The prolific Highwater (The Language of Vision, 1994; Myth and Sexuality, 1990; etc.) once again explores the foundations of mythological structures, this time with the purpose of determining why homosexuality has been singled out as culturally deviant in contemporary Western society. The result is a rambling but occasionally insightful discussion of the intersections of homosexuality with religion, science, and culture, which unfortunately loses its spirit halfway through. Highwater's argument rests on a redefinition of ``transgression,'' which society has traditionally rendered as sinful or inherently dangerous behavior. What we have missed, he claims, is the notion of transgression as a courageous testing of boundaries, a creative and ``rebellious act that breaks conceptual barriers.'' Homosexuality, he says, can be seen as a metaphor for such boundary intrusion. Highwater offers some (but not enough) examples of the hero's role in myths of adventure to demonstrate that boundary testing can be celebrated, not demonized, for heroes always trespass the perimeters of their culture and do the forbidden thing. Highwater has obviously read widely, which contributes to the depth of his argument but might confuse readers who are unaccustomed to hearing from Erich Fromm in one paragraph and Alice in Wonderland in the next. Highwater draws freely from the work of cultural anthropologists, such as Mary Douglas, whose work she quite adroitly uses to elucidate the cultural taboos of the margins. However, Highwater can't decide if he is directing the book at a popular or an academic audience; it begins in a very personal way (he is himself gay, as well as Native American) and becomes progressively more scholarly and detached. But when he relies more heavily on the work of others, the lack of citations becomes quite irritating. And toward the end Highwater loses the focus, falling into inchoate discussions of the more questionable ``mythologies'' of sensibility and culture.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-19-510180-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1996
It must be hard being right all the time, but controversial rapper and black activist Sister Souljah doesn't mind, judging from her remarkably smug, occasionally uplifting memoir. Let there be no doubt, this ``young sultry, big, brown-eyed, voluptuous, wholesome, intelligent, spiritual, ghetto girl'' has opinions. She is for belief in God, hard work, self-respect, community service, political activism, a strong family structure, and black women sharing their men in the face of a huge supply-side shortage. She is against abortion, narcotics, the welfare system, interracial dating, and homosexuality. Passionate in all things, Souljah's juxtaposition of her activism and her active hormones can produce odd results. When a man she wants turns up at a committee meeting, she recounts: ``I...set to work on how to organize Black students across the country into an African student network. With moist panties and a body that wanted to be touched...I argued that most African students were confronted by the same problems.'' Souljah's political beliefs frequently become little more than sidelines to her accounts of failed romances—indignant stories of a strong, single, sexy black heroine and the brothers who let her down. The men who fail come in all varieties (from her father to her mother's lovers and her own), but Souljah concludes that their shortcomings are the result of centuries of white racist oppression—psychological, political, cultural. Ultimately, the book reveals the psyche of a young black woman who feels she has been betrayed by too many and who trusts no one. Everyone disappoints her. After eight chapters (each named for the guilty individual in question: ``Mother,'' ``Nathan,'' ``Mona,'' etc.), a predictable pattern emerges in which Souljah's initial optimism wears off and gives way first to rationalization, then to harsh condemnation. Part fiery political diatribe, part searing sexual history, part unintentional psychological profile, Souljah throws more heat than light.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8129-2483-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Times/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
Asante is a talented writer, but his memoir is undernourished.
A young black man’s self-destructive arc, cut short by a passion for writing.
Asante’s (It’s Bigger than Hip-Hop, 2008, etc.) memoir, based on his teenage years in inner-city Philadelphia, undoubtedly reflects the experiences of many African-American youngsters today in such cities. By age 14, the author was an inquisitive, insecure teen facing the hazards that led his beleaguered mother, a teacher, to warn him, “[t]hey are out there looking for young black boys to put in the system.” This was first driven home to Asante when his brother received a long prison sentence for statutory rape; later, his father, a proud, unyielding scholar of Afrocentrism, abruptly left under financial strain, and his mother was hospitalized after increasing emotional instability. Despite their strong influences, Asante seemed headed for jail or death on the streets. This is not unexplored territory, but the book’s strength lies in Asante’s vibrant, specific observations and, at times, the percussive prose that captures them. The author’s fluid, filmic images of black urban life feel unique and disturbing: “Fiends, as thin as crack pipes, dance—the dancing dead….Everybody’s eyes curry yellow or smog gray, dead as sunken ships.” Unfortunately, this is balanced by a familiar stance of adolescent hip-hop braggadocio (with some of that genre’s misogyny) and by narrative melodrama of gangs and drug dealing that is neatly resolved in the final chapters, when an alternative school experience finally broke through Asante’s ennui and the murderous dealers to whom he owed thousands were conveniently arrested. The author constantly breaks up the storytelling with unnecessary spacing, lyrics from (mostly) 1990s rap, excerpts from his mother’s journal, letters from his imprisoned brother, and quotations from the scholars he encountered on his intellectual walkabout in his late adolescence. Still, young readers may benefit from Asante’s message: that an embrace of books and culture can help one slough off the genuinely dangerous pathologies of urban life.
Asante is a talented writer, but his memoir is undernourished.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9341-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
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