Antonia, I bought this book because I saw it in a picture you included in a previous article. Now I don't know whether to burn it or dump it. Either way, I sorry to have given this guy my money and I am grateful you've saved my time.
The idea that colonialism happened and is now over, that "the world has moved on," is precisely what permits it to continue. Colonialism and ownership, as you describe, are ongoing processes, not single events or occurences. I recently read Rehearsals for Living by Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasimosake Simpson wherein they exchange letters describing the ongoing machinations of colonialism and articulate alternative presents and futures. It is beautiful, and would be the perfect antidote to the arrogance splattered on Winchester's pages. If you have not yet read it, that book fits right in with your work.
They way you describe Winchester's work also drew to mind Toni Morrison's speech entitled "A Humanist View", where she surveys old documents accounting for the import and exports of people. In those documents, as with Winchester's writing here, "you can sense the reasonableness, the gentlemanly assertion," she explains, which implies the inevitability and the haunting respectability of the most cruel and depraved things—of owning and trafficking people, children, of mass murder for land theft. Among other things, I see our task as writers to de-normalize the unspeakable cruelties of these legacies and articulate their connection to now. You have done that here and elsewhere and I am grateful for that. I look forward to reading more.
Thank you so much, Matt! But I am so sorry about the book -- if it's any consolation, something I disliked this much is usually one I'd get rid of immediately, but there is enough useful information in it that I feel like I have to keep it, even resentfully. There are so many stories in there that I haven't seen covered elsewhere. I guess my next task is to find better books about them! The Ukrainian Holodomor has several good books, but I need to look for others.
"Rehearsals for Living" sounds exactly what I need to read as an antidote. I recently read "We Are the Middle of Forever," by Stan Rushworth and Dahr Jamail, which I really enjoyed but which was more in the "here's the Indigenous way of relating to everything" end -- also important, but the colonializing aspect is something I need more of. (I still think Nick Estes's "Our History Is the Future" is one of the best of those.)
Toni Morrison, wow. Yes, that's exactly it. Somehow I don't think I've ever seen that speech, but yes. And of course, she would see that and express it so much more brilliantly than I could! I love what you say at the end here. I often say that I see my job as being to shift perception, but I kind of like the way you put it better!
I'm so glad you took the time to review this book. As much as I, too, hate to bash books, sometimes you just have to speak up. I'm glad you did. I'll try better, too.
Thank you! It's not something I'd normally put out there; I just still can't believe no major outlet was critical of it in this way, and how much he's been lauded for centering Indigenous stories. I don't have anything against him personally, just . . . try better, yes!
There is something so very helpful sometimes to write a review about a thing you hate, because the act of criticism helps you formulate what it is you desire to see exist. I did the same thing recently! https://www.winstonhearn.com/wrote/2022/design-without-designers/
Thank you for sharing this review, the book sounds infuriating and I will not waste my time.
(Hi, Winston!) This is very true! I actually wrote the first draft of this immediately after I read it, I was so mad. It probably did it good to sit and cure for a few months. Especially since I could look at it more calmly and find all new things to be mad about :)
What a great review you wrote, too. I was nodding at so many points. Writing about walking and walkability, I run into these language choices all the time. The worst, of course, being "someone was hit by a car." The car has no agency! Someone is driving it and responsible! But the language erases the driver, their responsibility, and the entire world that is built and financed that makes such a tragedy possible. (I've got Road to Nowhere on my shelf but haven't started it yet. Been loving Marx's interviews, though.)
This, 100%, pervades the world we live in and saturates the way people think about it. Well phrased: "I will interject to note that at no point has this book made the case that it’s “self-evident” that methods of design will play a role, instead the book has made the case that people with a lot of power and profit-incentives are convinced that the methods of design are helpful for their goals."
This review is excellent and prompted me to become a paid subscriber.
Thank you not only for taking the time for the review but also for your description of the poetics of copy editing. You got exactly how I feel about making particular word and grammar choices.
Wow, Charlotte, thank you! And especially for the copy editing comments. It's an unglorious profession from the outside, but inside it is full of magic. (I read "Land" when it came out earlier in the year and had a LOT of questions about whether it went through a copy editor and, if so, what that person thought of it.)
Oh no I mean yes I mean what a great idea for an essay! Or a book. It's got such a rich connection point in thinking about Lakoff & Johnson's "Metaphors We Live By" -- the physicality to language that maybe does reflect and relate to the physicality of land?
And I was thinking about "how to read"... a map or a sentence. And that the former has been completely abandoned and the later considered unrequired. But learning to read each is invaluable in attempting navigation.
We're making our way to diagraming sentences, aren't we? (I love diagraming sentences.) What I always found valuable about that was in learning a foreign language. It's exactly what you're saying: mapping. I only learned German and Russian, and in both of them objects and cases are really important. There's a cartographical quality to learning how it works.
