr. B-man taught me.
7. The Trial & Death of Socrates by Plato
The Defence (aka The Apology) alone made me rethink so much what I actually "knew" and how to better argue my beliefs. It also taught me the hard pill lesson that even if one is "right" in this world, and most of it can agree, if it doesn' t suit most/specific folks (those in power positions) it doesn't matter much. I have gone on to study some of the shortfalls of the Socratic method but it still forms much of the base of my way of thinking.
8. Inferno by Dante Alleghieri.
Everything about it. The poetry scheme, the historical/political lessons incorporated into the religious doctrine of pre-Vatican 1, the vivid imagery surrounded by references to Ancient Greek Mythology => beyond awesome. The teacher who taugh me my course on the Commedia also changed my life. Finding the illusif reference to a Muslim who was crucified that Michelangelo depicted in the Sistine Chapel and being recognized by the Dante Society => icing on the cake :)
(your geekness has to reach new heights to appreciate that last point)
9.Public Sex by Patrick Califia
A series of essays that pushed even my comfort zone around some aspects of sex positivity, but it does it in an intelligent way that is far too rare within queer debates. His brutal honesty of the treatment of queers and trannies that don't comfort with the majority of LG folks came at the perfect time for me. The oppressed really can be the best at imulating the process and turning around to oppress those of us who are suppose to belong to "us" but get treated as "other". The politics of transgenderism is also an all time favourite of mine.
10. The Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons
It explores the all too often unseen or dismissed reality of passive aggressiveness and the ways females bully each other in school. A lot of it is limited by the author's limited awareness of her white and anglo-saxonness but as the experience largely exposed match much of my own, it was a very validating book for me to read. The fact that she goes on to recognize how she had been unfair towards others, when she began the book because of her hurt at the hand of more popular girls, really adds a dimension rarely done for this sort of book.
