I know a book is good if it leaves me stumped. The book, "Autobiography of a Face," by Lucy Grealy, left me thinking even a month after I had finished turning it's pages. This story is heavy, not in the physical state, but the contents. It's a hard thing to describe to someone that hasn't read the book. I think that is why I am still thinking about it, the book has a complexity to it's story. Any story about pediatric cancer, disfigurement, the concept of beauty, and a yearning for self acceptance will have layers upon layers to it's story.
There are very few books that I have read that have caused me to underline, highlight, and tab the pages. There are so many things in books like these that come to my attention. I was very impressed with the book, because while it is truly non-fiction, it didn't seem like it. It is a very beautiful work of literature that was written very well. In the afterword, written by her very good friend, Ann Patchett stated, "She wanted her book to be judged on it's literary merit and not its heartbreaking content." She also made it very clear that while she is writing about her life, she didn't remember it to every minute detail. She made her point, "She was making art, not documenting an event." Maybe I haven't read much non-fiction, but I do know that most non-fiction books document something, not tell a story. She didn't want to be an inspiration, she wanted to write.
It is clear that she spared the readers a lot of pain and suffering. A story about one's life can never be fully written. If all of the details about her life were included in the book those that read it would be crushed by it's weight; this is what I mean by saying that the book is heavy. When Lucy Grealy added a note that she found her disfigurement more of a hardship than a cancer that was essentially terminal, you knew her life was a difficult one. It is very clear that one of her greatest joys is the publication of this book.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Logic Has Nothing To Do With Oppression
Oppression and logic; two things that are not normally brought together. But the two essays composed by Margaret Fuller and Gloria Steinem bring them together; and very well, seeing as the essays were written over 100 years apart. This is a pair of essays that have very feminist themes. The essay on the Jim Crow laws covers the struggle for Civil Rights, "The Great Lawsuit," and "If Men Could Menstruate" rightfully highlight Women's Rights, which deserve a place in our history and current lives as much as the next one.
Margaret Fuller's, "The Great Lawsuit," is something that still has relation to the current era, regardless of the publication date, 1843. Women's Rights wasn't something that was widely spread at the time, and I'm not just talking about Suffrage when I mention Women's Rights, I'm talking about the right to divorce, work, equal pay, and non-domesticated lifestyle. While we currently have those rights, Women's history is something that needs to be noted. And to any that whine about Men's history and their rights, well that's all of American History and then the rest of the world. There is one line that I noticed in the essay that is still not fully solved. "When not one man in the million, shall I say, no, not in hundred million, can rise above the view that woman was made for men." Men seem to have a sense of entitlement when I comes to those sort of things and the tables are turned in the next essay.
When I say tables turned, I mean that men have to experience menstruation. I, however, soon realized, that if men did have that misfortune, the table will turn upside down and menstruation would be something celebrated, not dreaded. The author, Gloria Steinem shared, throughout her essay, what would potentially happen if this were to happen. The line that stuck with me the most was towards the end, "I leave further improvisation up to you." There are, like all other works of literature, many ways to improvise on what is put on the paper, that's what the authors want. But this one requires more improvising, more thinking about what is now labeled as 'Gender Equality,' because it probably isn't as equal as one might think.
Margaret Fuller's, "The Great Lawsuit," is something that still has relation to the current era, regardless of the publication date, 1843. Women's Rights wasn't something that was widely spread at the time, and I'm not just talking about Suffrage when I mention Women's Rights, I'm talking about the right to divorce, work, equal pay, and non-domesticated lifestyle. While we currently have those rights, Women's history is something that needs to be noted. And to any that whine about Men's history and their rights, well that's all of American History and then the rest of the world. There is one line that I noticed in the essay that is still not fully solved. "When not one man in the million, shall I say, no, not in hundred million, can rise above the view that woman was made for men." Men seem to have a sense of entitlement when I comes to those sort of things and the tables are turned in the next essay.
When I say tables turned, I mean that men have to experience menstruation. I, however, soon realized, that if men did have that misfortune, the table will turn upside down and menstruation would be something celebrated, not dreaded. The author, Gloria Steinem shared, throughout her essay, what would potentially happen if this were to happen. The line that stuck with me the most was towards the end, "I leave further improvisation up to you." There are, like all other works of literature, many ways to improvise on what is put on the paper, that's what the authors want. But this one requires more improvising, more thinking about what is now labeled as 'Gender Equality,' because it probably isn't as equal as one might think.
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