What do you think?
Rate this book
Experiments in Imagining Otherwise
We collectively build and collectively shatter—every broken window is a new opportunity; every burnt ember is construction material.
This is a book of failure and mistakes; it begins with what is stolen from us and proposes only an invitation to imagine.
In these playful written experiments, Lola Olufemi deftly navigates the space between what we have been told, what we know to be true and what we cannot yet conceive. Weaving together fragmentary reflections and prose poetry, this is an exploration of the possibility of living differently, grounded in black feminist scholarship and community work.
Olufemi shows that the horizon is not an immaterial state we gesture toward. Instead, propelled by the motion of thinking against and beyond, we must invent the future now and never let go of the otherwise.
This is a book of failure and mistakes; it begins with what is stolen from us and proposes only an invitation to imagine.
In these playful written experiments, Lola Olufemi deftly navigates the space between what we have been told, what we know to be true and what we cannot yet conceive. Weaving together fragmentary reflections and prose poetry, this is an exploration of the possibility of living differently, grounded in black feminist scholarship and community work.
Olufemi shows that the horizon is not an immaterial state we gesture toward. Instead, propelled by the motion of thinking against and beyond, we must invent the future now and never let go of the otherwise.
146 pages, Paperback
First published October 28, 2021
61 people are currently reading
2814 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
March 8, 2022
What is the Otherwise? Boundless.
Experiments in Imagining Otherwise drips with a passionate politics, a revolutionary poetics, a pushing of boundaries in form and content and all that lies in between. Who said theory has to be dry? Who said it has to be authoritative? Who said it flows from author to reader and never back and beyond? Lola Olufemi writes theory like a dream, packs into a hundred-and-some pages the germ that has shaped centuries of radical thought—the idea of a better world, the conviction that nothing just is or always has been. Hers is a radical approach to theorising, one that holds hands with the very substance of living:
Indeed, one of the first critical forays made in this book is an interrogation of the archive. In this endeavour, Olufemi's outlook is similar to fellow black feminist Saidiya Hartman, and following her, she even "critically fabulates" about the life of Black British feminist and activist Olive Morris. In my understanding, Olufemi here expands on Hartman's idea of critical fabulation: it is not just a gateway to understanding the past and how it snakes into and shapes the present, but essential for imagining—and effecting—our shared future.
Olufemi's real offering in this book is that she recognises not merely the limits of theory but the causes that impose these limits, and then liberates it: it is very deliberately that she places her fictional meditation on freedom towards the very end of the book—freedom is an idea that theory without feeling finds no language for, but in "The girl who wished to be anything but a bird" we see her arriving at it with a stunning alacrity.
As a review in Rob McLennan's journal Periodicities said, Experiments in Imagining Otherwise emerges as a manifestation rather than a manifesto, and is all the richer for it. And along a similar line, perhaps my favourite thing about this book is that it is not complete—it cannot be, as the world cannot be. That, precisely, is where the all the magic and potential is, both in this book and in this world that we inhabit and hope to inhabit more fully.
Experiments in Imagining Otherwise drips with a passionate politics, a revolutionary poetics, a pushing of boundaries in form and content and all that lies in between. Who said theory has to be dry? Who said it has to be authoritative? Who said it flows from author to reader and never back and beyond? Lola Olufemi writes theory like a dream, packs into a hundred-and-some pages the germ that has shaped centuries of radical thought—the idea of a better world, the conviction that nothing just is or always has been. Hers is a radical approach to theorising, one that holds hands with the very substance of living:
Here is my method: above all, feeling!It is only through feeling that we are moved, and only in feeling that we move: Olufemi's experiments—fragments of fiction, prose-poetry, blank spaces, and questions—move one to consider socialism, anti-imperialism, transformative justice, meaningful labour, and the whole wide world through feeling, through a radical love rooted in black feminism. She moves us to interact with her writing, to respond to it, think beyond it, break away from it. In this, she also breaks away from the traditional (extractive, academic) theoretical tract, as well as hierarchies and binaries of other kinds, including those that shape 'facts' and 'history'.
