Reviews and Comments

revisited this collection of poetry which i have really enjoyed before. through some chaotic verse to narative proses, this one long poem has some awesomely quotable lines. followed below are a few:

"e.g., that each riot really is an assemblage of other riots washed up on the boulevards, From whose faded corpses one dresses and arms ones comrades the total inadequacy of which as equipment for the task at hand traces out in negative the seat perilous of the party historical"

"For those of us who lived through rebellion What remains is Monday, mostly, Monday in abundance."

"hiding on the shadow side of the moon waiting for the phosphorus to run out and cheering on our children as they shoot

bottle rockets at the drones."

I wanted to revisit this text because when I first tried reading it 10 years ago I was sidetracked by some of the blatant misogyny of the opening essay and put it down. I figured this time I would finish the book and see which essays had staying power and which were just out of touch, and offer my thoughts on it as a whole.

I will start with the positive and then move on. Cleaver is a decent enough writer when writing from the subjective/experiential vantage point. Apart from the first easy, it is his early prison writings as a Muslim and subsequent atheism that speak strongest. His writing on the conditions of blackness in prison and embracing Islam in incarceration and his love and then rejection of Elijah Muhammad are all interesting subjects he explores.

His strongest essay and most inciteful today is called "Initial Reactions to the Assassination of Malcolm X". The perspective of how Malcolm's death effected Muslim and black prisoners inside and the perspectives on the turning point for a black Liberation and Nationalism perspective paint a compelling picture of this moment in time.

But overall this books conservative, misogynist perspectives on alpha masculinity, black masculinity and women, and homosexuality feel closer to Andrew Tate today than a liberatory perspective. There has been many black feminists and radicals who've addressed this, so I wont explain it pass not worth the read, there isn't much there except bad takes. Even his love letters he includes to his lawyer, are corny and self-important and don't belong in the collection.

As a fan of James Baldwins writings, it felt his essay critiquing him to be an especially bad take. Falling short of meaningful engaging with Baldwins writing - of which cleaver clearly enjoys in spite of his homosexuality - the essay attacks him in petty and homophobic ways in defense of the white beat author Norman Mailer.

All in all, Cleaver is a weird guy. Starting off as a politicized prisoner, before being canonized and elevated to positions of power in the BPP, fleeing the US and winding up a washed up Republican Morman on his death bed. He has lived a variety of atheist and theological extremities, passionate in his convictions at any one time, but swayed quickly from one path to another. I don't think there are many out there of the right or left who today would claim him as their own.

this was probaby the most "not commenting on the world" poetry I have ever read and liked. Retellings of the classic brothers grimm fairy tales -- including all the gore -- with casual references to modern metaphors, objects and, and society.

easy to get lost in, short, and there is one spicy one with Rapunzel which has a lot of age gap lesbian yearning.

found it on thrift for 7, worth the price.

this one came critically praised by the critics. I thought it was a decent enough story, though i just struggled again and again to get lost inside the "head" of a half dog/half human protagonist.

all in all it takes a look at war and miltary hierarchy and the ways this erases the individual and autonomy so it's another decent anarchist adjacent sci-fi but compared so some of tchaikovsky's other novels i am not sure why this series got a trilogy and others stayed as stand alones.

I really loved this book. It felt like the interest and passion in biology that Mikhail Bakunin exhibited in Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution but told ask a sci-fi epic@!

analyzing the conditions and contradictions of a human inmate labour camp upon an exoplanet with alien life Tchaikovsky looks at what makes us human, what mutualism and organization mean, and the struggles against domination.

I would liken this to The Dispossessed of Tchaikovsky's catalog and want you all to read it then get coffee with me and talk about the ups and downs.

Alien Biological Anarchy, let's go!

just finished this book today. pretty decent and the take was a bit more nuance than i was expecting. Generally I think of this author is the luxury space communism camp, and very much like: communism creates innovation, innovation frees us from work, we all get Rolexes. presented in the marxist does economics way, there is arguments presented from the right and left side of a full-automation perspective (more technology, machines, robots, AI than just AI). anti-tech arguments aren't really explored but he tries to poke holes in the idea that work will be eliminated or made obsolete and this will lead to downtime or communism. His larger argument is that surplus labour and declining employment and automation/production are not linked as we are often presented by economics and politicians and that capitalism is making people obsolete, not technology specifically.

not trying to make the arguments here just present them. read the book if you are curious, it's pretty short at around 100 pgs.

enjoyed reading this, it's short, it has some annihilation vibes to begin with but the story diverged enough from that line in the send half that it wasn't just a remake of a popular book.

is this an easy summer read. most definitely

so far this book has almost to much overlap with annihilation...

i am literally distracted by the annihilation plot line and it's differences reading this.

Generally was really enjoying the triology of the red rising, nothing fantastic, but an interesting space opera that kept my attention and got better book by book. but this 4th one i just struggled to kind of get into until the end.

in order of my liking them: 3rd book 2nd book 1st book 4th book

not gonna continue with the series and supporting novellas anymore i think

I got this one as a lender with the premise of, "ooooo you'll love the historic Quebec City trans convent story" and they were right, I did. It is a fun collection, taking fantasy and flights of fancy to make transitions beautiful and grotesque, bleeding a bit of body horror at times with resolving dysmorphia and imagining worlds where gender is less static and so are the limits of our flesh to change.

Most memorable stories include the convent story, the self-titled story and one which features someone transitioning into a rock face then a mountain.

it is riddled with Canadiana and references that you might pick out from your travels. a worthwhile read I am happy i had it out and picked it up and put it down over the past few months

Started this series literally cause it is sci-fi on mars and talking about class conflict. This first book follows some really tired trends in sci-fi, overdone by YA fiction, of a school for youth who are trained in conflict to prove themselves. but this isn't a YAF booked, there is copious amounts of blood, the politicking, and alliances are more complex. It was definitely a slow burn for me where by the end of this first book i was invested enough finish the series.

a sneak peak to book two is I like it much better so consider working though it. Definitely a space opera for those who despise them, so you have been warned.