Seems like there might be enough traction, so here we go!
Our first “book” shall be “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K LeGuin.
It is a short story that is readily available online. If you cannot purchase it, rent it, or find it online please let me know and I will provide more information on how to get it.
Trigger warnings: emotional abuse, grooming, and child abuse
I would like to include some discussion questions that are community specific, and not generic book club questions, so these will likely be questions I ask regarding every work, subject to change of course.
Some things to think about while reading:
- Do you think this work is told from a feminist perspective? Why?
- Do you think the authors gender or gender identity affected their choice of subject, writing style, or perspective character?
- Does the narrators gender or gender identity affect the work? If so, how?
- Did this work change your opinion on anything? If so, what and why?
I don’t know if I’ll start adding generic book club questions, but if you’d like more general discussion questions of the works going forward, please let me know and I can include some. There’s just a lot of discussion available already for this specific piece and I don’t want answers to common questions to overshadow more nuanced discussions that center women which is why we’re all in this community. Also, this is not a homework assignment. You can choose to address any or none of the questions posed here, or talk about your general thoughts or whatever else. Please feel free to pose your own questions in the comments as well. These should serve as a handy springboard if needed, but not a mandatory outline.
Our first movie will be Kpop Demon Hunters. There were some other suggestions, but I wanted to keep it a little lighter considering this months book has some serious trigger warnings and I wanted people to be able to participate in at least one of the two, even if they would rather not engage in heavy topics. This is an animated movie available on Netflix. I know this is a little exclusionary, but there are some other ways to watch it as well.
Trigger warnings: animated violence/gore, discussion of demons and the afterlife
Same as above: I would like to include some discussion questions that are community specific, and not generic movie club questions, so these will likely be questions I ask regarding every work, subject to change of course.
Some things to think about while watching:
- Do you think this work is told from a feminist perspective? Why?
- Do you think the authors gender or gender identity affected their choice of subject, writing style, or perspective character?
- Does the narrators gender or gender identity affect the work? If so, how?
- Did this work change your opinion on anything? If so, what and why?
I don’t know if I’ll start adding generic questions, but if you’d like more general discussion questions of the works going forward, please let me know and I can include some. There’s just a lot of discussion available already for this specific piece and I don’t want answers to common questions to overshadow more nuanced discussions that center women which is why we’re all in this community. Also, this is not a homework assignment. You can choose to address any or none of the questions posed here, or talk about your general thoughts or whatever else. Please feel free to pose your own questions in the comments as well. These should serve as a handy springboard if needed, but not a mandatory outline.
Comments are spoilers territory. If you want to use spoiler tags in the comments, please do, but it is not required. If you venture into the comments please keep in mind this is a discussion thread for media so there will likely be spoilers.
Going forward This is a community project. I would like to get input regarding written works and tv/movies that would be a good fit for this. I will leave a comment on this thread that you can respond to if you’d like to offer a suggestion. One suggestion per comment please. You can comment multiple times though. I’d like to make sure the selections are widely accessible, so please add that information if you know for sure something is in the public domain or available online, as that makes it easier to recommend. Please vote on the other comments you see there. I’d like to pair heavier topics in one media with lighter topics in the other, just in case you’re wondering why a specific piece was not chosen. Things like language or availability may also affect the selection. I’m also open to changing or adding discussion questions.
Thank you all for your interest. Excited to hear your perspectives!
PS: Even if you have seen or read the media before, I would encourage a reread or rewatch to best participate in the discussion!
Please comment suggestions for next month here. One suggestion per comment. You can comment multiple times. Please include any details you might find relevant (not mandatory but helpful). Please vote on other suggestions as well. Thank you!
for October’s book, maybe Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
for October’s movie, maybe In Fabric?
Im going to make some fiction book recommendations. I have no idea how readily available they are. I have found all of these at some libraries, but ymmv.
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
This was published in 1976, and the abuse the MC suffers in the present-day asylum is a tough read. But the utopian visits are very interesting.
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
This one has the utopia situated next to the distopia and character perspectives move back and forth between them. I never finished this one, due to circumstances at the time, nothing against the book.
Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilmore
Maybe all the more interesting because of how dated it is.
A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
Most of the world is still distopic, but our heroes live in a socialist community that feels like it could really work. They have a very interesting dynamic with the aliens.
Last Woman Standing by Winona LaDuke
It’s been so long, I don’t remember the storyline to this one. Just that the very beginning read like traditional folklore, but the main part of the book was like a normal novel; and that I really enjoyed it at the time.
For a movie, how about Thelma and Louise?
If Omelas feels like a deeply philosophical, scalpel-precise bludgeoning to the feels, unsettling in its profound moral ambiguity and its unflinching stare at US and our culpability in a system we are an intrinsic part of, my suggestion for the next book will instead be a sledgehammer to the face wielded by a laughing maniac shouting “SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!”. Because I propose The Power by Naomi Alderman as the follow-up work. Let’s not just discuss a feminist text. Let’s strap in and explore a world gone mad with it and see what breaks.
The premise is deceptively simple. It’s the literalization of thousands of “what ifs” crammed into one: What if, overnight, women and girls worldwide develop the sudden biological ability to generate and wield electrical jolts from their bodies. They can electrocute people at will, in short. The power dynamic of the entire planet, from geopolitical stage to bedroom, is inverted overnight.
Alderman, however, being a protege of Atwood, is not interested in simple revenge fantasy. This is not utopia she presents. It’s a brutal, but gripping (and profoundly uncomfortable!) exploration of a single question: What happens when the powerless suddenly become the powerful? Do they build a better world, or do they just become The Who’s “new bosses”?
This is an unflinching allegory for how power corrupts. Full. Stop. It viciously dissects gender, violence, and hierarchy, but doesn’t do it with Le Guin’s razor-sharp scalpel. It does so with a live wire connected to the mains. Are the horrors of life intrinsic to something inherent in men … or something inherent in the very nature of power itself?
This is a book that will make you cheer one moment, then recoil in horror the next. Often this happens on the same page. Sometimes in the same sentence. This is no subtle Daoist trap, a scintillating intellectual jewel that cuts you open with its sharp edges to reveal what was inside you all along. This is a visceral, adrenalized thought experiment and yet, for that—perhaps because of that—it may be the most honest and challenging books about systemic power ever written.
If we go with this book, here are some questions we could discuss:
Talk about the polar opposite to the film I suggest! 🤭
I’d like to suggest something most people have never heard of for the next movie: Certain Women, directed by Kelly Reichardt. It’s a vignette film of interlocked women’s lives. The stories are the kinds of stories that are not deemed sufficiently dramatic for film by most, yet Reichardt creates a compelling feminist tapestry through realism and empathy.
This lacks the bombast of the usual suspects for feminist film, but for that it is probably the most weirdly engaging (possibly because of the lack of bombast).
Edited to add:
https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/certain-women
A list of places to watch it. And of course there’s always the 🏴☠️ way.
Some questions I’d suggest for this one, if it’s picked, are: