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Reading Wednesday
Apr. 5th, 2023 07:07 amJust finished: Buffalo Is the New Buffalo by Chelsea Vowel. Well, look at me. I am turning into a short story reader despite myself.
I expected this to be brilliant and it did not disappoint. It's a rare book of futurism that is both visionary and extremely grounded in the specific experiences of one Métis community. The stories explore alternate realities, artificial realities, the incursion of the spirit world into the human world, and the distant future, all in ways that centre Métis ways of knowing and being. For example, what does it mean for a dead person's spirit when their consciousness is digitally uploaded? How does community influence the traditionally individualist figure of the superhero? What role can augmentation play in restoring language?
( spoiler )
It's also—because Vowel is an educator, a very deliberate learning experience. Many things are left untranslated or deliberately obscure—not as a way of signalling "settler, this book is not for you," but as a way of forcing cognitive dissonance on the reader and forcing the responsibility for learning onto us. I noticed that there were fewer and fewer footnotes as the book went on, almost as if the book is teaching you how to read it as you go.
Highly recommended.
Currently reading: Nothing yet. Stories of the Road Allowance People is up next.
I expected this to be brilliant and it did not disappoint. It's a rare book of futurism that is both visionary and extremely grounded in the specific experiences of one Métis community. The stories explore alternate realities, artificial realities, the incursion of the spirit world into the human world, and the distant future, all in ways that centre Métis ways of knowing and being. For example, what does it mean for a dead person's spirit when their consciousness is digitally uploaded? How does community influence the traditionally individualist figure of the superhero? What role can augmentation play in restoring language?
( spoiler )
It's also—because Vowel is an educator, a very deliberate learning experience. Many things are left untranslated or deliberately obscure—not as a way of signalling "settler, this book is not for you," but as a way of forcing cognitive dissonance on the reader and forcing the responsibility for learning onto us. I noticed that there were fewer and fewer footnotes as the book went on, almost as if the book is teaching you how to read it as you go.
Highly recommended.
Currently reading: Nothing yet. Stories of the Road Allowance People is up next.
