Reading Wednesday

I got so fired up this morning about a bunch of things that I'll write about later that I almost forgot—again—that it was Reading Wednesday.

Just finished: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. It was great. It was one of those excellent isolation reads. I still wanted Thornton to die but that goes for most alpha male romantic leads, honestly. Margaret deserved better. I found the politics of it quite interesting—it must have been quite progressive for its time, and probably for this time too, but it still frames worker-owner relations as a matter of disagreement rather than power. There's no distinction in scale between the threat to the masters (losing their business/not profiting as much) and the threat to the workers (starvation, dying tragically of Mysterious Victorian Ailments); any disagreement can be solved by more open communication and a few fans. Anyway!

The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power by Desmond Cole. There's a strong sense of smug in my country around the idea that anti-Black racism doesn't happen here, or that if it does, it's a matter of individual prejudice and not a deeply rooted, systemic part of Canadian society. Desmond Cole is a journalist who was fired/pushed out of his job at the Toronto Star for participating in a sit-in at police headquarters (other prominent white journalists at the same publication have also participated in protests and didn't get the same treatment). 

 

This book chronicles a year of struggle, from the police assault on a Black gallery owner in January, to the handcuffing of a tiny child, to the deaths and assaults of Black people across the country, to the resistance of Black Lives Matter. It's really good and infused with Cole's personal experience at the forefront of the struggle. Cole is based here in Toronto so it was cool that he mentioned an action that I was at (showing up en masse at Toronto Police Services to demand justice for Dafonte Miller, a teenager beaten so badly by a cop and his brother that he lost an eye) and noted a few friends of mine for their activism. Anyway as I might have mentioned before, I am a bit of a Desmond Cole fangirl—he's one of the best journalists working in Canada today—so I highly recommend this one.

Currently reading: Notes From an Apocalypse by Mark O'Connell. This came out in April and it's weird because it already feels kind of dated? The apocalypse in question is climate change, not Covid-19, and the survivalist and prepper groups that have sprung up in reaction. It's very well-written and darkly funny so far.

A very angry and sloppy history of freestanding monumental sculpture in the Western world

Pull up folks—it's time for a rant about statues and monuments.

Hi! Your friendly high school art teacher here. I'm a nice white lady and can't speak to the Black experience of grief and rage brought about by systemic racism—I sympathize, I empathize, and I stand in solidarity, but I will never have that lived experience to be an expert. But do you know what I do know a lot about? Art history. Thanks to the efforts of my truly outstanding teachers and profs throughout high school and university and a bit of Googling 'cause I'm rusty and this isn't my area of focus, I have enough of an understanding of the evolution of sculpture done by white people and what led those monuments that have gotten white people's panties in a bunch throughout the Western world to tell you why tearing them down is no biggie.

Caveat the First: A lot more than statues needs to get torn down. We're talking the entire system of white supremacy and capitalism, etc., but it is shitty if you're a BIPOC to have to walk by some ugly tribute to a slave-owning asshole, and so tearing them down is a low-effort way to open a dialogue about history, reduce microaggressions, and make cities more aesthetically appealing (these statues are f u g l y, fight me). It's a symbol and a start, not a solution.

Caveat the Second: I have very strong feelings about Art, and Public Art, and what constitutes Good Public Art and Bad Public Art, and I can totally get how the art that you're used to can have emotional resonance. I flipped my shit when they moved the Henry Moore sculpture to the wrong side of the AGO, okay? I also lost it when I found out that Gandhi's Roti was closing even though I haven't eaten there in years because change sucks, especially when you feel that that the thing you like (delicious roti if you don't think too hard about what the kitchen looks like) is being replaced by a thing you do not like (idk probably big box stores or condos). I personally do not understand white people's emotional connection to fugly statues but I take it there is one, or one is performed. So I can't really speak to the passion white people are suddenly feeling about rando slaveholder statues. I don't get it and I'll never get it. Also RIP Gandhi's Roti.

Caveat the Third: This is a rant, not a proper essay. You want facts, crack a book. It's also hella simplified.

( art history! )