The problem is that the violence never brings long term change and hurts the community . The rioters need to get real political and economic power to really make things better in those communities. Violence is a non solution even in a violent country like the US
I don’t really take a stance on the tactics that oppressed people choose to use. Whether it’s a strike, riot, elections, or non-violent disruption, I’m not seeking to make a political argument here. I do believe that some in the United States see riots as a form of valid political struggle. Thanks for the comment!
A crucial topic. Can apply this analysis to movies and TV shows too. Songs and other art. Political stories, whether they are shorts, novels, TV shows and series, or movies, the most vital political stories are monuments to sanity, even if wildly satirical. Les Miserables is a monument to sanity. Wizard of the Crow is a monument to sanity. Parable of the Sower, a monument to sanity. Sweeping societal sanity that encompasses the personal. This is not all that literature should be, but it is one of the most ambitious things it can be, maybe the most.
Going all the way back through literature and to the present day, society would be lost without a steady stream of solid political stories and other socially conscious art.
It's up to today's artists across all genres to capture and express in stories the myriad and sometimes gargantuan battles against oppression and tyranny, and the expressions of anger, outrage, sorrow, and determination found in riots and among many rioters, and much more. Acts of resistance and rejection, protection and aggression need to be coalesced and dissected and otherwise rendered in story, including the riots, and the monkeywrenching, the hacking, the strikes, the boycotts, the slowdowns and all kinds of actions, the new People's Navy, the sabotage against deadly fossil fuel and military/police infrastructure, the myriad revolutionary forays in culture and society on the streets, online, in households, at work, in government, in classrooms, everywhere.
These are crucial elements of the great battles for consciousness and conscience, for a humane and livable world, and they need to be vividly portrayed and enhanced in story to help expand consciousness, build it up, and spur action.
Also, people of all races, classes, and genders need to write (well) about people of all races, classes, and genders, etc. The world is far too diverse, increasingly, not to do so. How on Earth can a person write about, say, white supremacy and its targets and opponents without writing with great diversity, for example. People, writers need to be brave and go for it.
I sat in on an Indian planning session for a Drum Circle. By painting themselves as Victims, as America is Balkanized by every sub-genre that feels it didn't get My Fair Share of Equity, Native Americans are, for lack of a better word, 'Out of it'. They were planning to simulate a Drum Circle and Potlatch ... with Olive Garden providing the spaghetti dinners. You get it? It's life in the mirror. It's a construct, a Narrative. Everything we fought for, you've thrown away, with you cheesy black fingernail polished rubrics about Brianna and Chad.
Anna Deavere Smith has two important documentary plays about riots: Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992. They are not novels and Smith is not a man, but they are relevant examples of literature on this topic.
Thank you for this. I read Bump's novel when it debuted and I came away from it feeling bewildered and underwhelmed. This analysis helped me understand why.
Anytime there is an absence in contemporary literature--especially something so dynamic and vivid and recurrent as riots--it suggests to me something that needs to be explored.
I can't help but wonder how many interesting novels of riots languish unappreciated in agent in-boxes.
Yeah, I think my frustration with Bump’s book is that it definitely attempts to grapple with the after-lives of the Black radical politics of the 20th century (most contemporary Black literature doesn’t do this) but his novel fails to understand those politics thoroughly which makes it even more disappointing. It doesn’t understand the riots as an outgrowth of longer histories of Black and (as Clover would argue) working class resistance, instead it sorta waffles around what riots mean which lands the characters of the novels in largely inconclusive places.
It seems like, to the intellectual mind, riots are more akin to a force of nature than anything else. It's just something poor people do sometimes; just as pointless to write about them as it is about the weather. That's why they focus so much more on the woke phenomenon in academia, media, and corporate spaces—that's the change they feel is salient.
“riots are more akin to a force of nature than anything else. It's just something poor people do sometimes; just as pointless to write about them as it is about the weather.”
Yeah, this is honestly the case. Even a lot of the reactions to this essay on here have been like people not taking the riot seriously. It’s just funny cause ostensibly these days both the right and the Left claim to give a shit about the poor but seem to ignore when the poor expresses themselves in any way that’s inconvenient. Thanks for the comment!
I think there were several self-published accounts about the occupation of the federal building in Portland, I know of one called Antifascist by Luis-Enrique Marquez. But it remains interesting how much these important circumstances remain in the smaller publishing world.
Thanks for the comment. I’ve read a bunch of non-fiction accounts of different uprisings put out by a variety of publishers. I’m just curious why there isn’t more fiction about this stuff.
"Rioting is a common way for those who are dispossessed, exploited, or oppressed to express their frustrations with the current governing order. These riots tend to feature young Black men and other men of color." Bit of a reach on that one. The Current Governing Order is Ganstah Thug Life and the Man At the Top is the Mob boss. Rioting for these kids is boredom.
Yeah, you should read some of the non-fiction work I referenced. I think blaming riots entirely on “kids” is ridiculous if you look at arrest records of who was arrested at riots. It wasn’t just 17 year olds.
