On Women [Collection of essays]

Author: Susan Sontag

Although she was in the right circles and highly regarded, I’m not sure how liked  Susan Sontag was. Which I’m sure wouldn’t have bothered her at all. From reading these essays, I get the impression Susan Sontag’s entire raison d’être for writing was to prove that she doesn’t care about any other inferior intellects – which is everyone. This is the quote that summed it up for me: “Although I defy anyone to read what I wrote and miss its personal, even autobiographical character, I much prefer that the text be judged as an argument and not as an “expression” of anything at all, my sincere feelings included.” Sigh, another powerful smarty pants who can’t use the sentence “I feel…”

The essays cover a variety of subjects that impact women, such as ageing or the division of labour in households. You might like this too if you want to read someone who truly ‘tells it like it is’ for the state of women in Western political systems.

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(Everything in this library is sorted into a category by what it asks of you, not by genre or quality. Click on a category to find more of what you might like.)

Bite Your Friends – Stories of the Body Militant [Book]

Author: Fernanda Eberstadt

The author’s childhood is like a Truman Capote column about New York, and a wonderful starting point for the many people she then explores as her personal saints for resisting and creating art through their bodies.

I was confronted though, as most of the stories (including body mutilation, prison sentences, and sexual abuse) involved the presence of a child in some aspect, and there is a complete void of compassion about the harm being inflicted on them. I have since found the name for the deeply sick and unsettled feeling I experienced through this book: “deep somatic protest”. My body was protesting hard over stories about the author’s personal saints that were supposedly rallying against institutional power, but was so dismissive of how these ‘heroes’ harmed the most powerless people of all: children. It felt like the author trying to implore me to join in her admiration of what she sees as acts of love by her personal saints, and the whole time my body was screaming back “they are not acting from love!” What an incredible emotional experience from reading a book – even if I am at odds with her views at times, the author is an incredible writer.

If you’re curious about the art world, art history, acts of resistance within institutions, and the fascinating twisting of a young girl’s path from a highly privileged, deeply chaotic childhood in 70s/80s New York, you might like this too…

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(Everything in this library is sorted into a category by what it asks of you, not by genre or quality. Click on a category to find more of what you might like.)