Read Women discussion

Here's our thread for this month's Read Around the World: Ireland/Wales prompt.

A Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland by writer/historian/activist Rebecca Solnit is a book of essays that was first published in 1997. The Goodreads blurb says-

In this acclaimed exploration of the culture of others, Rebecca Solnit travels through Ireland, the land of her long-forgotten maternal ancestors. A Book of Migrations portrays in microcosm a history made of great human tides of invasion, colonization, emigration, nomadism and tourism. Enriched by cross-cultural comparisons with the history of the American West, A Book of Migrations carves a new route through Ireland’s history, literature and landscape.

This is not a simple travelogue and the journey is both inward and outward according to Goodreads reviewers.

Solnit has written over twenty books, mostly nonfiction, and her work has appeared in online and print publications like Harper's Magazine and The Guardian. Her topics include feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art. Among other honors, she's won the 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism for River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West and the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction for Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises.

Fun fact- her 2014 book Men Explain Things to Me includes an essay on the phenomenon of "mansplaining", which refers to instances in which men "explain" things generally to women in a condescending or patronizing way. Apparently she did not use this term in the essay but it paved the way to its being coined.
Fun fact number 2- she's also published an illustrated children's book Cinderella Liberator- you guessed it- a feminist revision of the fairytale.

Who will be joining for this read?

I'm in - bought this one as soon as it was selected and am excited to see what we all think about it.

I have it as e-book. Wish I could have got a hard copy. She seems like a very interesting author.

I've read the intro and first two essays and am enjoying Solnit's writing and themes so far.
Her musings on culture, identity, and "nativeness" and tourism's effects on culture and history are very eye-opening. I think already this book will change the way I approach travel.

I loved the essay, The Butterfly Collector- a short biography on someone named Sir Roger Casement. A moving piece and an incredible story.
I'm just so impressed by her writing- how beautifully she joins various issues and ideas into one essay. It feels like a magic trick how seamlessly I'm carried from a butterfly in a Natural History Museum to Casement's childhood to Leopold's horrific reign over the Congo (fans of The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver should read this essay) to the persecution of homosexuals. And the overall feeling is touching, not overwhelming or disjointed.
The essay before this one was also good- from the Natural History Museum to language and metaphors. So far, the essays flow into one another too, like they're chapters of one story, and I've liked all of them so far.

I’ve just switched from an older publication to the 2011 one and I’d recommend finding this more recent one. The short second preface is very good. She summarizes her intentions which I love and how Ireland has changed since writing the book.

Yesterday I read the 5th essay The Beggar’s Rounds- very informative, very good- history of the Famine and its effects.

Jen wrote: "I’ve just switched from an older publication to the 2011 one and I’d recommend finding this more recent one. The short second preface is very good. She summarizes her intentions which I love and ho..."

I just started this last night and read the two prefaces. Going on a road trip this week so will read along but unsure of chat participation/connectivity on the road.

Was struck by one of her comments on the capitalistic effects of emigration to these cultural hotspots

Reading the Butterfly Collector now. In her first essay she discussed briefly Native Americans and I highlighted one of her remarks on how they sometimes burn the entire home and belongings of the deceased. It made me think of one of our previous group reads in which I learned that some Native tribes view death as a taboo topic to share/discuss and I had no idea. Anywho, coming back around to my original thought of how the feeling and sentiments she shares of Irish folk about their homeland remind me of similar sentiments in Native works I’ve read. Colonialism, I think, is the shared theme.

How is everyone else finding this one so far? Anyone finished wanting to share final thoughts or favorite parts?

Here’s the note I highlighted: This destruction of property when it became the property of the past must have kept its practitioners living in a perpetual present, where all that existed of the past was what could be remembered and told. In such a scheme, culture itself was what could be carried in the head, and material culture was always being created anew from the surrounding landscape.

I never personally thought of Ireland as a land of untethered and colonized natives, and am definitely finding her point of view enlightening and interesting.

Nice to hear your thoughts, Anita. I did finish recently.

The book is just so packed with ideas and deep explorations on various themes and topics, it's nice to hear about your reading and be reminded what was earlier in the book. I remember she was discussing Native Americans earlier, namely Shoshone, but I forgot that particular passage- glad you shared it. And it's so interesting that's what you shared because she comes back to that in the second last essay where she writes about Ireland's nomadic Indigenous people. She calls them Travellers and says this is their chosen term for themselves. She also uses the term "g------", to refer to other nomadic communities of Europe, which is now more widely understood to be a slur, so I'm guessing at the time of this book being published perhaps that wasn't as widely known then.
I love that she did all this brilliant historical work on such little studied communities and people like the Travellers and Sir Roger Casement.