The problem is that the violence never brings long term change and hurts the community . The rioters need to get real political and economic power to really make things better in those communities. Violence is a non solution even in a violent country like the US
I don’t really take a stance on the tactics that oppressed people choose to use. Whether it’s a strike, riot, elections, or non-violent disruption, I’m not seeking to make a political argument here. I do believe that some in the United States see riots as a form of valid political struggle. Thanks for the comment!
A crucial topic. Can apply this analysis to movies and TV shows too. Songs and other art. Political stories, whether they are shorts, novels, TV shows and series, or movies, the most vital political stories are monuments to sanity, even if wildly satirical. Les Miserables is a monument to sanity. Wizard of the Crow is a monument to sanity. Parable of the Sower, a monument to sanity. Sweeping societal sanity that encompasses the personal. This is not all that literature should be, but it is one of the most ambitious things it can be, maybe the most.
Going all the way back through literature and to the present day, society would be lost without a steady stream of solid political stories and other socially conscious art.
It's up to today's artists across all genres to capture and express in stories the myriad and sometimes gargantuan battles against oppression and tyranny, and the expressions of anger, outrage, sorrow, and determination found in riots and among many rioters, and much more. Acts of resistance and rejection, protection and aggression need to be coalesced and dissected and otherwise rendered in story, including the riots, and the monkeywrenching, the hacking, the strikes, the boycotts, the slowdowns and all kinds of actions, the new People's Navy, the sabotage against deadly fossil fuel and military/police infrastructure, the myriad revolutionary forays in culture and society on the streets, online, in households, at work, in government, in classrooms, everywhere.
These are crucial elements of the great battles for consciousness and conscience, for a humane and livable world, and they need to be vividly portrayed and enhanced in story to help expand consciousness, build it up, and spur action.
Also, people of all races, classes, and genders need to write (well) about people of all races, classes, and genders, etc. The world is far too diverse, increasingly, not to do so. How on Earth can a person write about, say, white supremacy and its targets and opponents without writing with great diversity, for example. People, writers need to be brave and go for it.
Thanks for the comment!
I sat in on an Indian planning session for a Drum Circle. By painting themselves as Victims, as America is Balkanized by every sub-genre that feels it didn't get My Fair Share of Equity, Native Americans are, for lack of a better word, 'Out of it'. They were planning to simulate a Drum Circle and Potlatch ... with Olive Garden providing the spaghetti dinners. You get it? It's life in the mirror. It's a construct, a Narrative. Everything we fought for, you've thrown away, with you cheesy black fingernail polished rubrics about Brianna and Chad.
midwest in the house! ok ILL, i see you
Anna Deavere Smith has two important documentary plays about riots: Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992. They are not novels and Smith is not a man, but they are relevant examples of literature on this topic.
Thank you for this. I read Bump's novel when it debuted and I came away from it feeling bewildered and underwhelmed. This analysis helped me understand why.
Anytime there is an absence in contemporary literature--especially something so dynamic and vivid and recurrent as riots--it suggests to me something that needs to be explored.
I can't help but wonder how many interesting novels of riots languish unappreciated in agent in-boxes.
Yeah, I think my frustration with Bump’s book is that it definitely attempts to grapple with the after-lives of the Black radical politics of the 20th century (most contemporary Black literature doesn’t do this) but his novel fails to understand those politics thoroughly which makes it even more disappointing. It doesn’t understand the riots as an outgrowth of longer histories of Black and (as Clover would argue) working class resistance, instead it sorta waffles around what riots mean which lands the characters of the novels in largely inconclusive places.
It seems like, to the intellectual mind, riots are more akin to a force of nature than anything else. It's just something poor people do sometimes; just as pointless to write about them as it is about the weather. That's why they focus so much more on the woke phenomenon in academia, media, and corporate spaces—that's the change they feel is salient.
“riots are more akin to a force of nature than anything else. It's just something poor people do sometimes; just as pointless to write about them as it is about the weather.”
Yeah, this is honestly the case. Even a lot of the reactions to this essay on here have been like people not taking the riot seriously. It’s just funny cause ostensibly these days both the right and the Left claim to give a shit about the poor but seem to ignore when the poor expresses themselves in any way that’s inconvenient. Thanks for the comment!
I think there were several self-published accounts about the occupation of the federal building in Portland, I know of one called Antifascist by Luis-Enrique Marquez. But it remains interesting how much these important circumstances remain in the smaller publishing world.
Thanks for the comment. I’ve read a bunch of non-fiction accounts of different uprisings put out by a variety of publishers. I’m just curious why there isn’t more fiction about this stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/Fragility-Mosby-Woods/dp/B0C47LV1PC
Thanks for this. Gonna check it out!
"Rioting is a common way for those who are dispossessed, exploited, or oppressed to express their frustrations with the current governing order. These riots tend to feature young Black men and other men of color." Bit of a reach on that one. The Current Governing Order is Ganstah Thug Life and the Man At the Top is the Mob boss. Rioting for these kids is boredom.
Yeah, you should read some of the non-fiction work I referenced. I think blaming riots entirely on “kids” is ridiculous if you look at arrest records of who was arrested at riots. It wasn’t just 17 year olds.