TLDR/OPinion: 6/10
Hosseini's harrowing microcosmic tale of ​the wider degeneration of his native country, Afghanistan, tells the story of its oppression and corruption at the hands of other nations and terrorists groups from the unique perspective of 2 children. The book travels through history and across countries, a tale of betrayal, heartbreak, inequality and redemption.
Book Reviews and Analysis
audre lorde
1934-1992
about the author
A "Black Lesbian Warrior Poet', Lorde has introduced me to new dimensions of racism, feminism and homophobia and their symbiotic relationships. She gives a profound insight into just some of the reality faced by black people and their ancestors - revelatory in some aspects but heartbreaking in all. Definitively educating, introspection engendering and humbling; her most impactful words, for me, were - ‘I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own’ showing how Lorde's aspirations of liberation reach into the heart of oppression and blur the lines of distinction and hierarchy which kept people from unity before.
her works:
1. sister outsider - CH. 1 - notes from a trip to russia
Whilst on a trip to Russia in 1976, she notes , like in a journal , her opinion of different events and how these affect her. Firstly she details her observations; in a time when it was still very much under socialism, she finds that intellect is apparently rated below proficiency in physical labour in the ranking of professional value. This differs from many antiquated divisions of societal echelons in that those with superior intellect were most likely to lord it over those without. She also makes the comparison that the bedrock of Russia and its city is not about the materials and remains standing through human will. She discusses overall the merits and limitations of socialism. She also talks of the cultural dynamics; the people are more determinedly pleasant rather than organically so, the small talk is almost rehearsed and based on heteronormative society. Also talks about the shift in societal stereotypes and acceptability brought about by the shortage of men and what this meant for women.
2. sister outsider - CH. 2 - poetry is not a luxury
In this section Lorde describes a dark place hidden within each woman as the source of her power, nurtured by darkness and shadow with no allowance for them to be cultivated by light. For Lorde, poetry was a means of expression and allowed her to translate her unconscious thoughts and feelings; it allowed her to bridge the gap between the inexplicable and the digestible/plausible. For her, poetry dislodged the sterility of past conventions of its writing and assimilated feelings, imagination and insight all in one. She also discusses how there are no new ideas but once feelings and emotions are cathartically released - they undergo a metamorphosis, transposing into something beyond the clinically linear thinking of the past. Feelings, which were not meant to survive in a society defined by its dehumanisation and bland boiling down of imagination. In her terms, poetry is all about the actualisation of human rawness into concrete concepts - raw unfinished units that are not applicable to the linguistic empiricism of the modern age - poetry is the solution to a less condensed discourse. Poetry is ‘a bridge across our fears of what has never been before’. Also in this section, Lorde describes a history of ingrained approvals we have been indoctrinated to seek in order to ensure societal security. Traditionally a feminine weakness, feelings were 'expected to kneel to thought as women were expected to kneel to men’ - the logical, clinical, scientific attitude to life during the era, surpassed theology, emotion, philosophy and deviation.
3. sister outsider - CH. 3 - The transformation of silence into language and action
In this chapter Lorde describes how verbalising feelings is the only direction to fulfilment even at the risk of repudiation; speaking is profitable. By her reckoning, Death is the final silence and by that point all of our amounted silences are the things which we most regret as the only muting forced upon us is Death, otherwise accountability for silences lies with the individual. Lorde advises that ‘your silence[s] will not protect you’ and instead they hinder and create a layer upon layer of barrier around you, a metaphysical incarceration of your own creation inducing increasing inhibition of your expression, suffocating existence and perpetuating fear. Regardless of race, age, sexuality etc. our silences which we misconstrue for safety, define us and like a disease - silence is corruptive. The revelatory act of unveiling a silence is not only cathartic but liberating and rebellious in an world where our silences, as women, are encouraged. Many of these silences, says Lorde, are triggered by a fear, inextricably linked to vocalisation for fear of ‘of contempt, censure, judgement, challenge, annihilation’. Furthermore she remarks upon the futility of maintaining one's silence as ultimately, ‘the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak'.
Interestingly, Lorde also cites one of the principles of the Harvest Festival Kwanza, Kujichagulia, essentially advocating the appropriation of someone else's definition of you and creating your own. A section I found particularly profound is when Lorde talks of the self-censorship between races , of those reluctant to possibly teach a Black woman's writing because of ignorance or the sense of intrusion. However, Lorde herself chastises those who use their trepidation as an excuse to perpetuate the silences and separatism and we are merely robbing ourselves of each other, our truths and our stories. Lorde's works are her own ‘attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us’ as it is not our differences that immobolise us but our self-editing and self-censorship.