Indeed, one of the first critical forays made in this book is an interrogation of the archive. In this endeavour, Olufemi's outlook is similar to fellow black feminist Saidiya Hartman, and following her, she even "critically fabulates" about the life of Black British feminist and activist Olive Morris. In my understanding, Olufemi here expands on Hartman's idea of critical fabulation: it is not just a gateway to understanding the past and how it snakes into and shapes the present, but essential for imagining—and effecting—our shared future.
Olufemi's real offering in this book is that she recognises not merely the limits of theory but the causes that impose these limits, and then liberates it: it is very deliberately that she places her fictional meditation on freedom towards the very end of the book—freedom is an idea that theory without feeling finds no language for, but in "The girl who wished to be anything but a bird" we see her arriving at it with a stunning alacrity.
As a review in Rob McLennan's journal Periodicities said, Experiments in Imagining Otherwise emerges as a manifestation rather than a manifesto, and is all the richer for it. And along a similar line, perhaps my favourite thing about this book is that it is not complete—it cannot be, as the world cannot be. That, precisely, is where the all the magic and potential is, both in this book and in this world that we inhabit and hope to inhabit more fully.
July 10, 2023
I picked up this book by chance - a rare thing with the endlessly piling to-reads - and I have to sadly admit it was not really worth it. The beginning had something to it and kept me curious, but this interest waned as I proceeded along these 100-something pages of mostly unorganized thoughts, empty space, and random character & font styles use. For as much as I find myself broadly politically aligned with Olufemi, and while appreciating to a certain extent the 2-3 longer stories in the book, I find this fragmentary work rather unripe, feeling like a collection of personal notes as those I would write on my phone on the bus, but with a bit more pretentiousness, and adding nothing really new to the conversation (also unclear which conversation exactly). For as much as I enjoy narrative experimentation, this book is neither academic, literary nor poetry, although it tries (and arguably fails at) a little bit of it all.
There are a bunch of good sentences though, like this one:
"I feel embarrassed when I say 'feminism' and people do not think 'revolution in service of every living thing'. I think I will spend my life trying to rectify this."
There are a bunch of good sentences though, like this one:
"I feel embarrassed when I say 'feminism' and people do not think 'revolution in service of every living thing'. I think I will spend my life trying to rectify this."
December 24, 2022
given that capitalism not only cripples our bodies but also our imaginations, I view this literary-political-theoretical experiment as an exercise in broadening the imagination : there are no blueprints, though, and temporal regimes diverge from linear notions of time, so that what is dreamed about remains uncapturable^˘°˛`
February 4, 2022
Lola Olufemi is a resistance writer, she pushes the boundaries with experimental writing and steeps her words in her black feminist thought. I think for anybody that enjoyed Feminism Interrupted and enjoys experimental styled literature this is excellent as Feminism Interrupted provides the background to Olufemi's beliefs that guide her writing here.
Olufemi blends writing styles bringing poetry, fiction, and experimental writings with short notes, thoughts and more. Her work is steeped in the political as she questions what it means to be free, to have the ability to be free in life.
She questions the archive, how we read, engage, and remember history. How we live with history and how we repeat history. Olufemi allows the magic of her writing to drive home political points without this being a weighty academic non-fiction piece.
It's also much more, as Olufemi writes for and questions how we can have a better future, what that could look like, how that could be.
This work might be seen as 'radical' but Olufemi grounds her work in ideas we should all be striving for. This book isn't for everyone as it's quite experimental in style and it took a little bit of getting used to, however I can safely say I will be reading everything else Olufemi writes.
Olufemi blends writing styles bringing poetry, fiction, and experimental writings with short notes, thoughts and more. Her work is steeped in the political as she questions what it means to be free, to have the ability to be free in life.
She questions the archive, how we read, engage, and remember history. How we live with history and how we repeat history. Olufemi allows the magic of her writing to drive home political points without this being a weighty academic non-fiction piece.
