Hawksquill's Book Journey
This novel is fascinating. It tells the story of a feminist collective in the early 1970s, but with an experimental twist. All of the characters use na/nan pronouns and have gender neutral names or nicknames, hence the title. For context, this is only four years after Ursula K. Le Guin didn't have the guts to use alternative pronouns in The Left Hand of Darkness. Arnold's sharp observations of social life in the American South provide jarring moments when a particular character's gender, race, class, and/or age are painfully obvious, not because the author tells us so but because of how other characters treat them.
Arnold wrote the novel based on her experience during the 1971 Fifth Street Women's Building Takeover, of which she was a key organizer. More information about the historical event at the bottom of the review for those who are interested!
The Cook and the Carpenter is a fascinating document providing a firsthand account of the women's liberation and housing rights movements. And it's much more intersectional, community-oriented, and class conscious than you might expect based on all the stereotypes about second wave feminism. There are some quotes about identity, movement work, intersectionality, and consciousness that truly struck home for me, even as a bisexual trans-inclusive feminist of a totally different generation. It's made me think we might have thrown some babies out with the bathwater when it comes to the cynical mainstream assessment of the WLM.
Arnold is doing something complex here. She's simultaneously dismantling the socially constructed nature of gender while also demonstrating the necessity of gender in a society that uses gendered violence to police identities on a variety of axes. And she's showing how frustrating, contradictory, and rewarding it can be to live in an intentional community with others who are different from but allied with you. Imagining a new world is hard, and building one from scratch is even harder. But were they wrong to try? I don't believe so. It gives me hope that someone tried.
I'll be thinking about this one for a long time. And researching it, because I'm working on Wikipedia articles about both the Fifth Street takeover and The Cook and the Carpenter. Isn't it wild that neither has an article yet, not even a stub?!
More about the 1971 Fifth Street Women's Building Takeover. Arnold changed quite a few details when developing the plot of The Cook and the Carpenter, so this isn't really a spoiler in a strict sense:
On New Year's Eve 1970, a group of women from nearly every feminist organization in New York City occupied an abandoned city building on East Fifth Street. By candlelight, they sealed up windows, set up temporary shelters, and began repairing the building.
Hundreds of women worked together to establish a food co-op, daycare center, health clinic, and lesbian center. They operated non-hierarchically yet accomplished an incredible amount in two weeks. Teams worked on special projects like negotiating with city officials, providing services and materials in Spanish, and hosting classes in carpentry, plumbing, home repair, and arts. Long-term goals included providing abortion care, setting up a feminist school, and legal aid for lesbian mothers who had lost custody of their children.
The city welfare office asked for the names of women who went to the Fifth Street building to receive services. The group refused to provide a list, and they were shut down soon after. Over twenty women, including Arnold, were arrested. Some managed to have their charges dropped by turning their backs during mugshots and wearing heavy makeup and coiffed hair to court, so they were unidentifiable. The city destroyed the women's building and built a parking lot for a police precinct.
This novel is fascinating. It tells the story of a feminist collective in the early 1970s, but with an experimental twist. All of the characters use na/nan pronouns and have gender neutral names or nicknames, hence the title. For context, this is only four years after Ursula K. Le Guin didn't have the guts to use alternative pronouns in The Left Hand of Darkness. Arnold's sharp observations of social life in the American South provide jarring moments when a particular character's gender, race, class, and/or age are painfully obvious, not because the author tells us so but because of how other characters treat them.
Arnold wrote the novel based on her experience during the 1971 Fifth Street Women's Building Takeover, of which she was a key organizer. More information about the historical event at the bottom of the review for those who are interested!
The Cook and the Carpenter is a fascinating document providing a firsthand account of the women's liberation and housing rights movements. And it's much more intersectional, community-oriented, and class conscious than you might expect based on all the stereotypes about second wave feminism. There are some quotes about identity, movement work, intersectionality, and consciousness that truly struck home for me, even as a bisexual trans-inclusive feminist of a totally different generation. It's made me think we might have thrown some babies out with the bathwater when it comes to the cynical mainstream assessment of the WLM.
Arnold is doing something complex here. She's simultaneously dismantling the socially constructed nature of gender while also demonstrating the necessity of gender in a society that uses gendered violence to police identities on a variety of axes. And she's showing how frustrating, contradictory, and rewarding it can be to live in an intentional community with others who are different from but allied with you. Imagining a new world is hard, and building one from scratch is even harder. But were they wrong to try? I don't believe so. It gives me hope that someone tried.
I'll be thinking about this one for a long time. And researching it, because I'm working on Wikipedia articles about both the Fifth Street takeover and The Cook and the Carpenter. Isn't it wild that neither has an article yet, not even a stub?!
More about the 1971 Fifth Street Women's Building Takeover. Arnold changed quite a few details when developing the plot of The Cook and the Carpenter, so this isn't really a spoiler in a strict sense:
On New Year's Eve 1970, a group of women from nearly every feminist organization in New York City occupied an abandoned city building on East Fifth Street. By candlelight, they sealed up windows, set up temporary shelters, and began repairing the building.
Hundreds of women worked together to establish a food co-op, daycare center, health clinic, and lesbian center. They operated non-hierarchically yet accomplished an incredible amount in two weeks. Teams worked on special projects like negotiating with city officials, providing services and materials in Spanish, and hosting classes in carpentry, plumbing, home repair, and arts. Long-term goals included providing abortion care, setting up a feminist school, and legal aid for lesbian mothers who had lost custody of their children.
The city welfare office asked for the names of women who went to the Fifth Street building to receive services. The group refused to provide a list, and they were shut down soon after. Over twenty women, including Arnold, were arrested. Some managed to have their charges dropped by turning their backs during mugshots and wearing heavy makeup and coiffed hair to court, so they were unidentifiable. The city destroyed the women's building and built a parking lot for a police precinct.
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Hawksquill commented...
15w
Thank you! 💜