A little September debrief

For those of you who made it, thank you for being part of my book club experiment ❤️ 

For those who couldn’t join this time, but have still been reading along, I’m always down for another chat about it! I think we agreed that Complaint! is a book that we’re all feeling deeply as we process, but are ultimately finding carthatic — maybe empowering?

I thought I’d share a few key reflections and provocations that have lingered with me, from our group therapy session discussion:

• Institutions kind of suck, but they’re also here to stay, so maybe the task is to be cunning [really fucking annoying, some might say], and find ways to do sneaky things in and outside them. It’s not a binary; the institutional edges are porous.

• Leaving institutions — once complaints have exhausted us, once there is no longer any value in complaint — can be generative. Leaving institutions can also be a sacrifice, though: admittedly, we find safety within them even alongside the violence. Institutions are, for many of us, also comfort zones.

• How can we co-opt the processes of complaint, and use them against institutions? What are the benefits we can derive from complaint, that perhaps do not have anything to do with the complaint? What kind of theft, criminal strategic inefficiency can we pull off, to undermine or provoke change?

• These questions about complaint, and being in or beyond institutions, and possibilities of change — we don’t need to answer them as individuals. There’s a significance in community, and in collective action.

A few other readings came up in conversation, which I think we’ll going to tackle in our next gathering. That’s right, bitches: I’m calling this round a success, and will be in touch soon about a round two.

Feel free to hit reply and let me know if you have other requests, comments or feedback!

Jane xxx