Are Women Human?

Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues by Catharine MacKinnon
2006 Weight: 2 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donation

 

In college, I did an independent study on Catharine MacKinnon, and I have never been able to give up the books from that course.  We studied them closely and constantly.  There were only three of us, working with our professor, to discuss and understand the work.  MacKinnon argued that pornography should be illegal and that it subordinates women.  I am not anti-pornography, but she is one smart woman and has some powerful ideas.  It was powerful to have someone pushing me and teaching me, constantly. If nothing else, you could use her work to make a strong argument for sex industry reform, and people have.  She has done incredible work on sex equality and the law, impacting sexual harassment, prostitution, rape, war crimes.  It is really impressive stuff.

Reading MacKinnon and reading the feminist scholars that tried to tear up her work made me terrified of ever trying to write or publish anything in the field of Women's Studies.  There are a lot of smart people out there, and there is a lot of anger and complexity to the ways people are oppressed.

I have read and re-read my MacKinnon books, and I know it is time for someone else to have them.  I am still not brave enough.  

You gotta love the title of this book though, right?  

 

 

The Sexual Politics of Meat

The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory  Carol J. Adams
1990
Weight: 1.2 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

What a deliciously Agnes Scott type book.  The merging of feminism and vegetarianism.  I ate it up and still love it to this day.  I know I will not read it again.  I have read it several times.  I often think about parts of it when talking to people about animals, "meat," the power of words.  Sometimes I keep it to myself and sometimes I don't.  I know people don't always respond as positively or enthusiastically as I do.  I wish you could get someone who was not a vegetarian or feminist to read it, but that will not usually end in success.

March: Book One

March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
2013
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Gave to my friend, Deanie

  

I recently visited my Alma Mater for a career/volunteer fair--representing the animal shelter I manage, but I quickly became distracted, leaving the table with two very capable non-alums and meandered down to the bookstore.  I had heard it would be closing soon, and I thought I might want to buy a t-shirt or something one last time.  As I looked around, I realized that what I really wanted was all those really great recommendations (once requirements) you get from college professors.

I started to look by class at the rows of reading lists.  I found classes I would want to take and then checked out the books necessary for that class.  I couldn't really justify spending the money, but I bought March.  Reading a graphic novel really appealed to me at the time and John Lewis had been popping up everywhere since the dreadful day President Trump was elected president.  I need some inspiration.  I did end up enjoying it, though I got to the end quickly and was pretty disappointed not to have book 2 on hand.

I learned something I never knew about John Lewis--chickens.  My heart broke to see that little boy, scared, stoic in the car driving through Tennessee, to see those young men and women beaten with the permission of the police, to think of the death threats.  I could only imagine being a young boy riding on an old bus watching the money of the white schools shine as he drifted further away to a hand-me-down school with old books--though clearly with a librarian who had a lot of heart.

It sounds like this book is being used in schools, and I hope it reaches people who might be less likely to read a long novel.  The drawings are great and the story is moving no matter how you tell it, though everyone did a good job.

It Chooses You

It Chooses You by Miranda July with photographs by Brigitte Sire 2011
No One Belongs Here More Than You. Stories by Miranda July 2007
Weight: 2 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

I have packed a small box of books for the move that are kept separate from the rest.  They are the ones I may never get rid of.  It is fair that I keep one box, right?  In that box there is another copy of It Chooses You that was autographed by Miranda July.  "You" is crossed out and "Laura" is written above it.  My dear friend, Liz, bought it for me and mailed in to me in a care package.  I was so delighted and moved to get it in the mail, unexpectedly.  Of course, I was also super jealous that she had the chance to meet Miranda July.  Like adolescent jealousy.  I have been smitten with Miranda July since my other dear friend, Sarah, introduced me to her cds when I was still in high school.  Her work was a large part of my entirely awkward senior thesis in College.  I even recorded my own tapes of me telling my own short stories in July fashion.  I cannot believe I was not institutionalized.  

Another copy of No One Belongs Here More Than You is also in the box.  My creative writing adviser, Dermont, gave it to me as a graduation gift and wrote a wonderful note to me inside of it.  I might be more smitten with Dermont than I am July and so it is one of my most prized possessions. 

Both of the copies I am now passing on came to me from Sarah and were the ones I read before I got the other copies.  I am infinitely grateful to her for introducing me to July and for continuing to nourish it through gift giving.  I am sure these two will find good home--with titles like that who could resist?  I want to believe that both titles say something about who I am in this moment and that is why I decided to get rid of them tonight.  Really, July is just a really good cheerleader via naming things and a really unique writer/artist/filmmaker to boot.

More Shakespeare

Hamlet Edited by Barbara A Mowat and Paul Werstine 1992
Othello and The Tragedy of Mariam (Tragedy by Elizabeth Cary) Edited by Clare Carroll 2003
Weight: 1 lb 12 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating

I wonder, on average, how many books the English Major graduate owns upon receiving their degree.  Do they usually keep them or give them away?  I have given away a lot of Shakespeare on this blog.  I will say, though, that I prefer to read the editions I was assigned in school.  They are not clunky and heavy like the complete works.  They often come with helpful and insightful commentary, theory, historical background.  These two editions were well used but are still in great shape and, I know, still being assigned in school.  I am sure they will make their way into loving and/or needful hands.
 

The Longman Anthology of British Literature

The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Volume 1B: The Early Modern Period
David Damrosch (Author), Clare Carroll (Author), Constance Jordan (Author)
2002
Weight: 2.2 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating

While staying up too late and dreading another day of work, I also began to think about the distance between the United States and Britain AGAIN and grew upset AGAIN.  I kept looking around my messy house and telling myself I needed to get out of bed, stop reading the New Yorker (I had like ten to catch up on), and clean.  Run on the treadmill, at least, I told myself after reading several issues of Runner's Magazine while laying on my back.  On one of my several trips to the kitchen to snack on something or get a glass of water, instead of smoking a cigarette, I saw this book still standing tall on my shelves.  I am not sure why it is still here.  I took it to half.com to see if it was worth anything and, to my renewed frustration, it was not.

That's the thing about text books.  You pay hundreds of dollars for them and they rapidly decrease in value the whole time you have them.  If you do not sell them as soon as class ends they will soon only be worth a fourth of what you paid and, if you stupidly wait years, they will be 75 cents--even if they include "timeless literature."  None of this is new and surprising, but I was looking over my shelves after making this discovery and realizing how very much money I have spent on school books.  I kept them because I loved them or felt like they had more to teach me after I graduated.  With so many of them, I have never even opened them again--as is the case with this one.  I wish I had just written down the titles, sold them then, and bought them back now when they were worth nothing.

On a side note, I kept wondering why none of the books I was listing ever sold and then realized I've had my settings on "on vacation" for ages.  Also annoying.  Nothing like being a million miles away from what I want and being hours away from what I hate to put me in a foul mood.  I apologize to everyone involved.