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Title: Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (Crossing Press Feminist Series) by Audre Lorde ISBN: 0-89594-122-8 Publisher: Crossing Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1983 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Memorable Portrait of a Difficult Life Shaped By Zami
Comment: In "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name: A Biomythography," Audre Lorde writes that "[e]very woman I have ever loved has left her print upon me." Thus, "Zami" serves as a window into Lorde's experiences with other women-especially her mother-who informed and shaped her life from childhood into adulthood within the context of romantic links and friendships, especially during turbulent and conflicting periods in American history. For example, Lorde describes a difficult childhood at school and at home during the poverty ridden 1930s. Especially revealing about this moment in time is Lorde's fascination with her mother's strength and courage amidst racial discrimination-which, according to Lorde, went unnamed. As a result, she grew up in a world where difference was much more assumed rather than defined and interrogated.
Consequently, this colored Lorde's world later as she formed special bonds with other women, which she termed "The Branded," a group of Lorde's "sisterhood of rebels," who used difference as a bond to challenge the status quo. This form of difference became pronounced, in addition to racial and gender difference, when sexuality became a threat during an intense anti-communist hysteria in the 1950s, which equated homosexuality with communist affiliation. In sum; to be black, female and queer in white McCarthy Amerika was a triple threat from which loneliness would emerge as a central factor plaguing Lorde's life.
However, Lorde's romantic links and friendships with other women would shape her survival and leave an everlasting legacy for later generations of lesbian women, especially black lesbian women. Tragically, some of Lorde's experiences with love and friendships were shattered by loss and mourning. Nevertheless, the collected instances of intimacy with other women shaped her life as a queer woman of color defining "Zami," a term specifying women working in unison as lovers and/or friends.
Lorde meticulously unfolds her narrative by using imagery and symbols as a way from which to tell her life story on an intimate level. The choice of words and images are compelling. For example, her trip to Mexico is described so vividly that I almost feel as I am there. Her description of New York gave me a sense of what life was like during a poverty ridden period in an urban setting. The description of clothes, faces, and bodies-especially within an erotic context-are remarkable. In sum, Lorde was a poet genius in her prose alongside her poetry.
"Zami" is an excellent read for courses in Women's Studies, Women's History, Women's Autobiography, African American Studies, Queer Studies, Lesbian and Gay Studies, and ethnic studies.
Rating: 3
Summary: Fascinating, but also commonplace
Comment: A strong voice in both African-American women's literature and lesbian literature, Audre Lorde is likely someone as alien to my experience as anyone could possibly be. Well, at least someone who was born and raised in the U.S. At first, I found this biography fascinating, but it began to tire me about halfway through. I don't know what I was expecting, but I felt like everything was commonplace, rather than distinct and unique.
But then, maybe that's her point. That lesbians, blacks, women, or what-have-you, are commonplace. That they are no more objects for sensationalism or titillation than yourself. Yes, there might be some individuals who live exciting lives, but the vast majority of them are the same vast majority of all of us, living quiet lives of trials and joys, successes and failures. This is likely the reason why Lorde does not talk about her success as a poet or writer, instead trying to focus the reader on her life as a life of the ultimate minority in society, who has the same humanity as anyone, but suffers under the present system.
For further reading, I would like to check out Lorde's poetry, to see if that is more appealing to me in its artistry.
Rating: 1
Summary: Worthless Dravel Masking Itself As A Book of Substance
Comment: The Dipper is offended. A slightly "odd" friend of mine recommended this book as an example of "why written words were invented". With that rather nebulous review in mind when I found this book in the nickel bin at a local flea market, I sat down to give it a try. See, The Dipper, is "open-minded"!!! Within the first few pages, the miasma began floating in the air. Soon, I was rummaging in my closet for my hip-wader boots! "Biomythography"? Is that a wasting disease? "Zami"? Should I say "gesundheit" after someone makes that sound and hand them an anti-bacterial tissue with lotion? The most ludicrous waste of ink and paper was the part where a character spent time with a mortar and pestle grinding spices while blubbering on about something else. This sent the Dipper off to the copy machine at work to photostat many copies of a smiling Rudy Guiliani. I read a few more pages to confirm that this book was in fact the piffle I suspected. Upon quick confirmation, I snuck out a side door at the office with the Rudy pictures, the offending "Zami, a New Spelling of My Name", a metal wastepaper basket, and a Zippo lighter. Audre Lorde's best work went up in flames by the dumpster as Smiling Rudy looked on in approval and your's truly did the Dipper VooDoo Dance around the basket. Recycling is a great thing and Dipper is proud to do his part! Save your nickel!!!
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Title: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Crossing Press Feminist Series) by Audre Lorde ISBN: 0895941414 Publisher: Crossing Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1984 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us by Kate Bornstein ISBN: 0679757015 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 April, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde ISBN: 0393319725 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (Between Men--Between Women) by Lillian Faderman ISBN: 0140171223 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Becoming a Man : Half a Life Story by Paul Monette ISBN: 0062507249 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 11 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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