I love the way you put it: "learning to read each is invaluable in attempting navigation."
I never got around to reading that chapter and don't know his stuff, so now I'm really curious how much your review would bias me! I briefly checked out a couple of the more high-profile reviews in the big media outlets - they looked to be blandly positive in that New York Times kind of way.
Maybe I'll post something back on the Freyfogle thread eventually if it's not too late. Took a few notes on that last month but then got caught up by other things and haven't revisited.
I did wait on this just to give people a chance to read it on their own. That particular selection isn't that bad by comparison to a lot of it.
I read "Land" right when it came out, and then spent a couple of weeks regularly checking around the internet to see if *anyone* had written anything remotely critical of it. All I could find was the kind of blandly positive you describe. Even outlets I would have thought would make such a high-profile writer a priority didn't touch it. It was really disappointing, though I do understand how all of our various communities work. Not to put too fine a point on it, I can see avoiding any criticism of someone of this stature being standard at most publications. No matter how well-deserved.
IT IS NEVER TOO LATE! On the Commons conversations never end :)
Thank you for reading! I would now please like an entire newsletter devoted to topo maps. I am *obsessed* with them, have been since I was a little kid. We’re clearly not alone!
I hate to say this but I read an older essay of Lopez’s on one of my run-away-to-cabin work days, and had a few moments of “ugh.” I’m afraid I no longer feel bad about never having read one of his books.
I mean! That book came out when I was a barely starting mid-20s copy editor and it was very influential in how I think about words, dictionaries, language, …
Antonia, I bought this book because I saw it in a picture you included in a previous article. Now I don't know whether to burn it or dump it. Either way, I sorry to have given this guy my money and I am grateful you've saved my time.
The idea that colonialism happened and is now over, that "the world has moved on," is precisely what permits it to continue. Colonialism and ownership, as you describe, are ongoing processes, not single events or occurences. I recently read Rehearsals for Living by Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasimosake Simpson wherein they exchange letters describing the ongoing machinations of colonialism and articulate alternative presents and futures. It is beautiful, and would be the perfect antidote to the arrogance splattered on Winchester's pages. If you have not yet read it, that book fits right in with your work.
They way you describe Winchester's work also drew to mind Toni Morrison's speech entitled "A Humanist View", where she surveys old documents accounting for the import and exports of people. In those documents, as with Winchester's writing here, "you can sense the reasonableness, the gentlemanly assertion," she explains, which implies the inevitability and the haunting respectability of the most cruel and depraved things—of owning and trafficking people, children, of mass murder for land theft. Among other things, I see our task as writers to de-normalize the unspeakable cruelties of these legacies and articulate their connection to now. You have done that here and elsewhere and I am grateful for that. I look forward to reading more.
Thank you so much, Matt! But I am so sorry about the book -- if it's any consolation, something I disliked this much is usually one I'd get rid of immediately, but there is enough useful information in it that I feel like I have to keep it, even resentfully. There are so many stories in there that I haven't seen covered elsewhere. I guess my next task is to find better books about them! The Ukrainian Holodomor has several good books, but I need to look for others.
"Rehearsals for Living" sounds exactly what I need to read as an antidote. I recently read "We Are the Middle of Forever," by Stan Rushworth and Dahr Jamail, which I really enjoyed but which was more in the "here's the Indigenous way of relating to everything" end -- also important, but the colonializing aspect is something I need more of. (I still think Nick Estes's "Our History Is the Future" is one of the best of those.)
Toni Morrison, wow. Yes, that's exactly it. Somehow I don't think I've ever seen that speech, but yes. And of course, she would see that and express it so much more brilliantly than I could! I love what you say at the end here. I often say that I see my job as being to shift perception, but I kind of like the way you put it better!
I like the way you describe our task as well. I love Nick Estes's book and was really pleased to find it translated into Spanish too. Here is the link to Morrison's speech: https://www.mackenzian.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Transcript_PortlandState_TMorrison.pdf
THANK YOU. That is one I'm going to print out and keep.
I go back to Estes's book frequently. I feel like it's just the tip of the iceberg for this subject ...
I'm so glad you took the time to review this book. As much as I, too, hate to bash books, sometimes you just have to speak up. I'm glad you did. I'll try better, too.
Thank you! It's not something I'd normally put out there; I just still can't believe no major outlet was critical of it in this way, and how much he's been lauded for centering Indigenous stories. I don't have anything against him personally, just . . . try better, yes!
You are not the only American with deep and unsullied affection for USGS topo maps.
We should start a newsletter about it! It's clearly a thing.
There is something so very helpful sometimes to write a review about a thing you hate, because the act of criticism helps you formulate what it is you desire to see exist. I did the same thing recently! https://www.winstonhearn.com/wrote/2022/design-without-designers/
Thank you for sharing this review, the book sounds infuriating and I will not waste my time.
