archie

i started a new anxiety med which is making my adhd worse which is making it nearly impossible to sit down to read but i wanted to stick to my goal of reading a classic a month this year & im very glad i picked up this one. will absolutely have to reread after some time passes

i often get frustrated reading translations because i always feel like i'm missing out on ideas/expressions in the original language that have been lost. without knowing if this is actually true, it felt like this translation retained the authors intent & the heart of the words

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up - i appreciated the authors thoughts at the start & end of the book, & at the start & end of each interview but did feel it become a bit repetitive by the end of it.

i've seen a few reviews criticizing the author for sharing their own experiences & perspectives in the interviews, & some people saying that they were trying to force their ideas onto the people they were talking to but i did not see it that way at all. the interviews felt more conversational & back & forth, with everyone involved bouncing off of each other to share without being overbearing, it felt less sterile or clinical than interviews can be.

i've also seen a lot of people expressing discomfort with the author discussing genitalia in their personal blurbs & in the interviews themselves, & it's okay to be uncomfortable with those topics, but i think they were handled with care & genitalia for a lot of trans people is a huge aspect of identity & its interesting & helpful to hear individuals experiences & relationships with their trans genitals.

& one final thought, the author mentions at a few points how allies often won't have sex with trans people & i've seen some reviewers taking that sentiment to mean that if you are an ally you MUST fuck trans people. i think it's been misconstrued & the authors intention was that people often feign support for trans people, but won't view them as viable sexual or romantic partner options. okay that's all

i think my understanding of this book prior to reading is the popular understanding, that it's about the disgusting & dangerous conditions in the chicago meatpacking district. while that's part of it, it is such a small aspect of the whole story. while our situations are vastly different, i found myself relating to jurgis' pain & frustration; the never ending toil under capitalism, perpetually trying to catch up in a race where the finish line continues to move further & further away, putting your head down & doing what you've been told you need to in order to succeed but somehow, never getting there & blaming yourself, as if it is a personal moral failing that you were born into unlucky circumstances into a system tailor-made to keep you where you are, if not push you further down. the last bit of the book took a surprising turn, one of hope & community. frustrations still exist, but there is a future jurgis can envision & hope for (although some of the speeches & ramblings at this part felt like a bit of a chore to get through). a future that while still difficult to get to, is more attainable & sustainable than white-knuckling your way through capitalism. we as people were made to come together & support one another, to be kind & generous, & i believe that people are all of these things, but it is impossible to be when you must be selfish out of necessity in order to survive under the current system. i'm glad i finally read this & that it's so much more than a “gross out” book about slaughterhouses

i sadly find myself relating a lot to keiko in that it feels simpler to shape your identity around your job & have that inform your personhood outside of work rather than figure out who you actually are in the absence of everything else, also with how she thinks of speech patterns & character traits with taking on parts of those you surround yourself with. i notice i unconsciously do that a lot as an autistic person, just mirroring what i'm seeing for the comfort of the other person

anyway i don't think it was intended to be taken this way by the author but think this speaks to a lot of autistic peoples experience living under capitalism. i can see where a lot of readers found it to be funny at points, & while i think the character of keiko is charming, i mostly just found it sad

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up - enjoyable but i think i kept comparing it to song of achilles & it just doesn't do it for me like that one did. there was also a handful of dialogue throughout that pulled me out of it, felt very jarringly modern compared to the rest of the writing style & dialogue but overall rly nice read !

i listened to the audiobook which is read by anthony bourdain so i think that added to my overall enjoyment of it but there's also a lot of aspects of it that i take issue with, also understanding that this was released in 2007

i don't know if his opinions on this changed over the course of his life but i was a little shocked at how proudly he seemed feel about running a kitchen on stress & shit talking & chaos, but that may be a product of the environment of professional kitchens. it also sat weird with me how he approached women in the kitchen, overall looking down on any genuine emotion & praising women that can “hang with the guys” aka put on a front of being okay with or comfortable with the sexual harassment that can occur, which again, product of the environment, but still feels very weird

as a home chef, i don't have the time, energy, freezer space, or budget to do things like make & freeze my own stock & only use fresh herbs. again, maybe his opinions changed later on but at this point he was not immune to the asshole bro chef ideology

i did really enjoy listening to his experiences though, he clearly knew his way around a kitchen & if you're interested in cooking, this may be worth the read/listen, but if you're not, you could go without

a lot going on in this one as far as plot goes but i think it adds to the experience as our narrator is a 10 year old with a lot going on, the story being told through her notebook drawings. the 5 stars from me are absolutely for the art, it's stunning and meticulously cross hatched with love and you can feel the work and time that went in to this project

a good introduction to queer theory, it breaks down a lot of complex ideas in a more accessible way & im glad i read it. the title is misleading as i wasn't expecting this to be about queer theory & it was more academic than i anticipated. the graphics don't typically add to the text, but they do break it up & make a generally dry academic text more enjoyable to get through which i appreciate as someone who struggles with nonfiction. i did find it strange that at a couple points the text is phrased really awkwardly like “in regard to trans” & “the trans,” i am paraphrasing but i find that to be off putting. the trans WHAT??? identities? people? community?

also the n slur was written out a few pages in as an example when discussing reclaiming slurs. this put a sour taste in my mouth for the remainder of the book as to my understanding, the authors are not black & that felt unnecessary, though i myself am white so i can't speak for the black community or any black individual

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up - rly enjoyed the story & it kept getting stronger throughout, i found the protagonist april to be annoying sometimes but given the circumstances it is realistic & very human for her to be annoying ! social media & online attention are weird

the writing was distracting at some points & felt a little wordy, & im by no means an editor but there were some editing mistakes that were distracting as well but overall very fun story, solid commentary about social media, the state of the world, hive mind mentality, etc etc