In which I share a lot of quotes and comics in hopes of getting you to read a book

Have you ever seen a book and thought, "Ohmigosh, THIS is why scholarship exists in the world!  So that THIS PERSON could write a book on THIS TOPIC and be totally awesome?"

That's pretty much how I felt when I first heard about Jeff Chang's Who We Be:  The Colorization of America.  Seriously, if someone can spend his whole adult life being an academic who just thinks and analyzes the world all day, and then pulls all of the thoughts in his head about race and identity and multi-culturalism in America and somehow mixes that with visual arts, comics, advertising and how all of those things influence politics... then I think the world is a better place for it.

From the book description:
Race. A four-letter word. The greatest social divide in American life, a half-century ago and today.

During that time, the U.S. has seen the most dramatic demographic and cultural shifts in its history, what can be called the colorization of America. But the same nation that elected its first Black president on a wave of hope—another four-letter word—is still plunged into endless culture wars.

How do Americans see race now? How has that changed—and not changed—over the half-century? After eras framed by words like "multicultural" and "post-racial," do we see each other any more clearly?

Who We Be remixes comic strips and contemporary art, campus protests and corporate marketing campaigns, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Trayvon Martin into a powerful, unusual, and timely cultural history of the idea of racial progress.

I first heard about Who We Be on Racialicious, and then it was serendipitously, prominently displayed at the library.  So I grabbed it immediately and dropped pretty much every other thing in my life (including my new obsession Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, thank you very much, Ana).

I have noted down so many quotes from this book.  Right from the beginning, when Chang states that:

Race happens in the gap between appearance and the perception of difference. It is about what we see and what we think we see and what we think about what we see. In that sense, it's bigger than personal affinities, preferences, tastes and bonds.

and then onto why people who say "I don't see race" drive other people crazy:

...Let us act as if we had always recognized the greatness of artists we once (and still) objected to seeing. It restated the lie of color blindness: I refused to see you before because of your color, and now that you have revealed my blindness, I see you *despite* your color.

This is a densely written book.  There are many artists presented here that I don't know, references to works of art with which I am not familiar.  But much of the book is very accessible, and there are a lot of important themes that resonate throughout it.  What I mean is, it's worth the work.

Those hoping for some sort of resolution or solution will be disappointed, though.  Chang's book is a retrospective about how American has approached and reacted to race over the past several decades; it is not a treatise on how we can all live happily ever after.  In fact, Chang does more to highlight issues and inconsistencies and disturbing situations than he does anything else.

What I found particularly powerful in this book was just how politicized race has become, even as we have changed the language around race.  Clearly, being racist is now frowned upon, so instead of using loaded terminology, politicians now use the language of economics to push for or against immigration, welfare reform, the national debt, and education.

The education piece in particular spoke to me - America's schools have been undergoing a rapid resegregation even as the country becomes more and more a "majority-minority" culture.

At the risk of making this less a review than it already is, I will share here some of the quotes that really gave me "a-ha!" moments while reading:

"Johnson's dis was part of a maddening continuity.  In an earlier generation, critics had dismissed artists of color by calling their work 'identity art.'  Now that a new generation of artists of color was 'post-identity,' critics were still uninterested in the questions of race they were raising.  The world had been colorized, but the art world remained colorblind." 

"The future of America is in this question:  Will the baby boomers recognize that they have a responsibility and a personal stake in ensuring that this generation of largely Latino and African-American kids are prepared to succeed?" - Stephen Klineberg 

"In a broad 2007 study of almost 19,000 subjects, a team of scholars from Vanderbilt University found that 75 percent of white parents never or almost never discussed race or ethnicity with their children.  Some of the parents didn't think it was a big deal.  Others genuinely did not know how to talk about race so they avoided talking about it altogether.  Many of those parents ... believed teaching their children not to see race was the proper way to teach them how not to be bigoted or racist."

Who We Be also introduced me to this amazing comic strip, Wee Pals, written by Morrie Turner, which features kids of all races having open and adorable conversations about important topics.

Musings: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Holy trippy Hell!  Oscar Wilde takes us through the opium dens of Victorian London in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and one can't help thinking that perhaps an opium dream was the inspiration for the book.

I have always thought of Oscar Wilde as a witty, upbeat, hilarious playwright who could skewer society with his words.  I realize now that he was much more than that.  This, his only, novel is a serious look at the nature of morality, the influences that play upon us and ultimately, how the way others perceive us and the way we perceive ourselves lead us down our life paths.

The Picture of Dorian Gray centers on a painting.  Basil Hallward, an up-and-coming painter, does a portrait of his muse, Dorian Gray, and it is the greatest masterpiece the man has ever made.  Hallward has put his soul into it, and the painting is an extension of him and his ideals.  He wants always to think of Dorian as he is in that painting- pure, untainted, young and beautiful.  But Dorian has met and fallen under the spell of Hallward's friend Lord Henry Wotton, who believes that life is not about morality or goodness, but about the pursuit of pleasure in all its forms.  In a fit of temper, Dorian becomes jealous of his portrait, complaining that the portrait will always stay beautiful and young and perfect, while he ages and withers.  He wishes that he could switch places with the portrait- that he can stay young and fresh forever, while the painting shows all the destructive forces of age and vice.  He soon finds that his wish came true, and readers must watch and learn exactly what happens when a man is able to do whatever he wants, leading a truly Victorian double life, without the consequences of that lifestyle ever being visible upon his body.

