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Yasna wrote:I also finished The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. This is an absolute must-read for liberals of all types, and it's only 160 pages.
linguoboy wrote:I think there are very few "absolute must-reads" in this world and yet another straight white male Baby Boomer criticising every kind of identity politics except white identity politics doesn't make the list.
(To quote Ta-Nehisi Coates, "That Trump ran and won on identity politics is beyond Lilla’s powers of conception. What appeals to the white working class is ennobled. What appeals to black workers, and all others outside the tribe, is dastardly identitarianism. All politics are identity politics—except the politics of white people, the politics of the bloody heirloom.")
Yasna wrote:linguoboy wrote:I think there are very few "absolute must-reads" in this world and yet another straight white male Baby Boomer criticising every kind of identity politics except white identity politics doesn't make the list.
Your immediate fixation on the racial, sexual, and gender identity of the author shows exactly why this book was necessary.
Yasna wrote:(To quote Ta-Nehisi Coates, "That Trump ran and won on identity politics is beyond Lilla’s powers of conception. What appeals to the white working class is ennobled. What appeals to black workers, and all others outside the tribe, is dastardly identitarianism. All politics are identity politics—except the politics of white people, the politics of the bloody heirloom.")
Hah. Coates is pulling a sleight of hand there, redefining identity politics as anything that appeals disproportionately to a certain demographic. That's nonsense. Just because a given poverty alleviation policy might appeal disproportionately to black Americans doesn't make advocating for it identity politics.
Yasna wrote:P.S. I'd be happy to send you my copy of the book. PM me an address if you're interested.
linguoboy wrote:There's a reason why I repeatedly see this particular argument advanced by members of this particular demographic and it has everything to do with the history of power relations in this country and this particular demographic's dominance of them.
As Coates points out, Lilla complete fails to see that having everything which the rest of us have had to win by through decades of organising, coalition-building, protest, etc. simply given to him as his absolute birthright is itself a form of "identity politics". Now that the rest of us have managed to use "identity politics" to come close to making us his political equals, he has to come up with some rationale for why they are fundamentally wrongheaded.
In what sphere? In the political arena it absolutely does. Just look at the conversation around reparations for slavery.
I'd rather read the works of someone criticising the unjust status quo rather than advocating for a return to an even more unjust status quo ante.
linguoboy wrote:I also read 獣の戯れ by 三島 由紀夫/Yukio Mishima in Andrew Clare's new translation (The frolic of the beasts) because a friend gave it to me. Not his best novel, but a lesser work by a master is still well worth reading.
Yasna wrote:linguoboy wrote:I also read 獣の戯れ by 三島 由紀夫/Yukio Mishima in Andrew Clare's new translation (The frolic of the beasts) because a friend gave it to me. Not his best novel, but a lesser work by a master is still well worth reading.
What's your favorite Mishima novel? I'm ashamed to say I still haven't read anything by him, though I have 金閣寺 (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion) and 潮騒 (The Sound of Waves) waiting on my shelves.
linguoboy wrote:I've bounced off Golden Pavilion at least twice already. It's one of the most highly-regarded of his novels and I just don't understand why I can't get into it.
I still think 春の雪 (Spring snow) is his greatest novel and one of the greatest novels I've ever read. The whole 豐饒の海/Sea of Fertility tetralogy is worth reading though it yields diminishing returns. If you want to start with something more manageable, his short stories and plays are also masterful. 真夏の死 ("Death in midsummer") is a perceptive examination of grief that blew me away when I first read it.
linguoboy wrote:I not only finished Maqiao but also a collection of Albanian short stories I'd set down at least a year ago.
Yasna wrote:linguoboy wrote:I not only finished Maqiao but also a collection of Albanian short stories I'd set down at least a year ago.
Did you discover any standout Albanian authors from the collection?
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