I Who Have Never Known Men By Jacqueline Harpman

𝕳𝖊𝖓𝖗𝖞 𝖂𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗

Coffees I consumed throughout July. Became addicted to hot Vanilla Latte.

Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

Reading Yellowface is an entirely new experience. That is because I’ve been having this book for 5 months before finally deciding to read it. I've heard many great things about Rebecca F. Kuang regarding her works on The Poppy War Trilogy and Babel, so I put high expectations on this. Should I have expected something great from her? I shouldn't have. Did I regret giving this book a try? Absolutely not.

As I said before, the idea and main plot of this book are genius. Many say that Rebecca F. Kuang's works reflect things around her, and "Yellowface's" plot is surely something that’s close to her because it's talking about book publishing and all the drama involved in it. Rebecca F. Kuang, I must admit, can really create an unhinged character that can set everyone's hair on fire. I couldn't describe how mad I was reading this book. Seeing Juniper Song Hayward's point of view for the entire book really tested all the patience in me. As the NY Times said about this book: "Everything about R.F. Kuang's novel 'Yellowface' feels engineered to make readers uncomfortable."

This brilliant novel should at least get 5 stars, but for some reason, I won't give it 5 stars. Rather, I'll explain to you three reasons why this book is genius:

The satire. As we all know, although the Chinese community has become larger and larger over time due to the mobility of people around the world, and despite how big China is as a state/country right now, this hasn't really reduced the amount of sinophobia that exists in the world, especially in the book publishing sector. The satire in this book is brilliant because Rebecca F. Kuang is not only addressing racism but also the bigotry and Asian-fetishizing that have been happening this past 10 years.

Tension. This book either makes you hate Juniper or pity her. The moment you find yourself pitying her and wishing her not to get caught, that’s the moment you should start booking a session with a therapist. (no judgement, but I just did).

History lesson. This world is fucked up but we are kind of beyond the most fucked up eras: World War 1 and World War 2. This book also brings along a topic and history lesson that not everyone might know. As an IR student, I should thank RFK for her (not so) free lesson.

Reading this book has a similar feeling to riding a roller-coaster. It gave me a wonderfully furious feeling, but at the same time left me with no excitement toward the end of the ride. A solid 3.5 stars for me.

Link to The StoryGraph: Yelloface's review by Isabelle

Last weekend was bomb.

at Bumi Pakubuwono, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta

Bring back my sanity. I pity myself for not even mad at their wrong-doings to Bunny

theme eleven: rosemary — responsive and minimal sidebar or header theme with a slide-out navigation menu and a bunch of customization options.

previews: sidebar preview / header preview / live preview

install: theme garden / pastebin / github

features and options:

slide-out navigation menu with up to six custom links, an unlimited number of pages on your blog, and a search bar

 option to add a header/sidebar image, option to show blog icon, or option to show both

space for two optional statistics/updates in your header or sidebar

post sizes: 400px, 450px, 500px, 540px, 600px

lots of post styling options: centered or left-aligned text, two styles of post info (minimal with icons only or with icons and text), show or hide date, show/hide/hover tags, show or hide captions, customizable post margins

font sizes from 12px to 18px, eleven body font options, and four title font options. all colours are customizable.

responsive for all screen sizes and mobile devices.

notes:

the icons in your blog stats are from Feathericons.com; to change them, go to the site, find the name of the new icon you want, and add the new icon name into the slot in the customization panel.

tumblr’s customize page is very buggy and when you first install the theme, you have to toggle the options on and off to get them to work properly.

see full list of credits here.

The Beloved.

It's always been you, these days. The brittle heart of mine can only fit you in there without breaking to pieces. The happiness you infused into my veins, making my whole body throbbing feverishly. Hence, it's your presence alone that can calm me down from the adrenaline rush, just like a pill Xanax.

I am aware of the tenuous string we both trying to hold on, but it wouldn't be a sin to wish that this string can last for a longer time, so that we don't have to say goodbye to each other.

October 24th 2024

Ulasan, Aborsi adalah Hak Perempuan

Penulis : Pat Grogan dan Evelyn Reed

Tebal: 90 halaman

Penerbit: Penerbit Independen

Kategori : Feminisme dan Sosial.

