｡☆ ゜Catboy-Net ゜☆｡
Howdy. This book sucked and here's why:
While I enjoyed how Thompson interspersed the novel with stories from the Quran and he created some absolutely beautiful art, for this book honeslty felt like it was trying to see how many times it could hit every Arab stereotype in its 700 pages.
For a story the claims to be focused on the commodification of women, every Arab woman exists solely to be abused by men. Dodola has sex hundred of times and only one of them is consensual. She spends the majority of the book either topless or naked, with so many panels feeling like fanservice rather than actually important. She is never really in control and while the story is about her commodification, no other Arab woman is shown to be in control of her life either. They are all either slaves or sex objects, completley under the control of much more powerful men. While I understand that that was the reality for many women, in a book that's meant to be arguing against this discrminiation there should be more of a focus on the women that were able to take some control of their lives rather than confroming to passivity. Furthermore this just reinfroces the stereotype of Arab women being nothing more constant victims of male violence, a stereotype that strips them of thier personhood and is constantly used as a justification for harming our countries.
In the same vein, none of the Arab men in this story are portrayed as people either. Every man is a some sort of rapist or slave - nothing in between. I mean the majoirty of them exist purely to rape Dodola and then die or disappear. I can't imagine that an author could claim to have spent 6 years researching this book but somehow couldn't even spent 5 minutes reading about orientalism.
I can't even go into the fucking sultan's harem which is straight out of an orientalist paintng from the 18th century or i'll lose my mind.
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From Fun Home: “For Mom, Christian and John. We did have a lot of fun despite everything.”
Howdy (^-^),
I’ve decided to break this blog in by making a list from Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. I adore Bechdel’s writing in this book and her mix of fiction and reality throughout the novel. It’s honest, it’s gripping, it’s everything you really want in a recounting of a someone post-mortem. The art is gorgeous and ties everything together beautifully. It’s my favourite thing she’s ever written aside from Dykes to Watch out for. To honor the style and writing in a way, and to try to further understand this book, I decided to compile a list of the books mentioned in the novel and then read them on my own (at a later date).
So, here we go:
Core novels
1. The stories of Icarus and Daedulus. These are pop culture icons but Alison uses them to establish the relationship between herself and her father from the start, interweaving fiction and reality the say way her father once did.
2. The great gatsby p.62-65
3. The Far Side of Paradise pg.62
4. Zelda by Nancy Milford p.g.84
All three are used as metaphors for her father, drawing on their various similarities, his rapturement with Fitzeralds work and the man himself as well as the lives they both lived and them even dying simialr deaths.
5. Proust’s Works including: Rememberance of Things Past,. p.g.92-102,Cities of the Plain p.g. 108, In the shadow of young girls in flower p.g. 109
6. Proust Biography p.g 94
9. The importance of being earnest by Oscar Wilde p.g154-168: A play Bechdel’s mother starred in. I’m not knowledgeable enough on wilde to understand it’s significance other than that her mother seems to have thrown herself into her role. This exemplified the point to which she valued sacrifice and abstinence in contrast with Bechdel’s father and the people around her. I’d also like to read more about Wilde so a biography on him would be good.
10. The band played on p.g 195 : a piece on the early aids crisis.
11.Ulysses p.g 202-to the end - core part of the novel. Will probably read dubliners and a portrait of the artist beforehand though as said in the book. As well as the odyssey
12. Colette’s Eartly Paradise p.g. 205-: Gay scene in francee baby. Also a core part of thier relationship and Bechdel introduction to more lesbian lit! Very excited for her.
13.Flying by Kate Millett.
Honorable Mentions (books casually mentioned or shown in the art that I want to read out of self indulgence)
1.Camus’ Happy Death p.g 28.
2. Camus’ The myth of sisyphus p.g 47
3. Washington Square by Henry James p.g.66
4. The Taming of the shrew By william Shakespear p.g 69
5. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James p.g 70
6. Out of the closet and into the streets
7. Women in the Shadows p.g. 107: While mostly just existing in the art, I do think it would be good to go into some pulp fiction from the 50’s as both fun and an interesting read.
8. Life on a Little Known Planet & For Love of Insectsby Thomas Eisner p.g156. I don’t have much to put thi on othe than learning about insects is fun and Bechdel mentioned locusts like once. This is my list. I do what I want.
14. Lesbian nation by Jill Johnson
15. Mrs. Stevens hears the mermaids singing by mary sarton
16. The letters of Virginia Woolfe
That's my list for now :3
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Hiya! Back in Uniii! I just finished my first final and decided to set up the book blog as a reward(?). Sorry for the lack of posts recently finals have stolen so much of my time.
This blog is menat ot mimic the anime blog pretty hard with its own:
☆ Side bar for books read
☆f/f book directory with ratings
☆regular updates with stuff i'm reading
That's all i'm planning for right now. See you soon!
Link out (￣▽￣)ノ