misosoupcup's reviews
478 reviews

it was like castlevania fanfic

it was fine. i think emmaline clein has a great voice and does some excellent research and analysis which is where i wish the book stayed. her prose are very nice, but i personally didn't enjoy the mix between a meaty well researched essay and then her more personal prose. i think in some essays the prose elevated her writing but i really wanted it to be more contained. i think i understand why she included them to get away from an authoratative and condescending academic voice that has been dominating the literature on EDs, and write it for the girls. 

another problem i had with it was some of the rehashing of online twitter and tiktok discourse (the tumblr content felt a little more timeless since people already think tumblr is an ancient relic) which i think is really going to date this book, and i think kind of ruined the throughline of the essays. it personally just was not gelling for me, but i know this book is going to be really important and healing for others.

AAS 176-Phillipines and its elsewheres

Komtrabida, the mirar worker, shadow family, esmerelda, a contract overseas

Esmerelda 😶💖

I was expecting more from this book since its so highly regarded and i finally found time to listen to the audiobook after a couple years since its publication. I think hong definetly speaks to some of my frustrations as an asian american, but with all essay collections there were some i enjoyed more than others which could have also been influenced by the fact i chose to listen to it instead of checking out the e-book and actually looking at the text.

i appreciated some of the latter essays, but found the one essay where she tries to challenge the notion that asian americans are next in line to be white to weirdly straddle a very strange line where she talks about the huge wealth/SES disparity between different ethnic groups in the asian american community and then doesn't really go into the struggles of later immigrants and refugees despite there being a LOT of great research that has been published in the past couple decades. 

she could have also expanded on the tradition of pan-asian and inter-ethnic solidarity that is present in our history and she doesn't really expand on what has already been treaded in asian american academic circles. and i think some of her writing could be strengthened with some more research? and i also don't really vibe with how she personally interprets and writes about the asian amercian experience. i don't know maybe i need to pick up a physical copy and try again.

In preparation for an undergrad research grabt that i decided to reject bc i have mental health issues.

good banter. i don't remember anything else though.