I've given up on that Poison book, it's just not for me. I was super into it when I first started but I also wasn't entirely myself in that moment. I couldn't find myself having the time to pick it up or think about its weird, disgusting imagery. The overall plot ends within the first chapter, I don't see it going anywhere. It's one of those stories where it starts with how it ends and then you see how it gets there but that just couldn't pull me in in this instance. The real nail in the coffin was when I went to the library for research material for my personal project and I found a book on Lolita culture (my partial review here) and I devoured that little book in a week. And that's pretty fast for me since I find it so hard to read in my free time when all my homework is also reading.
I do highly recommend So Pretty/Very Rotten by Jane Mai and An Nguyen for anyone who likes or hates Lolita fashion, especially in the West. It has fantastic essays that both explain the Japanese Lolita's view and how it contrasts with a Western Lolita. The comics are beautiful and work to define what cannot be truly defined. The meaning of Kawaii, the melancholy and bittersweetness of a total consumerist hobby, and also the importance of sisterhood. It's about how girls are and how they want to see themselves, that's why this culture fascinates me and now I really truly have to watch Kamikaze Girls.
Ever since he got it for me, The Boyfriend says I need to read
Women of Viet Nam by Arlene Eisen Berman. I don't even remember what pile of used books he got this for me from but it has been sitting in the 'to read' pile for far too long. I finally caved when I was having a moment where I was unreasonably anxious and bored, the kind of debilitating feeling that freaks me out for endless hours and keeps me from doing anything creative. A total block. For some reason, reading seemed possible, I can't remember how since starting a new book normally feels so laborious sometimes.
Anyways, this book is really good, really graphic, and really well illustrated. I'm only 54 pages in but I have learned so much about women. Despite being a book written and edited by (based off of the names) non-Vietnamese women and several decades old, I find the view of Vietnamese women sympathetic but not overly pitying. I will say it is extremely graphic and focuses on the systematic torture committed by both Chinese and French colonial powers over the land. I am a little concerned that the ratings are not high on Goodreads, but maybe the genre just isn't for everyone. I have always been interested in women's roles in communism, and I am about to learn a lot more as Ho Chi Minh has started popping up more during the chronicles of the French Occupation.
What is important in the study of women's history (herstory?) is that focus on women. I find that so far this book has kept that focus, it is not a story of laws and lawmakers, but women and their oppression. I've also enjoyed that it mentions some Vietnamese legends reflecting the preoccupied roles women might've played before confusion came to Viet Nam. Along with aspects of women in the culture, you also get bits on the women's movement at the time, of course, a movement by and for middle and upper-class women. Unlike most histories of women, which often mainly focus on these groups, there has been a lot about the lives of peasants and the specific challenges faced by women. This interests me, and I am excited to see what will happen in the next 20 years of history left for the book to cover. I am also interested in what the rest of the book will be about, as I am like a fifth through this book.
There is also a section with references, further reading, and resources which I think is really cool. The Vietnamese women who helped are thanked in a small section at the start of the book that also celebrates the first Vietnamese independence day without foreign troops on their soil, September 2nd, 1975.
If Poison interested me half as much as these past two books I would've made some sort of post about it, since clearly these two books were so good I can't shut up about them. It makes me excited to read again after so long saying I will finish Down Girl and suffering through explanations of Humanism I can barely grasp. I loved that book too, but these recent books have covered the topics I like in ways I prefer to consume. I already am planning my next reads once I am done with Women of Viet Nam.
That's all I have on books for today, I'm feeling pretty good and kinda tired. I had my third driving lesson today and I learned how to switch lanes. I'm much better at that than anything else I've learned, I'm a bit too cautious. But every time I am behind that wheel, I feel that liberation I will get when I can go wherever I want, drive to any state, and live only relying on myself. I think only then I will truly feel like an adult and in control. But first I would need a car.
As I mentioned, I think, I applied for a job at the Library of Congress. I'm not sure I'll get it but I know this opens me up to being less scared about applying to things. I want to apply all over the country. I want to live somewhere completely new for a little while, maybe somewhere with calmer winters. I accept ugly homes for the sake of being somewhere different.
In a way, I miss Florence. I was only there for three weeks, and I really did nothing but eat too much, walk too much, and live in a world of Renaissance art, but I was completely alone. In the winter it's impossible to be alone, but in the summer, I only want to be alone and adventure and be on my own terms. That's partially what was so nice about Florence, and it was actually quite an accomplishment for a little 18-year-old. It also makes me so hungry for good, European art, and not just those mixed pieces at the Met. I need to go back to those strange palaces turned museums and just be completely swaddled in art.
I want to do that in a much cheaper and more permanent way, move to some smaller city or town, work at their library, and rent the tiniest apartment. I'd love to bring The Boyfriend with me too of course.... and finally have my own cat. These are the fantasies I dream of to get me through the iciest winter I have ever lived through.
Okay, I think I have an Earth Science exam I have to prep for or something? And a lab to get to.... So I better stop my fantasizing and maybe do a little review. Or read this great book on Viet Nam I just found in my purse...... hmmmmm.....
Bye Bye!! ⭐
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