Angie Powers > Recent Status Updates

The chapter I was listening to this morning is titled "Strong, Loud, and Angry: The Invisibility of Black Emotional Pain."

Siiiiiiiigh. Miss you tWitch.

Villarosa marries science, history, and narrative like a boss!

Spent a little extra time reading this bad boy today after hearing about students yelling the n-word down the hallway at school. It's amazing how much history we just aren't taught...

A little light reading tonight!

My favorite random fact from the book so far: Jane Austen used "they" as a singular, non-gendered pronoun 76 times in her books.

And people say that singular "they" is a new fad....

I heart Amanda Montell! Her love of words and how they impact our perceptions of ourselves and others is right up my alley!

#babiesdontfixproblems

Ahhhh... the things a girl will tell herself to excuse the actions of the one she loves. Ugh.

DO. NOT. PROCEED.

Okay, I am reading it. Now I can be real girl.

I was not emotionally prepared for where this book is going.

I am getting distinct Normal People by Sally Rooney vibes. Just add in video games and a hospital or two...

Oh, Sadie. The older dudes in leather pants rarely work out...

This book is giving me Series of Unfortunate Events vibes and I am LOVING it.

Don't mind me as this book rips out my heart and stomps all over its bits splattered across the floor.

I am not gonna lie: I didn't get it the first two chapters.

Ope.

Now, I do.

I am not a violent person but I really wanna punch this mom.

As Montag and the firemen arrive at a house, they are surprised to find a woman who refuses to leave. Mrs. Blake says something mysterious when they enter her home: "Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out" (Bradbury 33). Beatty later reveals he understands the allusion, which makes me think I should look it up to understand.

Coates' writing is so rich! One of my favorite moments of the book is when the narrator, a formerly enslaved man, shares a paradoxical observation about the "purity" of white enslavers: "[The enslaved] do not bear the weight of pretending pure . . . {Enslavers] are blinded by [their own kind of muck that] they fancy it pure. Ain't no pure . . . Ain't no clean" (Coates 193). There's so much to unpack here!

I don't know how many times I have re-read this book. But every time, it gets me. This time, Neil Gaiman's intro got me. In his discussion of 451 as a work of speculative fiction, Gaiman considers the "what ifs" of Bradbury's day: " 'If [the rise of TV continues], . . . nobody will read books anymore," and Fahrenheit 451 began (Bradbury xiii). I love the idea of this book starting a man's cautionary curiosity.

Quindaro was alluded to in the book. I knew it was connected to the underground railroad but I did a little more research and was surprised at how important this KCK "railroad stop" was to transporting humans to freedom.

What I am loving most about this book are the minor characters I am meeting. They are so rich, so heartbreakingly practical about their situations. ❤ Lucy ❤

The last two lines of chapter 8 broke my heart 💔

In this weekend's book club discussion, Mrs. Van Kuiken pointed out a poignant juxtaposition in which the author contrasts the relative uselessness of the masters and productivity of the "Tasked." Coates writes, "Masters could not bring water to boil, harness a horse, nor strap their own drawers without us . . . Sloth was literal death for us, while for them it was the whole ambition of their lives" (Coates 35).

I haven't disliked a character as much as the mom in this book in a loooooong time.

This paradox got me shook: "But freedom, true freedom, is a master, too, you see--one more dogged, more constant, tan any ragged slave driver..."

This chapter has both completely explained what is happening in this book AND completely left my head spinning.

Bless you, Coates.

Things are finally starting to come together for me in this book! The role of dreams and the tradition of the call and response in this culture is brining a lot of texture to this fictional story. I am still pretty darn sure that there's some magical realism happening too, but thinking about what I have learned about different cultures' histories has helped me.