Review: Still Life - Adventures in Taxidermy

Title:  Still Life - Adventures in Taxidermy

Author:  Melissa Milgrom

To be published by Houghton Miller Harcourt in March 2010.

This review is based on an advanced reader's copy.

Summary:

Still Life is Milgrom's journey through the history and world of taxidermy, starting at a taxidermist shop in the US, continuing through museum displays, attending world taxidermy conferences, bidding at an auction of fabulous works by Mr. Walter Potter (of Mr. Potter's Museum of Curiosities), meandering through modern art, and finally culminating in her stuffing and mounting a squirrel herself.  Throughout the book, Milgrom comes back to how taxidermy has evolved, how museums present information and how people react to things of wonder.  As the book is really a series of essays in which Milgrom accounts her experiences and the people she meet, I'll just spend time highlighting things that stuck out for me.

A taxidermist's job (and a dying breed of a job it is, too) is to show animals exactly as they would be in life.  Their whole work revolves around an animal dying and then working with the animal to recreate it in detail so that it looks just as it would while it was alive.  In an era where countless species go extinct before we even discover them, this profession is alternately beloved and reviled- beloved for preserving for posterity things we might never see again, and reviled for the death of those animals.  This is further complicated by the fact that most taxidermists in the past could only make a living by stuffing hunting trophies for big game hunters.  Now, though, the serious ones work for the museums, attempting to catalog lives of animals that may or may not last much longer in the wild.  It was fascinating to meet the taxidermists referenced in this book.  I didn't think they would be so conservative and religious and pro-guns and hunting, but I suppose it makes sense.  I always thought a taxidermist would love all Earth's creatures, but I never considered that they all have been somehow linked with big game and hunting at some point in their lives.

Double Moon

Title: Double Moon

Authors: Margo Klass & Frank Soos

Publisher: Boreal Books

# of Pages: 67

Favorite Line:
What's so bad about not knowing exactly where you are? To round the corner and be taken by surprise? To look out the window and find a new world is waiting outside? With my driver's license safely in my pocket, I have permission to get out and go, to find a place where I might learn better who I am.

I received this book for free to review.

Product Description
At the heart of this collaboration is the complex interplay between two spirited minds. Each of Margo Klass's box constructions is an invitation to enter among objects in space and make of them what one might. Frank Soos has taken up that invitation. Margo's constructions and Frank's responses talk to each other, sometimes agreeably, sometimes ironically, sometimes earnestly, and sometimes flippantly. This collection stands as a representation of five years of their aesthetic sparring. Whoever picks up this book is invited to play along.

I imagine a published collaboration between my close friend Beth Rooney and her sister Kathleen Rooney would be something like this book. Beth is a fantastic photographer and Kathy is a much-lauded poet. And, well, Margo Klass is an artist and Frank Soos is a writer. It's not too odd a comparison to make. In any case, when I was offered this book and read its synopsis- a collaboration of art and prose between two people- I immediately thought of the Rooneys and accepted the offer. I'm glad I did- this was fun!

I do not have much experience with either poetry or art, so I can't really rate those aspects- hence, I will not rate the book here. But in terms of creativity and interest, it ranks pretty highly. This book gives readers the ability to get inside someone else's head. It's like going to an art museum and having access to the internal reactions of the (very articulate and erudite) guy next to you, at each and every exhibit.

That was the most fascinating part to me. My approach to this book was as follows:

1. Look closely at the photos of Margo Klass's art, trying hard not to peek at Frank Soos' words. This, I admit, was sometimes a lesson in futility. Klass really, really likes egg-shaped stones. That's all I can really say for sure. All her works are interesting and fun to examine, though. Really fun uses of common objects.

2. Form my own, however hazy, thoughts and reactions to the piece.

3. Read Frank Soos' short paragraph/poem relating to the piece.

4. Be stumped.

5. Look back at Klass's art after reading the paragraph and attempt to find what led Frank down his path, so vastly different than mine. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

I don't know if that makes sense at all, but it is pretty fun to do! Really, it opens up a huge realm of possibilities. Often, with modern art, you don't really know what you're going to get. But I never considered the huge realm of possibilities that exist for interpretation. Two people can look at the exact same thing and have completely different reactions to it. And this book highlights that- you bring your own life experiences and memories and passions to art, and those are reflected in your experience of it. It's very interactive, and Double Moon gives you the ability to do it with someone else. Read it with your friends and family, and see how you all react to the art. If you're a museum nerd like I am, I think you'll really enjoy it.

Here is a very good review of this book.