august 2024

Domination and the Arts of Resistance, James C. Scott. 1990. 227pp. University library.

Scott argues for a particular approach to reading the archive of situations of domination, such as slavery, serfdom, and casteism, taking into account the hidden transcript—the ideas and ideology professed by the dominated outside public hearing—and presenting very interesting arguments about false consciousness, for example, a topic I’ve always meant to investigate, as well as the nature of the revolutionary moment. A fascinating book, quite readable, with all the joys and potential pitfalls of its famous sister. I got this out from the library before I learned that Scott had passed away early in July; may he rest in peace.

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The Correspondence, J.D. Daniels. 2017. Vargo’s Jazz City and Books, Bozeman, MT.

An exactingly vicious set of five essays, or maybe stories, or maybe essays, starting with Brazilian jiu jitsu, and proceeding through other experiences that feel like getting your cheekbone snapped in the ring by another man’s foot. Group therapy, for example. Energetic, insistent, constantly shocking prose.

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The Object of Performance: The American Avant-Garde Since 1970, Henry M. Sayre. 1989. 324pp. Little free library.

Thoughtful discussion of shared philosophical readings across a variety of artistic moments we call “postmodern”: Carolee Schneeman’s feminist performance art, Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger’s interface with text, Robert Smithson’s land art. Genial and engaging introduction to the field. I especially appreciate Sayre’s obvious appreciation for feminist art, not in the hollow identarian way that I think people outside the academy often assume feminist art is intended, but for its structural, formal, discursive innovations and interventions.

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Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders. 2017. 343pp. Local library.

Those chapters composed from quotations of histories are brilliant. The main plot, which centres around Lincoln’s dead son Willie encountering a host of otherworldly trials in the afterlife, struck me as floppy, sugary, fantastic in a bad sense. Saunders’s sense of humour falls at different times to either side of that dividing line for me. Continues an interesting trend in my taste: misalignment with the jury of the Man Booker Prize. (Only exceptions so far are Hilary Mantel and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout.)

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Islands of Decolonial Love, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. 2015. 143pp. Gift from a friend.

The quote on the back from Lee Maracle: “the kind of book that is going to make me a good writer, a good listener, a good citizen.” I am cynical enough that this prescription makes me suspicious. I find this unfortunate partially because it makes it difficult for me to judge Simpson on her own merits. At her best her stories and poems are unflinching and persistent. Her use of Anishnaabe English is pleasurably bouncing and snippy, especially in long pieces like “nogojiwanong”. But when she indulges in phrases like “this beautiful disaster”, an easy, romantic sentimentality undercuts her.

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Short stories and poems:

• “Turkey in a Suitcase” by J.D. Daniels
• “A Rose Diary” by Walt John Pearce

Movies & TV:

• Grizzly Man (2005) dir. Werner Herzog
• The Alpinist (2021) dir. Peter Mortimer, Nick Rosen
• Dave Not Coming Back (2020) dir. Jonah Malak
• The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012) dir. Sophie Fiennes
• Into the Abyss (2011) dir. Werner Herzog

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