clairealex's reviews
729 reviews

I will always wonder how differently I might have felt about the book had I read it in 2016. Now it is colored by some comments about cat ladies and Haitians. The first half reads more quickly than the second; negative anecdotes are more entertaining, unfortunately. The family stories remind me of my grandfather's stories where he always won every fight and got away with every prank. Selectivity at work. I wonder to what extent negative anecdotes are selected to enhance the later success. I'm not saying they didn't happen. And there are occasional glimpses of positive moments, seeming to increase as the book progresses.

I came to the book after reading a critique that it reinforced stereotypes. And it it does reinforce some. There is the tough gun toting or fist fighting defense of honor; there is the welfare queen. While he gives examples of the latter from experience, not family lore, one wonders if it is the phenomenon of remembering the incidents that support one's ideas, for we have learned that statistics don't support the welfare queen image of all food stamp recipients. (In fact he admits his Mamaw doesn't.) On the other hand, his telling of the culture shock of changing from working class to upper and middle class rings true as do his comments about the limits of foster care and the effects of stress on mental health. And though he refers often to "hillbillies" as he discusses poverty (and occasionally throws in "rust belt") he seems to lose sight of common experiences of other white working class folk. His attitudes to people on food stamps and other assistance accord with the claims in Stolen Pride, about the "pride paradox,"  that Appalachian folk live by a work ethic of hard work producing the American Dream, thus one is responsible for one's successes and failures in spite of external circumstances. While Vance does acknowledge forces beyond people's control, he calls it whining to note them, further reinforcing the individualism rather than breaking out of it.. 

While Vance is quite proud of his accomplishments, he acknowledges the help he got along the way from Mamas, teachers, Usha, and others. So there is some limit to his individualism. He gives thoughtful comment on where government can and can't help.

Rubenstein looks first at the religious attitudes toward nature in Genesis as a basis for later uses of religion as a cover for colonization, then surveys theorists of space travel against those covers. She provides an overview of Indigenous and Afrofuturist thinkers to show that there are other ways to do space study/exploration than the exploitative, commodified way it is trending now. It is a highly readable survey and well footnoted for those wanting more.

I found the most interesting chapters those on whether rocks had rights and where she summarized futuristic visions and applied them to space exploration. Also interesting was her treatment of various creation myths. She frequently repeated this: it doesn't matter if the myth is true or not; what matters is how believing the myth makes one behave. While it sounded convincing in each context where she used it, I begin to wonder how much we can push it. I'll have to ponder.

It would be a good introduction to colonization and futurist studies, but perhaps familiar to those already in the field other than the application to space exploration. Written in 2022, it is timely now given Elon Musk's apparent influence over Trump.