Frankissstein, Jeanette Winterson
This novel is the one that came in my Books That Matter box (which I wholly recommend!) in October, and is a retelling of the classic tale by Mary Shelley. The story is divided into two parts that are told together simultaneously: the first focuses on the period of time in Shelley’s life while she was writing Frankenstein, and the second is told from the perspective of a trans man in present day as he pursues a relationship with an AI scientist who is trying to upload the first human brain onto a computer so that the person can ‘live forever’. Winterson brings up interesting ideas about what could or should be considered as ‘living forever’, such as the necessity (or non-necessity) of bodies, who would want to live forever in this way, and even who should be allowed to live forever in this way. Overall it was a fascinating narrative, not to mention that the part containing Shelley’s dialogue, though fictional, was 19th century feminism at its best.
Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, edited by Roxane Gay
Not That Bad is a collection of essays from mainly women and a few men about their experiences not only with rape and the bad behavior of assaulters, but also with rape culture in and of itself and how it has affected and continues to affect their daily lives. While reading their stories it forces you to think about your own experiences and inevitably compare them, deeming yours as lesser (or worse) because you either didn’t experience near as much pain as they did or you experienced far more. But the anthology’s point is just that: that that comparison is a false equivalent. ‘Not that bad’ or ‘not as bad’ shouldn’t even be phrases that women (or anyone) have to use to describe their lives, their childhoods, their memories. They are phrases of a fucked up system that chooses again and again to protect the abuser, the rapist, the assaulter, and 50% of the population instead of the other half. The victims, who are 95% women. The system that tells women over and over again that their righteous rage is unbecoming, that we will be unlovable if we let our rage show, in an attempt to make us shut up and bear it. Fuck that, and fuck the system. This anthology is a must read for everyone, but especially those who think that rape culture ‘isn’t that bad’ or ‘doesn’t exist’. It’s there and affecting everyone, whether you realize it or not.