It's also much more, as Olufemi writes for and questions how we can have a better future, what that could look like, how that could be.
This work might be seen as 'radical' but Olufemi grounds her work in ideas we should all be striving for. This book isn't for everyone as it's quite experimental in style and it took a little bit of getting used to, however I can safely say I will be reading everything else Olufemi writes.
July 16, 2022
I mean it was … I felt like it was trying to be deeper than it is, or I just didn’t fully comprehend it??
EDIT: I now understand why I didn’t enjoy this book! Though it does talk about all these different topics; time, art, history, politics,etc. And brings forward very interesting ideas (albeit not new) on these things, the overarching theme or message (at least that I got) is that we all need to come together and to understand that we can all collectively change them or at least the way we as a society perceive and approach them. So then why would the author choose to tackle these topics in a contradicting manner- using language that (in my option) is inaccessible to the general public?
EDIT: I now understand why I didn’t enjoy this book! Though it does talk about all these different topics; time, art, history, politics,etc. And brings forward very interesting ideas (albeit not new) on these things, the overarching theme or message (at least that I got) is that we all need to come together and to understand that we can all collectively change them or at least the way we as a society perceive and approach them. So then why would the author choose to tackle these topics in a contradicting manner- using language that (in my option) is inaccessible to the general public?
June 3, 2023
a note to myself : very interesting to think about this in the context of ambivalence … a tool of feminist politicising ? a way of building a world with as much groundedness as you can take… but also using ambivalence about the past / present / future is so fascinating in the context of proto/feminist socialist texts from the late nineteenth century … so it’s part of a continuum about that. cool
December 31, 2024
One of the things that has long bugged me about my part of the ‘Left’ is that we’re really good at being clear about what we’re against, less clear about what we want – it’s all the vague language of peace, justice, equality, dignity and so on, and pretty rubbish at anything specific or more than those vague generalities. This presents us with two sorts of problems; the first is that of presenting an alternative in any sort of detail; the second, in many ways more important, is a tendency to immobilisation – a fear that because we’re not sure about what we’re building, there’s a good chance we’re going to get things wrong now. One response, the more common one, has been the development of utopian depictions – a focus on where we’re going, but with little real sense of how we’re going to get there. A less common (leaving aside all the mundane ‘organising manuals’), but more productive response has been a focus on how we get there; this is group Lola Olufemi’s wonderfully creative experiments is in.
These are experiments, because as Olufemi notes, they “can and do fail” (p7), but her emphasis is not so much on this possibility/likelihood, but on the importance of the ‘otherwise’, not as the contrary, nor as the ‘over there’, but as in the unknowable, as a realm of possibilities. There’s an implicit point here that the struggle for a better, transformed, world is in part an act of faith – we venture into struggle confident that our generalities of peace, justice, equality, dignity and the like will take form in the course of that struggle (which in my world is a double dialectic, theory:practice, and the now and its negation). In Olufemi’s presentation, this goes an invigorating step further to note that that work of struggle is (also) “of another realm that is not-here”. (p7)
What is particularly exciting about this however is not this positioning – that’s a feature of some of the ‘how we get there’ genre – but its form. Olufemi’s texts are creative, inventive, poetic, fictional. There are philosophical and political fragments, a discussion of a line drawing of a photo, Q&A dialogues, and explanatory notes. Not surprisingly, my local bookstore did not know how or where to classify this: I found it in the fiction shelves.
The collection is structured around an argument against linear temporality, so each section explores in various ways the inter-relation of the past/present/future as distinct but always here, in the now – and as not existing in any way other than the relations of the now. It’s a liberating perspective, freeing us from both tradition and a singular vision of the coming, of the ‘what next?’. Each section also ends with a short story that encapsulates some of the ideas and the case made in depictions of struggle, of organising, of developing insight and engagement. This is a mode that is delightfully non-prescriptive, in places playful, as well as allowing insight to uncertainty, doubt, tension, transformation, and hopefulness. In being non-prescriptive, this provokes ideas – these experiments inspire the imagination (or they do mine, at least) leaving us the freedom to envisage what might be.
