Dream Book Panel

I'm working on my Hawaii post (cos hey, I was just in Hawaii and that was swell) but in the meantime I got an email from Eventbrite, with a post topic about my dream book panel and after not finding a catch I thought that was a pretty cool topic and I'm looking for writing prompts so yeah, let's do this thing. And also you guys should write up your panels cos I am super interested to hear who you would have or what questions you'd ask. Everyone play!

The prompt is "What if you could plan the perfect panel of authors or characters to speak at a conference?" OK here's my panel

Christopher Moore, Jasper Fforde, and all of my favorite authors get together to talk about how cool I am and also send me all of their future books as they're released. Oh also Bill Watterson decides to write new Calvin & Hobbes and that is how society will begin to heal. Right? That sounds fun for everyone.

OK FINE, let's do this thing for real.

Since I am deep into my feminist rant reading, let's take the topic of feminism with maybe some intersectionality thrown in there because yeah, we need that. And since this is my perfect panel, I'm thinking this can include both dead authors as well as characters. LET'S SEE HOW THIS GOES

Up first: Octavia Butler. I need to hear her thoughts on everything really, but particularly her thoughts on gender and race because she has some thoughts here, if her books indicate anything. Plus she was a black female author writing science fiction starting in the '70s, which I know, sounds like THE most welcoming environment.

Next Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie because have you read We Should All Be Feminists yet? Or seen her beautifully shut down the idea that Drumpf is not racist including the line 'As a white man, you don't get to define what racism is." And also all of the other line and laughter. It's wonderful.

How about some Sarah Vowell to add some history to the mix? Plus I feel she would bring some levity to the proceedings, cos things could get real heavy.

Speaking of people who can balance the serious and the funny, let's have Roxane Gay join as well. She will have lots of insightful things to say and then she can bring up House Hunters when we need a break. (But seriously, her live tweeting of HH is amazing.)

And then let's add Hermione because one, wouldn't it be awesome for Hermione to be on a panel? Also I think she could learn something. Yes, maybe she would bring some interesting thoughts to the mix but I would also like her to learn a bit about maybe not seeing herself as a white savior (thanks, Witch, Please)

Then let's include Celeste Ng because while I haven't written it yet I very very much enjoyed Everything I Never Told You and think she could bring some interesting thoughts about race and family and what is expected/allowed of women.

Crap, should there be a dude here? Umm, OK, Chuck Wendig cos from his blog and social media he seems like he gets it. He can come too.

Alright, I should probably stop here. But yeah, this seems great and if this could happen, that would be SUPER KEEN.

Thanks for the post prompt, Eventbrite, and hey people, if you need to manage an event or conference, they seem like a way to help with that so maybe check them out.

Imagine how much happier we would be...if we didn't have the weight of gender expectations

"We Should All Be Feminists" is an essay version of Chimanda Ngozi Adichie's TEDx and it is great. It's also super short (about 60 pages) so there really isn't much of an excuse for people to not read this.

It is, as the title suggests, her reasons why everyone should be a feminist and how gendered expectations can hurt both men and women and wouldn't it be swell if things were actually equal? And of course it's done with Adichie's skill.

I'm not particularly concerned if feminist writing is a bit angry towards dudes, but I understand that being nice is a far better strategy and Adichie takes the route of not blaming people or an entire gender but focusing on the way society has set up the divide. She calls herself the "Happy Feminist" after a journalist told her she should "never call [herself] a feminist since feminists are women who are unhappy because they cannot find husbands." This was later expanded to "Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men and Who Likes to Wear Lipgloss and High Heels for Herself and Not For Men" which is a mouthful but maybe if people did have such (stupid) notions on what a feminist needs, it wouldn't be needed.

She illustrates her points with stories from her life, such as the time in school she had the highest score on a test, which was supposed to come with an award of class monitor. Except the teacher decided that the class monitor had to be a boy and so the person with the second-highest score was put in charge.

If we do something over and over, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and over, it becomes normal. If only boys are made class monitoring, then at some point we will all think, even if unconsciously, that the class monitor has to be a boy.

I should point out that while this essay does not come off as angry, this does not mean that Adichie is not angry or that being angry about injustice is a bad thing. She does talk about how women expressing anger is typically seen as a bad thing and how women are conditioned to be so concerned with being "likeable" that they're punished when they're angry or aggressive, or other traits that boys are praised for. Of course, expectations on boys to be tough and strong and that weakness and vulnerability are the worst possible things are hurting them as well.

She makes the argument about why "human rights" or "equalist" or whatever other term people have come up with to avoid "feminist" is ridiculous.

Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general - but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women. The problem was not about being human, but specifically about being a female human. For centuries, the world divided human beings into two groups and then proceeded to exclude and oppress one group. It is only fair that the solution to the problem acknowledge that.

 Take that.

This is wonderful and a quick read so everyone, get on that.

Gif rating:

Title quote from location 202

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. "We Should All Be Feminists." Vintage, 2014.

She's gone, she's learned, and she's conquered

Twice I've gone to start this review and twice I've stopped because I feel like there is so much to say about this book and I know I'm not going to do it justice. While I won't say third time's the charm (because that would assume what I'm about to write is going to be good) I will say third time is the time I finally suck it up and just write this thing.

I finally, finally, FINALLY read Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.* I don't know why I was so worried. Well, no, I mean I do know why because this is an excellent book and it deserves the praise it got. It's also very accessible and I never felt like I was not smart enough to get this (though I'm sure I missed plenty). Odds are you've already read this, cos I feel like most people have, but I am always late to the game, but here goes my review anyway!

The story centers on Ifemelu (if someone would like to make a video teaching me how to correctly pronounce her name, that would be neat), a woman who has been living in the States for a while now but is planning to move back to Nigeria. She's at one point described as "a fine babe but she is too much trouble. She can argue. She can talk. She never agrees." Not an inaccurate description. Later in the book when she's talking about how graduate students speak just in academia and she's afraid they don't know what's happening in the real world she's told "That's a pretty strong opinion" and quickly responds with "I don't know how to have any other kind." She's pretty great.

At the beginning of the book Ifemelu travels from Princeton into Trenton to find a place to get her hair done and as she sits in the chair for 8 hours, she reminisces about her life before she came to America and all of the events that brought her to where she is now.

Part of her flashbacks include her first love, Obinze. They met as teenagers and it was assumed by everyone, including each other, that they would end up married. But life rarely goes as planned as Ifemelu goes to America while Obinze later makes his way to England. A number of chapters are from Obinze's point of view and his experience as an undocumented worker abroad, before getting deported and eventually becoming a wealthy property developer back home.

But the story is Ifemelu's and Adichie does a beautiful job depicting race and racism in the US, England, and Nigeria; how the experiences of African-Americans and those of American-Africans are very different; how she and Obinze weren't black until they left Nigeria. Ifemelu writes a successful blog "Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-­American Black" that I wish was real cos I would follow. That's not all Adichie covers. There's much about leaving and returning home. There is an emphasis on education but also a criticism of the world of academia. There are experiences of the very poor and the very wealthy.

You should read this. It's an excellent book. Besides, your reading is probably too white (it can't be just me) so broaden those horizons.

Gif rating:

*Wanna know how to pronounce her name? You should check out Amanda's video of commonly mispronounced author's names.

Title quote from page 534

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. Anchor Books, 2013.