(Hi, Winston!) This is very true! I actually wrote the first draft of this immediately after I read it, I was so mad. It probably did it good to sit and cure for a few months. Especially since I could look at it more calmly and find all new things to be mad about :)
What a great review you wrote, too. I was nodding at so many points. Writing about walking and walkability, I run into these language choices all the time. The worst, of course, being "someone was hit by a car." The car has no agency! Someone is driving it and responsible! But the language erases the driver, their responsibility, and the entire world that is built and financed that makes such a tragedy possible. (I've got Road to Nowhere on my shelf but haven't started it yet. Been loving Marx's interviews, though.)
This, 100%, pervades the world we live in and saturates the way people think about it. Well phrased: "I will interject to note that at no point has this book made the case that it’s “self-evident” that methods of design will play a role, instead the book has made the case that people with a lot of power and profit-incentives are convinced that the methods of design are helpful for their goals."
This review is excellent and prompted me to become a paid subscriber.
Thank you not only for taking the time for the review but also for your description of the poetics of copy editing. You got exactly how I feel about making particular word and grammar choices.
Wow, Charlotte, thank you! And especially for the copy editing comments. It's an unglorious profession from the outside, but inside it is full of magic. (I read "Land" when it came out earlier in the year and had a LOT of questions about whether it went through a copy editor and, if so, what that person thought of it.)
Also, I think there is some lovely intersection between topo maps and copy editing. More, please!
Oh no I mean yes I mean what a great idea for an essay! Or a book. It's got such a rich connection point in thinking about Lakoff & Johnson's "Metaphors We Live By" -- the physicality to language that maybe does reflect and relate to the physicality of land?
Yes.
And I was thinking about "how to read"... a map or a sentence. And that the former has been completely abandoned and the later considered unrequired. But learning to read each is invaluable in attempting navigation.
We're making our way to diagraming sentences, aren't we? (I love diagraming sentences.) What I always found valuable about that was in learning a foreign language. It's exactly what you're saying: mapping. I only learned German and Russian, and in both of them objects and cases are really important. There's a cartographical quality to learning how it works.
I love the way you put it: "learning to read each is invaluable in attempting navigation."
I never got around to reading that chapter and don't know his stuff, so now I'm really curious how much your review would bias me! I briefly checked out a couple of the more high-profile reviews in the big media outlets - they looked to be blandly positive in that New York Times kind of way.
Maybe I'll post something back on the Freyfogle thread eventually if it's not too late. Took a few notes on that last month but then got caught up by other things and haven't revisited.
I did wait on this just to give people a chance to read it on their own. That particular selection isn't that bad by comparison to a lot of it.
I read "Land" right when it came out, and then spent a couple of weeks regularly checking around the internet to see if *anyone* had written anything remotely critical of it. All I could find was the kind of blandly positive you describe. Even outlets I would have thought would make such a high-profile writer a priority didn't touch it. It was really disappointing, though I do understand how all of our various communities work. Not to put too fine a point on it, I can see avoiding any criticism of someone of this stature being standard at most publications. No matter how well-deserved.
IT IS NEVER TOO LATE! On the Commons conversations never end :)
There's MANY other reasons not to be a fan of Ginsburg. We can start with Palestine and the First Amendment https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2020/09/rip-ruth-bader-ginsburg-notorious-rbg.html
I've never dived deeply into her opinions, but after reading that I'm kind of scared to?
She, er, pulled her punches a few times, including at the appellate level, perhaps eyeing a nomination.
Wow. Amazing review, me n my pile of topo maps thank you.
Thank you for reading! I would now please like an entire newsletter devoted to topo maps. I am *obsessed* with them, have been since I was a little kid. We’re clearly not alone!
Nope! I type poems on them too!
That is so cool! I'd love to see what that looks like.
Fuck this guy. I can assure him my rage has not "long ago ebbed" and it absolutely does not just simmer "in the far background."
I'm done with white historians. Absolutely done. Done with white dudes writing anything. Done, done, done.
I hate the whole thing so much I don’t even want to know where he’s coming from with any of that. I don’t care. I hate this book.
I even have this most recent collection of Barry Lopez essays I'm going to kick down the road unread. I've had it!
I hate to say this but I read an older essay of Lopez’s on one of my run-away-to-cabin work days, and had a few moments of “ugh.” I’m afraid I no longer feel bad about never having read one of his books.
As you mentioned, he WROTE A BOOK ABOUT WORDS.
Big oof.
I mean! That book came out when I was a barely starting mid-20s copy editor and it was very influential in how I think about words, dictionaries, language, …
I might have to give it a reread because now I'm wondering if it suffers from the same colonial attitude, but maybe more hidden by the subject matter.
I was wondering the same thing, to be honest. I bet there is a lot in those earlier books that I never noticed at the time :/