Olufemi is one of the bright new voices on the British, and I hope international, left. Her previous book Feminism Interrupted is one of the best introductions to/explorations of contemporary feminism I know – and here she shows just why we should be paying more attention to her work, and equally importantly is a reminder that it’s the struggle that helps define were we are going.
These are experiments, because as Olufemi notes, they “can and do fail” (p7), but her emphasis is not so much on this possibility/likelihood, but on the importance of the ‘otherwise’, not as the contrary, nor as the ‘over there’, but as in the unknowable, as a realm of possibilities. There’s an implicit point here that the struggle for a better, transformed, world is in part an act of faith – we venture into struggle confident that our generalities of peace, justice, equality, dignity and the like will take form in the course of that struggle (which in my world is a double dialectic, theory:practice, and the now and its negation). In Olufemi’s presentation, this goes an invigorating step further to note that that work of struggle is (also) “of another realm that is not-here”. (p7)
What is particularly exciting about this however is not this positioning – that’s a feature of some of the ‘how we get there’ genre – but its form. Olufemi’s texts are creative, inventive, poetic, fictional. There are philosophical and political fragments, a discussion of a line drawing of a photo, Q&A dialogues, and explanatory notes. Not surprisingly, my local bookstore did not know how or where to classify this: I found it in the fiction shelves.
The collection is structured around an argument against linear temporality, so each section explores in various ways the inter-relation of the past/present/future as distinct but always here, in the now – and as not existing in any way other than the relations of the now. It’s a liberating perspective, freeing us from both tradition and a singular vision of the coming, of the ‘what next?’. Each section also ends with a short story that encapsulates some of the ideas and the case made in depictions of struggle, of organising, of developing insight and engagement. This is a mode that is delightfully non-prescriptive, in places playful, as well as allowing insight to uncertainty, doubt, tension, transformation, and hopefulness. In being non-prescriptive, this provokes ideas – these experiments inspire the imagination (or they do mine, at least) leaving us the freedom to envisage what might be.
Olufemi is one of the bright new voices on the British, and I hope international, left. Her previous book Feminism Interrupted is one of the best introductions to/explorations of contemporary feminism I know – and here she shows just why we should be paying more attention to her work, and equally importantly is a reminder that it’s the struggle that helps define were we are going.
August 9, 2023
Such a beautiful book, weaving fiction, theory, poetry, and other experimental and sometimes collaborative with the reader genres in a way that was initially jarring but as I read it just unfolds so beautifully.
January 7, 2023
Fierce. Galvanising. Medicinal.
August 15, 2023
Felt young in the best way possible
January 4, 2023
3.5. Mixed on this one—probably because I’m realizing that I don’t get much out of fragmentary books, or ones that follow the curve of the author’s own desire more closely than that of their argument (a trend in much experimental, autotheoretical, small press work these days). I’m also a little less revolutionary than Olufemi, but I think that is one of the book’s strengths in that she nudged me—urged me—to ask or to answer direct, difficult questions. As much as there were aspects I didn’t love, I want to sit with it more, and can see many ways to even teach with it that would have potential for great impact.
March 21, 2023
just the right book at just the right time. reading this book was like taking a deep breath and stepping into grass bare-footed. olufemi encapsulates everything i mean when i yell out "QUEEN." this was courageous and i'm so very glad it exists.
April 1, 2022
Wow!!!! This is rich and poignant. Describing these snippets of writing as "experiments" is honestly so accurate - I feel like it's art made of text and words. It's a little book of big dreams, I can easily imagine myself reading this again (and again) as a reminder of what could/can be
August 13, 2022
lost me a bit at points with some of the experiments but brought it back in for a v interesting read
January 7, 2022
fucking hell i think this is honestly one of the best and affirming books i've ever read
October 13, 2024
I feel some sentences in this book will just stay in my mind for a very long time. such a pleasant and stimulating read.
