Wade Winter > Recent Status Updates

Essay #2: There is No Safety in Being Beautiful
“The Body been here, breathing. Long before my mind ever learned to grow and keep growing, before my mind knew anything at all, there was the Body, respirating for us. Communicating for me. The first self that ever was (and likely the last self I will ever be is my Body. My mind will have withered and been gone and my Body will be here, breathing.”

“But that did not stop me from the work of wanting. I want to impress myself. That is Excellence. I am my own peer, I am my own standard. I can only look up at this bar I have made.”

Essay #1: I Kinda Wanna Fuck Excellence

i finished the first essay, it was really good and i think about it whenever there is wind or tennis in my life.

i’ll reread this book soon after i finish it bc of how good it is

This book challenges a lot of instincts, and I love that. Even if some concepts Grace Lee Boggs is writing about aren’t new to me and I agree with, I find myself being doubtful and biased. I think that is why the writing seems to be saying similar things a bit repetitively, but I really like that it feels like the ideas are growing throughout the chapter. What she’s teaching is fascinating and important.

If parable of the sower is the must-read fiction book (it is), then Grace Lee Boggs’ “The Next American Revolution” is the must-read nonfiction book. I just finished the introduction, but what I love about it is that everything is so deeply thought about with real examples that make their points easy to conceptualize and understand.

day 2 of reading every day of B term

Book 1/3:

I don’t know what the three books means, but here’s my review of book 1

I didn’t entirely follow along and know all of the culture references and words, but it was SO fun to read. The characters speak so dramatically and are really mean to each other, and I enjoyed Hemingway’s style of writing. I’m going to read a summary of this part to learn about the parts I missed.

this is an academic research project that is accessible and written in the form of a book allowing Schalk to better communicate what she has learned.

Although it is accessible, it is still written in a way that makes me ensure I read each sentence correctly because I don’t want to miss anything. It is incredible.

What I’m learning is a framework to understand disability, race, politics, and how they connect.

ive been describing this book as dystopian, or even apocalyptic. im questioning if dystopian is correct. would you call the world we live in now dystopian?

this book makes me feel incredibly joyful and optimistic; making our world better is possible.

oh boy

this isnt shakespeare, you dont need to analyze every word in order to get what Butler is saying. This book is love letter to me, and the rest of us, but im going to be narcissistic and say especially me.

WOAH, i dont know how its going to change, but right now i feel like i need to pay attention to every word and understand every sentence. its not hard to read, but its written to well that im compelled to make sure i catch everything.

(anna i think youd like this)

i was wondering earlier when this would transition into the bigger story instead of just telling a chronological story about Evelyn Hugo. The main character is what interests me (the main character is not Evelyn Hugo).

I could not imagine being Taylor Swift reading this book, I’m not sure she got the message? This book is a retrospective, but Taylor since reading this book is still chasing money and fame.

Here I am learning about how shitty Jimmy Carter’s presidency was!

…

Then came Reagan and Bush? Who are they?

“Bob Dylan was a phenomenon unto himself: powerful songs of protest, personal songs of freedom and self expression…” p.538

“[Nixon] in his Memoirs, he admitted that the anti-war movement had caused him to drop plans for an intensification of the [Vietnam] war.” p501

I was mad today at my school administrators, and while I will learn more about rage, just now I learned about other people’s rage. “What happens to a dream deferred?” I’ve heard this quote before reading this chapter (perhaps in US history class?), there’s more to know. Malcolm X spoke of people’s rage, his words were not alone.

someone should read this chapter and talk to me about it

protesting!

is suffrage the answer for woman?

the Philippine-American War??!???!?!!

we never learned enough about the majority of people in history class.

this last chapter i read was about strikes, protest, and unions in the 1800’s US. what i learned is that rich people entirely controlled the police and army, and that everywhere in the US they shot at and killed protesters.

This is not a very hopeful chapter for the future.

“Was Du Bois right—that in that growth of American Capitalism, before and after the Civil War, whites as well as blacks were in some sense becoming slaves?” p210

“Henry David Thoreau, who lived in Concord, Massachusetts, refused to pay his Massachusetts poll tax, denouncing the Mexican war. He was put in jail and spent one night there. His friends, without his consent, paid his tax, and he was released. Two years later, he gave a lecture, "Resistance to Civil Government," which was then printed as an essay, "Civil Disobedience":…” p156