Experiments In Imagining Otherwise - Lola Olufemi

 

Borrowed from Alexandra. Started 13 April 2024.

(p.7) The future is no one's property; no need to shackle it.

(p.11) decide to become illegible, no universal, no binding struggle that means one thing only at any given time- only pockets of continuous action, non-action, faceless contribution, thankless labour, all in the spirit of quite simply, we will not tolerate suffering. repetition.

(p.17) 13. I want to spend my life in service to others. This is not a "human instinct"- it is a choice. I promise, above all, engagement with rigour, with integrity, to take you in, all of you, without pre-empting how we will fail one another.

(p.43) The way we talk about this life and living, the language we use, builds a kind of structure that turns the horizon (that point where potentiality meets the substance of our reality) into a mirage.

(p.51) "It's important we know how to defend ourselves when we are under attack. They are sending firing squads to kill us and calling it order."

(p.67) What good is it to talk about rights if we do not have means? I want to ask, how do "rights" fail us and what would happen if instead, we supported each other's claims to a liveable life? What does a "claim" do that a right cannot? What could a pact do?

(p.73) The general strike says: instead of working for the man, let's work for love, let's work for each other, let's work so nobody ever has to work again, let's work for song and for dance, let's work in service of pleasure. Let's work and work and work so finally we can talk about something other than work.

(p.77) repeat after me: the matter of how we should live will never be finished. i am going to be vulnerable here and say we have to be prepared to LOSE and lose and lose and lose.

(p.87) We make the mistake of believing that then is not also now. Time will come back around again, I promise. They'll say the same thing about us.

(p.119) WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO APPROACH LOVING THE EARTH?

To look at the soil and see more than dirt.

(p.133) She remained firm in the belief that freedom is not the ability to go anywhere one pleases, but rather the elimination of the need to escape.

Finished 20th of April. An absolutely amazing book, could not put it down. Kept picking it up.