February 16, 2022
Confusing and brilliant and radical
April 6, 2023
This is a book I needed at this moment in time. Recommended by a new contact, I picked up the basic ebook version direct from the publisher and read it on my retro Kindle Paperwhite. (Practical note: Coming back to it on the Android Kindle app, the formatting wasn’t as messed up, so I’d suggest reading this in that way, or in physical format - especially if you want to join in with some of the blank space in the book reserved for your own thoughts.)
(Disclaimer: Review written a few weeks after finishing, so reflects my lingering impressions rather than a more immediate response. Is that a better way to judge things anyway?)
This is a book that takes the idea of “the other” but deliberately refuses to give it a definition of its own. I’m reminded of Borges’ story of a language that only speaks in verbs, not nouns, and in doing so captures a world not restricted to the closure associated with the physicality of objects. Here, it is clear that “othering” is something to be done, not a final utopian state that can be reached and ticked off.
To write about “othering” without getting trapped in definitions is an important, but essential task. The act of “othering” is in many ways what we might also call “alternative” or “punk” - it is at once a denial of the status quo, but also a denial that anything should be the status quo - rather, it is the process of thinking alternatively and critically that becomes the end goal, if there can be said to be one.
In that way, it is closer to the “perennial beta” of modern technology, a paradigm of constant change, which some may call “innovation” or “progress”, while others may think of as “disruption” and “chaos” - probably depending largely on which side of the line of empowerment you sit on.
I enjoyed the longer passages in the book less - the short stories that explore an idea, a state, or an emotion - and found myself drawn to more poetic, freeform approach that - for me - strikes a faster, more discordant mental blow to the reader. But the diverse and fragmentary nature of the book is also its soul, so it is hard to say that those longer parts shouldn’t be there. Part of “othering”, I would say, is to be open to that variety of approaches, and to be able to pick and choose and adapt your own scenario to what’s offered to you.
I’m going to 5 stars on this one - but with the caveat that this is a personal review and a subjective opinion - it is the material I need in my life right now, and the stars reflect the energy that the text has brought to me and my ideas. But then, how could a review be anything other than that?
(Disclaimer: Review written a few weeks after finishing, so reflects my lingering impressions rather than a more immediate response. Is that a better way to judge things anyway?)
This is a book that takes the idea of “the other” but deliberately refuses to give it a definition of its own. I’m reminded of Borges’ story of a language that only speaks in verbs, not nouns, and in doing so captures a world not restricted to the closure associated with the physicality of objects. Here, it is clear that “othering” is something to be done, not a final utopian state that can be reached and ticked off.
To write about “othering” without getting trapped in definitions is an important, but essential task. The act of “othering” is in many ways what we might also call “alternative” or “punk” - it is at once a denial of the status quo, but also a denial that anything should be the status quo - rather, it is the process of thinking alternatively and critically that becomes the end goal, if there can be said to be one.
In that way, it is closer to the “perennial beta” of modern technology, a paradigm of constant change, which some may call “innovation” or “progress”, while others may think of as “disruption” and “chaos” - probably depending largely on which side of the line of empowerment you sit on.
I enjoyed the longer passages in the book less - the short stories that explore an idea, a state, or an emotion - and found myself drawn to more poetic, freeform approach that - for me - strikes a faster, more discordant mental blow to the reader. But the diverse and fragmentary nature of the book is also its soul, so it is hard to say that those longer parts shouldn’t be there. Part of “othering”, I would say, is to be open to that variety of approaches, and to be able to pick and choose and adapt your own scenario to what’s offered to you.
I’m going to 5 stars on this one - but with the caveat that this is a personal review and a subjective opinion - it is the material I need in my life right now, and the stars reflect the energy that the text has brought to me and my ideas. But then, how could a review be anything other than that?
