I’m an active reader and movie watcher, but there are so many things out there that I would normally never pick up or choose to watch unless prompted by a class. But some of these things I’ve discovered because of an assigned reading/viewing have ended up being incredibly moving, life-changing pieces of work for me. And hey, if sharing them can move someone else as much as they moved me, I’ve done my job. So here are my top 3 favorite assigned reads—because if you’ve taken a film class, those are basically the equivalent of required readings—I’ve read so far at Denison.
Parable of the Sower, octavia e. Butler
A recent class read, this was the first assigned novel for my “Afrofuturism” class, an English/Black Studies course that has been fun and enlightening since day 1. For those unfamiliar, Afrofuturism is a movement and aesthetic in film, literature, music, etc., based on black Americans’ reclamation of their history and creating the possibility of their futures undefined by white influences, creating media that surrounds black-centered characters and often uses non-western narratives. Some modern examples would include “Black Panther,” the Black Panther Marvel comics, Janelle Monaé’s album “Dirty Computer” (as well as many others, she’s a huge practitioner of the aesthetic), “Spider Man Into the Spiderverse,” and the music of Sun Ra.
This story begins in 2024 in a post-apocalyptic California. The world has turned completely anarchical, decimated by climate change, and with poverty having turned the majority of the population into thieves, scavengers, or drug-fueled arsonists. Protagonist Lauren Oya Olamina is a young woman living in her walled community, of impoverished, but surviving people. She is a survivalist at heart, determined to find a way to survive when the inevitable destruction of her community by scavengers occurs. She is also in the process of developing her own religion, Earthseed, based on principals of change and human conviction. It’s a really fascinating religion, I suggest reading the book just for it!
The book is a Nebula Award Nominee—a huge deal for any sci-fi fiction lover—and in 2020 the book became a New York Times bestseller, which introduced it into the cultural consciousness of many. Octavia Butler is a pioneer for sci-fi writing, and an absolute gemstone for black female authors, especially in such a white male-dominated sub-genre. She handles complex thematics with interest and ease—she’s very easy to read and completely absorbed.
Moonlight (2016), dir. barry jenkins
You might know Moonlight as the movie that trumped La La Land in the 2016 Oscars for Best Picture, with some of its spotlight taken away by the accidental announcement of La La Land instead. I’ve found that when most non-film buffs think of 2016, they think of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and hardly know Trevante Rhodes and Mahershala Ali.
Moonlight is told in 3 acts: “Little,” “Black,” and “Chiron,” which follow Chiron, a young, black, closeted gay man through his life in impoverished Florida at three different stages of his life. The story grapples with masculinity, street and drug culture, and the intersection between queer and black identity. Each arc has an incredibly impactful climatic moment, and paints a picture of a character that despite being so incredibly different from me, I found myself empathizing with.
The film really is visually beautiful too. The colors are beyond stunning, creating stark contrasts of hazy light against dark skin, and blending a wash of blue moonlight against the ocean horizon. The acting is magnetic; Mahershala Ali’s win for Best Supporting Actor was more than deserved. Pretty much everything about it is spot on from the writing to the cinematography. The film is an 111-minute boundary-pusher that you won’t want to miss.
Notes of a crocodile, qiu miaojin
My Taiwanese Women’s Literature class was… an experience to say the least. By far one of the most rigorous classes I’ve taken in terms of workload. But honestly, it was worth it just to be able to discover this book. I closed the cover back in December of 2022, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
The book is an esoteric and visceral exploration of lesbian and other queer experiences in post-martial-law Taiwan, circa 1980s. The work is very psychological and delves into the protagonist Lazi’s (pronounced “La-Tzu”) counter-cultural grappling of homosexuality, fatalism, and attempts to find a true connection (romantic or platonic) with her similarly outcast peers. There is another notable character, an anthropomorphic crocodile disguised as a human leaving journal entries—the titular “notes”—which metaphorically explores what it means to live closeted in a heteronormative society.
This book was written in 1994 by Taiwanese author Qiu Miaojin and serves as a cornerstone of queer understanding and cultural evolution in Taiwan. Her avant-garde approach is inspired by writers such as Haruki Murakami and postmodern filmmakers such as Francois Truffaut—The 400 Blows is an important reference point in the novel. The author herself is fascinating, her life defined by artistry and struggle. Her suicide at 26 made her a “martyr” for LGBTQ rights in East Asia; but out of that hardship, she provided a beacon of understanding that has come to mean survival for queer people, specifically in oppressive countries, but has been able to speak to us around the world.
I know that this book helped me, in whatever small way, to understand myself, and I hope that experience can be found in other young queer people as well. Though of course, you don’t have to be queer to appreciate the depth and complexity of this novel. We should always be reading about identities different from our own!