Looking forward to that essay on the Travellers! I genuinely didn’t know that term was a slur, although definitely aware of the stigma against these types of traveling communities. I’m glad she does wrap back around to the Indigenous reference because I was wondering where she might be going with that in a book of essays about Ireland!

Anita wrote: "Looking forward to that essay on the Travellers! I genuinely didn’t know that term was a slur, although definitely aware of the stigma against these types of traveling communities. I’m glad she doe..."

If it helps at all some traveller groups in Britain use the term "gypsy" and it's recognised as an official community alongside traveller communities. But others find the term offensive. The Irish traveller group are distinctive from so-called "gypsy" groups anyway aren't they? As they're not Roma i.e. of Romani origin but another ethnic group altogether.

These might help:

https://www.gypsy-traveller.org/about...

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati...

Alwynne wrote: "Anita wrote: "Looking forward to that essay on the Travellers! I genuinely didn’t know that term was a slur, although definitely aware of the stigma against these types of traveling communities. I’..."

Ah, thanks, that info is eye-opening.
It was a long essay and I've returned the book to library now. It may be when she used the word, it was referring to British travelling communities and/or others who use the term without issue and I just assumed she was referring to Romani. My understanding had been that for them the term is offensive but from your links it looks like there are different perspectives on it within the Romani populations. Oof. Complicated. Hard to know if Romani would've been more fitting to use in her writing or maybe it would not have included all who she meant to include.

Maybe, Anita- when you or others get to that essay, you could share what you glean from it.

And, sorry, because of this tangent, I can’t help thinking of Roma artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas who works in textiles and tells stories of her heritage through her work. She’s brilliant. Images of her massive wall-size pieces at Venice Biennale are just stunning.

@Alwynne, I know you’re an art lover and wondering if you know of her :)

Info about her for anyone curious…
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/ar...

https://amp.theguardian.com/artanddes...

I have enjoyed many of Rebecca Solnit's books, since randomly visiting London's South Bank one Saturday afternoon; she was giving a talk at the Royal Festival Hall and I was reading her book The Faraway Nearby. A serendipitous event!

I was not aware of this collection, but I will definitely be getting a copy to read.

I wanted to share with you all, a comparative read, one I just finished for Reading Ireland Month 2024 In Ordinary Time: Fragments of a Family History by Carmel Mc Mahon, a work of interlinked essays that reads like memoir or creative nonfiction, about the connections between the personal and the political in her own story and those of many other Irish women immigrants whose stories have often disappeared, but continue to resonate through successive generations.

A must read, if you have an interest in Irish and Irish-American history, women's stories, intergenerational trauma and healing.

My review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Claire wrote: "I have enjoyed many of Rebecca Solnit's books, since randomly visiting London's South Bank one Saturday afternoon; she was giving a talk at the Royal Festival Hall and I was reading her book [book:..."

Thanks for the rec, Claire! It sounds like a great companion or follow up read

Jen wrote: "And, sorry, because of this tangent, I can’t help thinking of Roma artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas who works in textiles and tells stories of her heritage through her work. She’s brilliant. Images of h..."

I've only seen pictures and read articles, I'd love to see the work in person.

I can't fit this in but enjoying following, I've read a few of Solnit's books, the last one was Orwell's Roses which I completely loved.

I still haven’t gotten to the Travellers essay. I’m not sure why I’m taking so long to read this one, but I AM enjoying it at this slow pace. The essays are both meandering with her musings, and yet dense with history. I was thinking around page 115 that we had finally gotten some Irish landscape descriptions as she was wandering on foot somewhere between Cork and I don’t know where - to be followed by an essay on the lack of Irish poetry (due mainly to political purging) and how one might have expected them to focus on the pastoral (landscape) but the English influence (occupation, colonization, take your pick) makes one question whether any Irish artistry of the time could truly be considered Irish. I would want to argue why yes of course it would simply reflect the taint, but perhaps she wonders what the art would look like without that taint… anywho, the book is astoundingly deep and reflective and probably I wasn’t expecting this. I’ve even found myself thinking on a worldly scale about population growth and how the sheer numbers of humans has made the nomadic herd life unsustainable even for those small communities who still try. I’m assuming this is leading me very close to the essay on Travellers.

Anita wrote: "I still haven’t gotten to the Travellers essay. I’m not sure why I’m taking so long to read this one, but I AM enjoying it at this slow pace. The essays are both meandering with her musings, and ye..."

I read it super slowly, too, Anita, and only just completed it. I am a big Solnit fan and am willing to own 80% of my delay, but I think this one wasn't quite as compelling early on, although enjoyable. I stopped around page 60 - 80, the first time. When I picked it back up, I did so via Audible and found the middle 80 - 200 pages very strong, and then it tapered off the finish. That middle, though, was well worth it, and her writing, as always, for me, delights.