Nilai : 9/10

Pat Grogan dan Evelyn Reed telah mencurahkan akumulasi pengetahuan mereka selama bertahun-tahun ke dalam 90 halaman buku, dengan pelbagai teori, argumentasi, pengalaman ketubuhan serta penelitian untuk menegaskan—bahkan memperjuangkan sesuatu yang seharusnya memang berada dibawah kendali perempuan. Aku tidak mengerti kenapa buku ini bahkan harus ditulis, dan kenapa muatan dari buku ini terasa seperti pengetahuan baru bagiku. Seharusnya perempuan memang mengetahui bahwa mereka memiliki hak atas aborsi, hak untuk menimbang dam memilih apakah sel yang tumbuh di rahim mereka—ya milik mereka—akan mendapat kesempatan untuk tumbuh menjadi anak atau tidak.

Menurutku sebagai pembaca, Grogan dan Reed menulis buku ini dengan apik, dimulai dari sebuah peringatan bahwa para penguasa telah menggunakan isu aborsi untuk mengkonstruksi perkelahian antar buruh perempuan. Hak kita sendiri ternyata digunakan sebagai alat untuk menciptakan konflik horizontal, sehingga alih-alih memerangi sistem dominasi maskulin atau hukum yang tidak memihak perempuan, warga sipil malah saling dipertentangkan.

Mereka juga menegaskan bahwa ketika hak perempuan untuk memutuskan atas tubuhnya dirampas, bukan hanya kebebasan mereka yang dipertaruhkan, tetapi juga masa depan mereka—hak untuk menentukan kapan atau apakah mereka ingin menjadi seorang ibu. Ini bukan sekadar isu hukum, tetapi juga soal keadilan sosial. Negara yang melarang aborsi bukan hanya merampas hak dasar perempuan, tetapi juga membahayakan hidup mereka dengan memaksa mereka mencari jalan yang tidak aman.

Grogan dan Reed menyajikan fakta bahwa negara-negara yang melegalkan aborsi dengan layanan kesehatan yang baik justru memiliki tingkat aborsi yang lebih rendah dibandingkan negara yang melarangnya. Akses terhadap pendidikan seksual yang komprehensif dan alat kontrasepsi yang mudah dijangkau terbukti lebih efektif dalam menekan angka kehamilan tidak diinginkan dibandingkan dengan kriminalisasi.

Namun, yang membuat buku ini begitu kuat bukan hanya data dan analisisnya, tetapi juga cara penulis mengangkat pengalaman perempuan yang dipaksa melahirkan, yang kehilangan nyawa karena aborsi ilegal, yang dihukum karena memilih hidup mereka sendiri di atas kehendak negara.

Membaca buku ini rasanya seperti dihadapkan pada kenyataan yang seharusnya tidak perlu kita hadapi—bahwa hak atas tubuh sendiri masih harus diperjuangkan mati-matian. Grogan dan Reed tidak menulis untuk memberi kita pengetahuan baru, tapi untuk mengguncang kesadaran kita.

Abortion is a healthcare!

𝔞𝔣𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔫𝔬𝔬𝔫 𝔠𝔬𝔣𝔣𝔢𝔢 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔰𝔦𝔩𝔢𝔫𝔠𝔢 ☕️

I was in Periplus Setiabudi One Central Jakarta to meet a friend of mine. A funny story behind this meeting is that we were bonding over mutual interest in the novel The Secret History. She and I have the same favorite character, which obviously is Henry Marchbanks Winter. That was our second meeting, so it wasn't that awkward anymore.

I am also thankful that I was able to bring two of my book wishlists: Any Ozamu Dazai's book and Normal People by Sally Rooney. Honestly, I wasn't planning to bring The Setting Sun home because I intended to buy the other one, No Longer Human. Due to the availability of No Longer Human's old cover book, I chose to bring The Setting Sun instead. The publisher of Osamu Dazai books, which version I bought, has a distinctive book cover style that matches each other. These beautiful covers surely would be my priority wishlist for the next year.

Due to many new activities I've had these past 2 months, I am trying my best now to start reading again and stacking that habit once again so I won't easily fall into a reading slump. I have not even been able to finish my current read since November. Not because the book is boring, but it was just me who gets tired easily to even be done with 10 pages minimum.

But, all good now, at least I'm trying and actually do read, although it's quite hard to beat my sleepiness.