4. sister outsider - CH. 4 - scratching the surface: some notes on barriers to women and loving
There is so much to be lauded in Audre Lorde’s writing, there are a select few individuals who, when reading, I find myself compelled to nod and mmhmm along to her wonderfully pervasive and soul-penetrating words. Her ability to translate an issue entirely and unambiguously is uncanny - narrowing down the issue of sexism, racism, homophobia to the same root - ‘human blindness - the inability to differentiate between the notion of ‘difference’ as a dynamic human force which is enriching rather than threatening’. If left to others, our self-definition becomes impersonal and inorganic - a regurgitation of the monotony of the machine and thus it is your own responsibility to create your identity. She talks of the lack of productivity in throwing the blame sideways to others facing the same issue - it opposes the idea of solidarity and societal progression - we are fighting over crumbs not going straight to the baker - this is the well perfected art of governmental and societal misdirection. It is those lording at the top who maintain the stagnant changelessness of society and who profit from small scale squabbling rather than large scale uprising - it makes people waste energy on the petty things rather than conserve it for the big challenge. An interesting point Lorde also touches upon is trope figures in literature, namely the single, childless, independent and rich aunt who embodies a haven for all the other established characters however neither her circumstances, nor her achievements, nor her happiness detached from societal constraint is ever elaborated upon. She later goes on to talk of the marital dynamics of the west African Fon of Dahomey where lesbian marriage majority communities exist divesting sexuality of its importance and instead women are judged by their value to the community. Otherwise, lesbianism is generally feared due to a woman's reclamation of identity and security as well as her lack of need to be defined by a man or her biological 'responsibility' to bear children naturally. Lorde comments upon ‘the [antiquated] supposition that one sex needs the others acquiescence or submission in order’ or needs to be co-dependent on the other. The same is true of race; where the heterosexist fears that 'lesbians are so powerful that their presence can contaminate the whole sex’, the racist's fear is that ’Black people are so powerful that the presence of one can contaminate a whole lineage' - the fears and ingrained preconceptions of the ignorant that are patently dissolved into their make-up. Like Simone De Beauvoir, it seems Lorde encourages women as women, black people as a race, minority groups as minorities, to acknowledge and use their commonalities for unification and not a greater cause for friction.
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5. sister outsider - CH. 5 - uses of the erotic: The erotic as power
6. sister outsider - CH. 6 - sexism: an american disease in blackface
Lorde mentions the societal reverse psychology - blaming the victim for their victimisation and abuse- her skirt was too short, he was wearing a hoodie, he put his hand in his pocket, she was drunk - In the same self-destructive sense Lorde alludes to how if black men view sexism and the destruction of Black women as tangential to Black liberation rather than as central to that struggle, this is dysfunctional for the overall liberation of oppressed peoples as sexism 'arise[s] out of the same constellation that engenders racism and homophobia' and it is that continued blindness that 'serves the oppressive system'
7. sister outsider - CH. 7 - an open letter to mary daly (author of gyn/ecology in 1979
In an attempt to broach the difficult topic of white women being unable to truly hear the words and dialogue of Black women, Lorde addressed a letter to Mary Daly, a lesbian feminist who was attempting to oppose the repressive forces of the University of Boston amongst others. To Lorde, the exclusion of Lorde's and other foremothers' words was deemed dismissive of their heritage and a painful rejection. Instead of discussing African myth, legend and goddesses such as Afrekete, Yemanje, Oyo, Mawullisa, Warrior goddesses of Rodun, The Danomeian Amazons and the warrior women of Dan, Daly and others stick to white European culture. Adopting an almost imploring tone Lorde questions why Daly's scope/frame of reference is so narrowed and why, rather than fighting the male and white patriarchy using black history she is somewhat perpetuating the singularity of the fight with just white women. Instead, in literature, essays and writings by Black women are ghettoised and their work tokenised, something which Lorde also picks up on in that Daly uses Lorde's words in a single chapter. This raises the question for Lorde whether she used a black woman’s words to legitimise her own in the eyes of the black community and this kind of fraudulence is surely to superficially create the impression of universal feminism. But Lorde reclaimed her words and said that they are not for use as an example or decoration. Instead, an effort must be made to understand and then to quote others works when you believe or advocate them and also understand how much there is to be gained from literature from an alternative race or culture. However, rather than turning her back on a women she felt had wronged her in some way, she wrote this letter in an effort to understand, to educate and hopefully unify. Lorde also goes on to describe how, although the oppression of women knows no ethnic or racial boundaries, it does not mean our experiences are identical, that beyond sisterhood, racism still exists and how white feminism not only ignores a whole host of women but also the issues of race that they face in addition. An issue, ever more crucial in this age where the issue of white privilege is a widely pervading one - it doesn't mean to belittle the tribulations faced by white people but it does mean to say that those trials have not been exacerbated at any point by the colour of your skin.
8. sister outsider - CH. 8 - Man child: a black lesbian feminist's response
This chapter is essentially Lorde's testimony as a lesbian mother raising a son and the profits and struggles he faces as a son of a lesbian. Aside from all the usual challenges of maturation, he has to make his own definition of himself as a man as he is devoid of a stereotypical masculine presence. To Lorde, it was about ignoring the pressure of what the world wanted him to be and acknowledging that ‘the knowledge of fear can help make us free’. She later makes an utterly insightful point that our sons represent as much hope for the feminist movement as our daughters do - it is the next generation learning to live together organically and fluidly without oppression and to do so means stripping ingrained prejudice from both genders .
