I’m after a bridge into a better place, a door or a window. I’m done living where the air doesn’t reach. At this point if there’s a crack in the wall it’s worth it and I’m climbing. I used to think there was no way out. Then I realized I wasn’t looking hard enough for an exit. I’ve scrambled enough my nails are bleeding. But I think it’s the sun I’ve been seeing.
Difficult Women by Roxane Gay: stories about WOMEN in the (mostly) midwest + everything you want in a hard-hitting short story collection…you can just tell how committed she is to her characters and their stories and god it was wonderful
The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee: THE HERO. THE ICON. HE DOES IT AGAIN!!! Alexander Chee gets to The One Man Who Wrote A Good Woman Character. like, only him. he’s the only one I give permission to. god this book was like an opera and a myth and a poem at the same time.
The Leavers by Lisa Ko: I have nothing to say about this book except READ IT. also, white people suck.
Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn: first of all, WHAT A TITLE. second of all, this book reads like a fever dream + soap opera + multigenerational super literary saga. like, all those things at once. this is an *asian american classic* for a reason!! it’s fragmented (*like the diaspora*) and harsh and so so vivid.
The Border of Paradise by Esme Weijun Wang: this book is fucking weird in the best way. the *messed-up family* novel to trump ALL *messed-up family* novels (and that’s a lot!!) I am always searching for books about taiwaneseness and mental illness and female pain and this is all that!!
Crystal Boys by Pai Hsien-Yung: speaking of taiwaneseness, THIS BOOK. the humor, the ache, the character studies – like, how is this not a queer classic in *the west*?? it should be!! the reincarnative/multiple-lives feeling of this book really haunts me.
Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez: it’s been forever and I’m STILL THINKING about these stories. there’s magical realism and decay and dystopia and if you’re a fan of yoko ogawa (like me!!) this is just as dark and treacherous and captivating
Red Sorghum by Mo Yan: how have I never read this book before?? this novel is just a gutspill. it’s brutal and unrelenting and bloody. it’s grueling to read this. I know I’m not selling this well but it’s so difficult to describe?? I just love how excessive it is, how generous it is with details and language. it’s also just like, unsparingly violent and gross and unstoppable.
China Menby Maxine Hong Kingston: another *classic* I’m so glad to have read!! it’s like prose poetry + myth-making and SO experimental!! why do we never consider Maxine “experimental”?? bc she’s too chinese?? too “ethnic,” too “immigrant” to be innovative? she really defies genre and basically everything else.
Kinder Than Solitudeby Yiyun Li: she’s just one of my favorite writers ever ever ever. she’s so unashamedly philosophical and grand and generous. there were times I had to put down the book and be like FUCK THATS ME. it’s sold as a literary thriller but it’s really really character-driven (which is why i think the reviews aren’t that great?? so be warned, it’s not really about plot.)
in the conbini au china is cheap immigrant labor working at a shinjuku famima. they meet cause japan fucks up the printer trying to last-minute get his budget doujinshi ready for comiket on chinas shift
how come conservative students think they’re smarter than professors with doctorates and shit
conservative students swear that every university professor is some radical leftist with an agenda when usually it’s a professor that just uses critical thinking skills, context, and has empathy
if you swear all the professors you encounter are wrong, it might actually be that your opinions are outdated, bigoted, and incorrect lmao
This is actually the reason behind the popular notion within conservative circles that universities have a “liberal bias.”
Consistently, conservative students will leave higher ed because they perceive critical thinking, self-critique, and open discussion as attacks on their selfhood, rather than as a process of refining ideas and arguments. All of their accusations about how the people who disagree with them are just “too sensitive” are nothing more than projection, because they very idea that they should question their own assumptions is something they believe would only make them weak.
It’s become increasingly obvious to me that conservative people are just those who have never developed critical thinking skills
My father, who teaches drafting, CAD, and technical math at the local college, told me once that the reason he was a liberal was because “When you start learning about the world with an open mind, when you start meeting and talking to people with an open mind, when you look at the world as a whole and think about it critically, you come to realize that reality has a liberal ‘bias’, and that it’s less a bias than just the logical conclusions of intelligent, compassionate, and emphatic people who want to leave the world better than they found it. To be a conservative Republican, you have to be able to shut down and not acknowledge any of that, and get mad at anyone who tries to point it out.”
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