Jasbir K. Puar

Jasbir Puar is hardcore. No one is safe from the wrath of her pen.

Combining theory, metaphor and oodles of concrete examples, Puar shows how certain groups of people are able to assimilate, how others use that selective assimilation as an excuse to consider themselves exceptional, and how the world of torture, terrorism, and its reflection in popular culture and academia sometimes act in tandem to oppress or erase unacceptable populations. The introduction and preface are both theory-heavy show more (and probably best read until after the rest of the text), but this is overall an engaging read. Of the dozens of scholarly monographs I've read to date, this stands in memory as one of the most passionate, and for monographs (which often run the diverse gamut from dry all the way to boring), this is an impressive feat. It doesn't hurt too that Puar's spectrum of resources - Judith Butler, art installments, Foucault, news articles, advertisements, South Park (yup), etc. - keep the writing entertaining even as the information she presents is often shocking, embarrassing, or depressing.

As far as scholarly monographs go, this lady is a rock star. Anyone interested in race and gender and sexuality studies shouldn't ignore this one. show less

Just so good--really dense at times, and there were things that felt like they should have been more incorporated (specifically the questions around It Gets Better, which seem in the preface like they would take up much more space than they did) but Puar's insights around debility will have me thinking through it for a long time afterwards, especially in conjunction with disability and disability studies. Super fascinating work, and such interesting parts about Israel and Palestine; the bit show more about IVF and pro-natalism in Israel especially, and the way that debility in Palestine manages to capture not just disability but also limitation of movement were so insightful. show less

I learned a lot more about biopolitics, particularly of the settler colonial state of Israel and how it mirrors some aspects of Nazi German. And how the continuation of the occupation requires international support for those living in this enclosed jail and this produces profit off of the suffering.

My recommendation - unless you're very familiar with cultural/postmodern/postcolonial theory (Deleuze and Guattari, Derrida, Hardt & Negri, Spivak, lots of others) - read the introduction, then skip to the end and read the conclusion. It has a lot of helpful definition-of-terms material that would have made the rest of the text a lot clearer if I'd read it first.