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9. sister outsider - CH. 9 - an interview: audre lorde and adrienne rich
For Lorde, poetry was her original language. On a preverbal level, the poetry (that she often recited) conveyed her emotions and feelings, which translated to almost a way of using other's apt poetic genius to tune into the frequencies of her own soul. Through her example, Lorde gave poetry new powers; sometimes you can find such affinity with a poem that, in an ineffable/inexplicable way, it strikes a cord deeper than conscious thought and the poem conveys your deepest architecture/contours. As she matured there weren't always poems that sufficed to convey Audre's thoughts so she wrote her own and infused her poetry with her innermost feelings and so it evolved that she thought in poem - a medium which she made language. She also stresses in this section, the vital importance of non-verbal communication, as learnt from her capabilities as an observer. Instead of following and conforming to the syllabus and teaching methods like others, ‘she literally intuited all her teachers’, finding this facilitated her learning. She also continues with the idea of silence and how this essentially is like ‘putting weapons of silence in enemies’ hands’, a profound commentary on the potential damage of passivity. Ultimately she spreads the message that although you may agree/understand/question her works and uniqueness, the next step is to ask 'how do I use this? 'what do I do about it?' so that your reading doesn't not become passive and so that we do not become a generation of readers and mmhmmers but doers.
10. sister outsider - CH. 10 - The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house
To summarise this chapter; Lorde guides reraders away from rebellion emulating the techniques of the oppressors (i.e. the white patriarchy). For example, buffing away our differences and compartmentalising society was the technique of old and cannot and should not be used as a tool of empowerment. As a result of this age-old labelling and separatism - it has always been the lesbian's responsibility to spread the message and educate about homophobia for women and the black person's role to talk of racism, women to talk of the assignation of maternity. However this is how these issues remain stagnantly overlooked by anyone other than those in the community. Like De Beauvoir, she notes that without ‘community there is no liberation’ - but this does not mean to polish away our differences, idiosyncrasies and culture, but to embrace them - Lorde says that 'our differences are our strengths - to lump us together as one is the oppressive forces’ way. It is a power and a strength to bond and identify with people who are so different. Lorde also talks of the topic of racist feminism - e.g. white women attending conferences on feminism whilst poor women and women of colour clean their home and mind their children, unable to visit the same conference therefore the only issues spoken about are those exclusively faced by that demographic. However, in a lasting word of warning, Lorde reminds readers that to say you do not know who or what to ask to change things is 'an evasion of responsibility' or simply 'a cop out' and cannot be used as an excuse for ignorance or inaction.
11. sister outsider - CH. 11 - Age, race, class and sex: women redefining difference
Interestingly Lorde makes the hierarchal distinctions in art, describing how poetry is for the poor generically ( a medium of third world expression) as materially and financially it is less than writing reams of prose. She also touches upon (much like Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth) the inevitability of repeating past mistakes if you ignore them. Therefore, when old processes of oppression are iterated over and over again, we believe that to not talk of them is to will them out of existence however this creates generational amnesia; young people not knowing the mistakes of their grandparents because either they never ask or it hurts too much to tell. Lorde also strips apart the argument that for some the teachings or understanding of works by women of colour is too hard is incongruous - you can translate other languages, understand Chaucer and Shakespeare yet not those of people who speak your language and from your time. She talks of how, unity and homogeneity are not synonymous nor should they be seen as such. She affirms that FGM is not a culture but a crime. Finally she concludes with the idea that it is about utilising those oppressive mechanisms and blueprints hardwired into all of us as a power we can reclaim.
12. sister outsider - CH. 12 - The uses of anger: women responding to racism
Racism isn't a problem established to discriminate against black women only for them then to need to rectify - if you are at a conference full of only white women that doesn't mean you only talk about feminism for white people you must talk about racist feminism etc. Racist feminism is continued in these conferences often only plausibly accessible to upper class white women, it is continued through mothers shushing their children, ignorant of their repetition of their parent's racial slurs, rather than correcting them and it is continued through the acceptance that racism is just a given in the 'fabric of existence'. ‘To turn aside from the anger of Black women with excuses of intimidation is to award no one power - it is merely another way of preserving racial blindness’ ‘guilt is just another word for impotence’
13. sister outsider - CH. 13 - learning from the 60's
She tells readers of the unfortunate posthumous amplification factor in a maverick's influence/latitude e.g. Malcolm X’s voice was ‘amplified by death’. Also regarding the 60's she talks of how the emergence of political correctness became 'a new set of shackles’ but ‘there is no simple monolithic solution to racism, sexism and to homophobia’. Paradoxically, she alerts readers to the those who make decisions to cut food and aid are those who have both.
14. sister outsider - CH. 14 - eye to eye: Black women, hatred and anger
You internalise others contempt for you - thinking there is something wrong with you rather than the fault lying with them. Despite needing to remove these destructive thoughts from the consciousness one must first recognise their damage and the reason for their removal for it be worthwhile - you cant just repress them.