What I’m Reading this Week, Vol. 1

17 Jul 2020

Quick Forward

As part of a personal challenge to write and reflect more often, I’ve decided to start sharing some of the more interesting articles and what-not I’ve read recently. Revisiting all of these should ideally help me stew in the ideas more, since it’s all too easy to read and move on. My high school chemistry teacher used to talk about how learning anything requires multiple exposures – for her, that was a justification for constant homework and quizzes, but then she was one of our best science teachers. “Lifelong Learning” is a buzzword, but one I believe in wholeheartedly.

Without further ado, let’s get to it.

What’s the Use of Being a Boy: An interview with Douglas A. Martin

By Spencer Quong

I first came across the Paris Review from Sarah Kay’s Poetry Rx series of posts. She was the convocation speaker my freshman year at Case, and I’ve been loosely following what she writes since. When I was in middle school we had about 3-4 authors visit each year, by some miracle work of our librarian. When I was younger I always thought I’d be an author one day, whether that would be my career or something I do after retirement. Reading the Review has helped me keep up those interests even as I pursue a STEM degree at an incredibly pre-profesional school. But then, that’s another topic entirely.

The author, Douglas Martin, is as thoroughly fascinating in this interview as everyone with the stroke of practiced brilliance and dedication that any great writer has. The impulse to write following being exposed to the news cycle around the events which inspired to book is amazing to me - too often, I feel stretched in response to encountering something impactful. It’s often easier to lean away rather than into discomfort, but Martin describes doing exactly that.

Perhaps as a product of being fortunate enough to encounter so many writers at a young age, I love hearing about their process. Martin’s musings over giving his characters names is wonderfully tasteful and high level. His ultimate decision to prioritise relationships – “I want to look at some supposed roles within these positions” – seems to, in some capacity, define the book. The interviewer, Spencer Quong, dives into this further by asking about the use of the word “boy” throughout the text. Given the current discourse I find myself in surrounding what it means to be masculine, hearing this perspective of the precursive condition of boyhood was elucidating and freeing.

Read the article here.

The Partially Examined Life, ep. 235: Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble

Partially Examined Life Podcast

I first began listening to PEL some time in high school, when I had a much more difficult time interpreting any of what they were saying. The podcast attempts to make philosophy accessible to their listeners, but never compromising real discussion of the material at hand. In other words, you don’t need a PhD in Philosophy to follow, but some background and intentional listening is needed.

I first encountered Gender Trouble in a University Seminar class, Many Ways to be a Woman. That was my first real introduction to feminism outside of what exists on Twitter, and it was incredibly eye-opening. My conception of many ideas about equality were expanded and given new legs by that class. Nowadays, I get frustrated by old friends who still make jokes about Gender Studies as though it isn’t a legitimate, necessary field with a role to play in our society. I’m begining to digress.

I’ve relistened to this podcast a few times, gleaning more at each go-around. The question of what structures we take for granted are socially constructed (and what the heck that actually means) are endlessly fascinating and informative. By rooting my understanding of what it means to be a man or a woman or to identify as neither in philosophical soil, it has become entrenched in a much more meaningful way. It isn’t just a matter of what you can and cannot say or think, but of identifying the impact of your words or actions in the greater context of our culture. While Butler is often criticized for failing to offer concrete action of any kind, the podcast’s hosts argue that her seminal work is often overinterpreted. It is not that Butler wouldn’t fight for women’s suffrage, for example, but that she believes that is not enough to make meaningful change in the face of the social constructions that define how we interact with each other.

Listen at the link.

“The Dark Power of Fraternities”, The Atlantic

By Caitlin Flanagan

I’ve been leading a reading group within my fraternity this summer to read and talk about social justice issues. There’s two parts to my motivation here: firstly, to move beyond just talking about inequality and dig into some writings; and secondly, to get the guys most interested in this sort of thing to spend more time on it and get comfortable talking to each other about it. Ideally, this will have a trickle-down effect in our chapter culture – if there’s 10 guys who will feel empowered by their knowledge and previous conversations to call out bad behavior or explain a concept to someone, that betters our whole community.

This article in particular is an absolutely amazing deep dive into the forces and politics at play in Greek Life on college campuses. Some of what Flanagan discusses, like the FIPG’s and the complicated web of insurance-related policies that exist in the fraternity world, are realities we have grown too comfortable with on our campus. An excellent quote from the article:

Are fraternities acting in an ethical manner, requiring good behavior and punishing poor decisions? Or are they keeping a cool distance from the mayhem, knowing full well that it occurs with regularity?

This is especially vital reading for me as a member of my fraternity’s national leadership. There is a great deal of work to be done for our members, but there is also a great deal of awareness to be raised and actions to be taken for the campus communities that greek chapters exist within.

I’ve been dealing with a lot of personal reckonings lately, from my academic and career aspirations to my myriad associations and personal beliefs which are growing increasingly tenuous in our current world. I am growing increasingly aware by the day of the breadth and depth of work necessary if I am to be the kind of person I have always wanted and believed to be. It’s both a nervewracking and exciting experience, as difficult as anything worth doing is.

I strongly recommend reading this one.