I'm finally reading Sarah Schulman's oh so infamous and controversial Conflict Is Not Abuse which I've been wanting to read for a while now. It consistently tends to have 3.5 stars everywhere due to all the 5 stars and 1 stars.
The introduction, was quite the stellar little piece with many interesting ideas about how the psychology of the micro, where someone doing nothing at all can be a "threat, can expand to macro-level phenomena. I was very excited to get into the book from it.
Chapter 1 is, however, bizarre. It is absolutely not what I expected. Most of the chapter is dedicated to Schulman complaining about how technology has changed communication. She wishes people would stop texting and emailing and just pick up the phone whenever she calls. She wishes people would meet up in person for important conversations. While she as a point that you lose a lot in text, it reads like an old woman who is simply out of touch. She also has some pretty dated conceptualizations of how boundaries work, "it is childish to tell someone you do not want to talk to them, without terms for when you would be willing to" stands out as particularly dated. She comes off as entitled to other people's time and simply out of touch with the social norms of younger generations. It comes off as less about a social phenomenon and more personal complaining of why people don't want to talk to her or hang out.
Within it though there are still some wonderful lines. Like how "believe women" is predicated on the expectation the women tell the truth, but the truth is something we cannot actually tell because the truth is complicated and involves a stigmatized honesty about our own flaws and insecurities. So how can we rely on such a slogan.
Overall I'm still finding it an interesting read, albeit not what I expected. It's very weird how she jumps between ACT UP or Palestine and then "kids won't answer their phones anymore these days. Just call! I hate texts!"
I'll be posting my thoughts on each chapter year with #cina (although I can't add tags on my phone for some reason)
Feel free to discuss your thoughts in the comments