October 25, 2024
In fragmented "experiments" that attempt to navigate the ebbs, flows, and potentialities of what Olufemi refers to as "Temporal Regimes", she covers a lot of ground and leaves a lot of ground to be covered. But this is a good thing! Olufemi echoes (without explicitly citing) countless interdisciplinary and revolutionary theorists, galvanizing their writings and giving them space to breathe - and, somewhat uniquely, allows the reader to breathe with them. The books use of the fragmented style and deliberate space - the way text is distrubuted across the page, the fonts used, the way in which content is given form/shape - is exciting and fresh, and the reader is given space to write their own thoughts, desires, ideas, not as footnotes or in the margins, but as an element of the book itself.
The flexibility of the fragmented style does cause some conflict when trying to flesh ideas out to their conclusions (and I found there were a few points that when I did this Olufemi and I came to butt heads) but for the most part the goal of this book - an inquiry into the methods available for achieving a "liberated future", an "otherwise" - are thoroughly realised.
The flexibility of the fragmented style does cause some conflict when trying to flesh ideas out to their conclusions (and I found there were a few points that when I did this Olufemi and I came to butt heads) but for the most part the goal of this book - an inquiry into the methods available for achieving a "liberated future", an "otherwise" - are thoroughly realised.
January 5, 2023
I decided to purchase this book purely because on the first flip through it I could not make sense of what it was trying to be. It jumped from poetry to prose to blank spaces. Just the kind of book I've been craving: different, with a powerful message.
It's a bit hard to understand, at times. It makes you to really dig under the letters and extract the meaning, or make your own. This is why I think it's thought provoking.
The writing style reminded me of my own ideas floating through my head. They are rarely organised in the same narrative structure. So I read it in the same way I listen to my own brain. Then everything seemed normal again.
For someone who is deep into the feminist, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, etc. movements it might not bring anything revolutionary to the table, content wise. But it's a great reminder that we have to keep imagining ways in which we can change the things that favours some people at the expense of unfavouring others. It's a great push towards finding and building relationships with like-minded people who will have your back in the face of a movement that destroys a structure for sake of creating a better one. This book is a reminder that there are people who are still fighting, and so should you.
It's a bit hard to understand, at times. It makes you to really dig under the letters and extract the meaning, or make your own. This is why I think it's thought provoking.
The writing style reminded me of my own ideas floating through my head. They are rarely organised in the same narrative structure. So I read it in the same way I listen to my own brain. Then everything seemed normal again.
For someone who is deep into the feminist, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, etc. movements it might not bring anything revolutionary to the table, content wise. But it's a great reminder that we have to keep imagining ways in which we can change the things that favours some people at the expense of unfavouring others. It's a great push towards finding and building relationships with like-minded people who will have your back in the face of a movement that destroys a structure for sake of creating a better one. This book is a reminder that there are people who are still fighting, and so should you.
January 20, 2023
When I was younger, I deeply wanted to go to high up into the mountains and live like a hermit. I thought that being there would give me space to sit with feelings of rejection, desire, self-loathing and a burning sense that things ought not to be the way they are.
October 27, 2022
An incredible book! Exciting, challenging, moving. The kind of book that connects people: I wasn't surprised when someone lent over me on the tube to comment that they'd read it too and chat about how great it was
April 7, 2022
Holy fuck. Such a rich text. Hopeful, brutal, inspiring, radical, intimate. Fucking love.
December 28, 2024
beautifully written book which calls us to stretch out the very reality we live in so everyone may benefit from it.
100% required reading
100% required reading
February 13, 2025
3.5 stars. A little too fragmented for me personally, but still resonated with the general ideas, and there’s some very good lines!
Read
January 21, 2022Outstandingly thought-provoking
April 5, 2024
“Whisper only one promise, to remain steadfast in the belief that this cannot be all there is.”
Remarkable. Confusing. Inspiring… what’s next?
Remarkable. Confusing. Inspiring… what’s next?
May 15, 2024
This was hard to read at times - because Olufemi's writing is so imaginative and has broken many boundaries of form and style that I suppose I'm used to reading within. So, at times I just didn't get it. But it pushed me to break down my own mental blockers in order to understand what she was trying to do. Really enjoyed the journeys.
March 1, 2022
simply brilliant and ridiculously thought provoking!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews