Lessons for Survival: Mothering in "the Apocalypse" by Emily Raboteau.
No spoiler recommendation : Lessons for Survival is a collection of essays focusing on the authors experiences (making it somewhat of a memoir as well). The dominant themes of the book are climate change, environmental justice, racism, and life in a city, and how to raise children despite all of these threats, and if you ask me (which is why you're here), I think she does a great job at weaving these themes together to address the intersectionality between all these topics. Despite it's themes, this is not a political theory book or anything like that, all of the reflections and themes are sewn in through moments in Raboteau's life, such as her experience looking for murals of birds throughout the city, which I think makes the read much more engaging and applied than somewhat abstract political books (nothing against them but frankly they never seem to stick in mind very much). If you find these themes interesting and enjoy a good essay/memior collection, I'd highly reccomend reading this book.
Thoughts: The preface of this book sets up its themes and core perfectly, talking about her baby shower and the questions bringing a child into todays world bring. Is it a good time? Am I bringing my children into a doomed situation? To quote the book, "What does it mean to survive in the midst of protracted crises; to continually renegotiate threats against life; to cope; to stare grim asymmetries of power in the face...All of these interrogations are driven by the question that keeps me up at night: Will my children be all right when I'm gone?".
After the preface, Raboteau opens talking about the Audubon Mural Project, as she lives in the area the project is taking place and thus comes across these bird murals while walking with her kids or walking to work. These murals become a connecting point throughout the book, weaving together themes of ecological collapse (the project is meant to depicit species that Audubon's 2019 report stated were at threat of extinction because of climate change) and environmental justice (many of the murals are painted on metal store shutters in low-income, majority black communitites that often were priced out of "green projects" or got the short-end of the stick for construction projects like the waste-water treatment facility she mentions being nearby). Personally, I think this a great center for the essays she includes here. She compares her experience with the murals akin to birdwatching, trying to find them without a guide, admire their form, and reflect on ideas they encompass; it does remind me of real birdwatching, which is also a activity that is well-known for being dominated by middle-to-upper class white men and further complicated for those that live in a big city (not well-known for being hospitable to many bird species).
The second chapter, Caution, is about pain and our system's contribute and inability to fix it. The author appears to have some issue with her spine, causing a litany of chronic pains and restrictions of movement. But despite the Raboteu understanding that something is wrong, doctors, witches, acupuncturists, and all other forms of treatment she attempts tell her there is nothing physically wrong with her, it has to be in her head, whether that's said in a "it's all in your head so stop wasting my time" way or a "it must be the trauma of your ancestors weighing on you" way.
A lot of the third chapter, and maybe the book at large, is about differing viewpoints. How's she's wanderings New York streets as various different kinds of people, and how that affected how she saw the same old streets and places, and of course it focuses hardest on her worldviews shift as she became a mother (guys, the book with the subtitle mothering in the apocalypse has a significant portion of it dedicated to being a parent? insane...). She also uses her view as a mother to fully highly the social segregation present in the city, and how difficult it is to navigate. But she still throws a little light into the chapter, with the ending talk about her son's first crush, which was genuinely a very nice scene and I think a gentle endcap to the chapter.
Okay I need to stop just paraphrasing the chapters; what is this a Youtube media analysis video??? The Know Your Rights mural section is great; I do love that throughout this whole book she finds stories and such in her own life to really pick at the topics she's writing essays on, racial discrimination, police brutality, and art in this case. And, of course, the topics are brought back to "parenting in The Apocalypase" as she becomes conflicted at what age should she give her young kids The Talk.
The chapter on the roadwork climate-change signs has to be one of my favorites in the whole book (and it is one of the longest). The reflection on a incoming climate catastrophy while also looking at how the impacts will the black and brown communities of New York City more is done perfectly through her journery to find all the project signs in NYC. And the fact she literally calls up the artists to get their word on it too? You don't see that very often, she engages herself so fully with the art and message you can't help but want to engage as hard as she is. Rahhhhhh, all my essay enjoys read this shit NOW.
