so today I want to talk about two books
that I've read recently that I can't
stop thinking about and that is Between
the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Human Acts by Han Kang translated by
Deborah Smith. Between the world in me is
the story of the black body throughout
the years and the ways in which it's
been exploited and threatened at all
times and it's told through a series of
letters that Coates has written to his
teenage son. Whereas Human Acts is a
mostly fictionalized story of the 1980
Gwangju Massacre if you like me are ignorant
as to what the Gwangju Massacre was it
was a student uprising against the government
where the army established martial law
and began murdering the protesters which
then caused the citizens to join in in
the uprising. It's undisclosed or I
don't know if it's - there's just not an
official number of how many were killed
in this uprising could have been
hundreds could have been thousands there
was so little documentation of what was
going on during the time and it was just
it's awful I really recommend you look
into it because it's such a huge
historical event that I knew nothing
about and I'm so happy to know about it
now just because I feel like I have a
better understanding of such a terrible
time in human history. Recent human
history, as well. This is a really
interesting narrative style. It's told
within different narrative styles so
first, second, third person. It's told from
different people's perspectives over the
years from the day of the event up until
present day. There are really awful
depictions of the way the bodies were
treated after after the uprising. There's
a lot of unflinching torture scenes but
it's all done in a way that is weirdly
respectful and never, like, it doesn't
reach that gore porn level that I feel
like a lot of novels, especially war or
violence related novels can become.
Kang has a way of humanizing even... Kang has
a way of humanizing even the worst people
showing that humans can be both good and
bad and that people act on both of those
but it's also a really harrowing tale of
solidarity and courage and it's just a
remarkable story and I absolutely love
it. It's going to be all my favorite
books of the year, I already know that
What's interesting about both of these
is the way in which the body is looked
at and the singularity of bodies.
Since reading this, what I've thought most
about in Coates' writing is - um, first of
all his term growing into consciousness,
which he uses throughout the novel when
talking about his son and I really love
the idea of growing into consciousness.
The way in which Coates deals with
singularity and bodies is in terms of
slavery which I'll read this passage to
you that has really stuck with me since
reading it about a month ago. "Slavery is
not an indefinable mass of flesh. It is a
particular specific enslaved woman whose
mind is as active as your own, whose
range of feeling is as vast as your own,
who prefers to what the way the light
falls in one particular spot in the
woods, who enjoys fishing where the water
ebbs in a nearby stream, who loves her
mother in her own complicated way, thinks
her sister talks too loud and has a
favorite cousin, a favorite season, who
excels at dressmaking and knows inside
herself that she is an intelligent and
capable as anyone." Is AS intelligent, I
said that wrong. Coates continuously
stresses that slavery, police brutality,
all these things where there the body
count is growing and that we think of it
as a body count. It's- it's not. It's one
person. It's every individual one person
who has been treated in such a horrific
way over the years. This is actually
something that if you've read The Hate U
Give, something I thought about after
reading this. In fact, I really recommend
reading this before this, if you don't
know - so many books - The Hate U Give by
Angie Thomas is a Black Lives Matter
young adult story and it's incredible.
This is the story of a young woman whose best
friend is murdered by a cop and she's
the only witness. What I find really
interesting about this is the way which
Khalil, who is her friend that was
murdered, often starts - begins- as soon as
they find out he was unarmed, he begins
to get lumped in with all of these other
stories of people who were unarmed
getting shot by cop. Even the people who
love him or support him or are out on
the streets protesting for him begin to
kind of lump him in as another number
in this body count. And throughout this
novel, Starr begins learning more about
her old friend Khalil and begins to
humanize him a lot and make his story
unique in her own mind and it's just it
was really interesting to read this
after reading this and I
recommended. Similarly, there's a line in
Human Acts that really resonates and
that is, "I never let myself forget that
every single person I need is a member
of this human race." Through just the way
this narrative works as it's told by
individual people from different sides
of this uprising and who have been
affected by this uprising in a variety of
ways, it really humanizes each individual
person. Even the first very first story
of this is actually almost a magical
realism story and it's the story of
someone who's recently killed in the
uprising and he's laying between all of
these other dead bodies but he's his
consciousness is still lingering there.
It's just really powerful the way in which he
reflects looking at his body from the
outside almost and looking at all these
other bodies and thinking about each
individual person now and it's *sigh*
It's just really powerful. I don't really know what
point I'm trying to make. I think it's
just something I've been thinking a lot
about is that singularity of every
single person. It's something that I
think we all need to be more conscious
of. It's obviously an ongoing problem in
our society. In the country I'm from
that is currently trying to pass a
Muslim ban on all Muslims. The
inferential racism of it all. We really
just need to think more about each
individual person we meet every person
we come across as a full person, not just
a body a full consciousness. Someone who
has thoughts and feelings and opinions.
And, yeah, I don't know. It's something I'm
thinking a lot about when I meet new
people. It's something that - i'm so happy to
have read these two, three books recently
and I super recommend all of them. I'm
sorry this is a very long video, I think
but I want to know your thoughts. What's
something that you've read it just
really resonates with you? Obviously I
would like to say that I'm coming at this
term is very outsider's perspective as I
am neither Black nor Korean so take
that with a grain of salt, obviously if I've
said anything that has upset anyone
please let me know. I'm always trying to
better myself and to listen everyone and
things like that. Please read these books,
they're both very short. I got through both
of them in a day or two and they- despite
that and despite the fact that i've read
I think almost thirty books already this
year, these two I can't stop thinking
about. These three, even, this one's great,
as well. You're going to want to read this
it's going to be huge. It's going to be like a
modern classic.
You're gonna wanna - just do it!
Just do it. Thank you guys for
watching. Let me know what books have
resonated with you recently or any
thoughts you have on bodies and
singularity and ways in which that has
been really powerful to you and I'll see
you next time. Bye.
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