The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson [1] A Life's Work by Rachel Cusk [2] The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin [3] We Real Cool by bell hooks [4] [1] >The moment o

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson [1] A Life's Work by Rachel Cusk [2] The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin [3] We Real Cool by bell hooks [4] [1] >The moment of queer pride is a refusal to be shamed by witnessing the other as being ashamed of you. [2] >Birth is not merely that which divides women from men: it also divides women from themselves, so that a woman's understanding of what it is to exist is profoundly changed. Another person has existed in her, and after their birth the live within the jurisdiction of her consciousness. When she is with them she is not herself; when she is without them she is not herself; and so it is as difficult to leave your children as it is to stay with them. To discover this is to feel that your life has become irretrievably mired in conflict, or caught in some mythic snare in which you will perpetually, vainly struggle. [3] >The terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. They have had to believe for many years, and for innumerable reasons, that black men are inferior to white men. Many of them, indeed, know better, but, as you will discover, people find it very difficult to act on what they know. [4] >Showing aggression is the simplest way to assert patriarchal manhood. Men of all classes know this. As a consequence, all men living in a culture of violence must demonstrate at some point in their lives that they are capable of being violent.