Sometimes we need to tell big stories with little stories or big stories with little stories. But first, let me give some context. In the most challenging course I’ve ever taken, Urban Theory, my class was going to read Anand’s work before we ran out of time. Instead, I was left with an unopened textContinue reading “Little-Big Stories and Nikhil Anand’s Hydraulic City: Water & the Infrastructures of Citizenship in Mumbai”
Category Archives: Books
Telling the New Year and Jeannette Wall’s failures in The Silver Star
I remember reading Wall’s Half Broke Horses one sunny afternoon when I lived on the Schooner Shenandoah. Below deck, on my bottom bunk, an upwards-facing porthole that would leak salty water when we tacked too far provided me with enough natural light to dot on Wall’s words. I loved the book, reading it practically inContinue reading “Telling the New Year and Jeannette Wall’s failures in The Silver Star”
A Brief Book Review: Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton
*This will be a shorter review since I am also working on a publication for Midwestern Marx that involves observations from this book. Malcolm X’s autobiography took me almost two months to finish. Newton’s autobiography in comparison took me a little under a week to finish. I guess what I’m trying to say is IContinue reading “A Brief Book Review: Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton”
A Brief Book Review: The Voyage of the Sanderling: Exploring the Ecology of the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Rio by Roger D. Stone
In my infinite quest to find books about travel and sailboats void of the fetishization of colonialism, imperialism, or eurocentrism, I dove deep into this novel which I purchased in a quaint bookstore called Westsider Books in the Upper Westside of New York City. While Stone, who recently passed away this year, makes some goodContinue reading “A Brief Book Review: The Voyage of the Sanderling: Exploring the Ecology of the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Rio by Roger D. Stone”
Discovering a New Universe in The Planet of Junior Brown
For my African American Childhoods class, we’ve been reading classics that have some sort of juvenilia reference. Whether that be books written by children, for children, or about children we’ve covered a wide mix. I according to the syllabus picked up my next weekly novel, a two hundred or so page book called The PlanetContinue reading “Discovering a New Universe in The Planet of Junior Brown”
So Where Do We Go Now?
I sit here knowing I shouldn’t write about school stuff or the things that make my eyebrows squint downwards so the images in my head can replace my vision. The creases on my face tighten almost rhythmically at the thought of anything abstract. Yet all that spirals around in my brain are the things I’veContinue reading “So Where Do We Go Now?”
Miss Rumphius and Reflecting on the Violence and Romanticization of Childhood Stories and Memories
I’ve had the privilege of academically diving into the idea of recognizing the violence in so many of our most beloved childhood stories at Bryn Mawr College. In some of my English classes, we’ve analyzed the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lucy Maud Montgomery, all three Brontë sisters. Now outside of my usual academic setting,Continue reading “Miss Rumphius and Reflecting on the Violence and Romanticization of Childhood Stories and Memories”
Sparrows, Mao’s “Little Red Book”, and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge
If you’re a real follower of this blog then you’ve undoubtedly read my Biomythography. Chapter V is titled “Sparrow” and you can imagine my surprise when this same bird was mentioned in my little, red copy of Mao’s Quotations. I was reading on a pink kayak in the middle of a lake (I paddled outContinue reading “Sparrows, Mao’s “Little Red Book”, and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge”
John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez, Childhood Expedition, and a World Already Discovered?
A book with a map as its cover, about some great expedition over water; these kinds of stories are simply irresistible to a literate sailor like me. Add the value of reading the work of people as important as Steinbeck and you’ve created my next read. This book reminded me of what it is likeContinue reading “John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez, Childhood Expedition, and a World Already Discovered?”
The Young Comrade, the Soc-Dem to Marxist Pipeline, and Göran Therborn’s From Marxism to Post-Marxism?
To the young comrade, yeah, you. To the young comrade who has finally found a social theory, a political frame, a new set of glasses that doesn’t ignore the wretches, the purposefully impoverished, the systematically oppressed. To the young comrade who too many in their times has asked, if we have too many houses whyContinue reading “The Young Comrade, the Soc-Dem to Marxist Pipeline, and Göran Therborn’s From Marxism to Post-Marxism?”
Stories, Dreams, & Spaces 