Here we are again. Just two months ago in June, I wrote What to Read When You Are Skipping a Certain Military Parade. for Hill Rag and now District Resident are forced to endure yet another show of might by our President. In June, I shared a list of novels to consider, a bit of intentional summer reading which offered to shed light on our situation as a city which plays host to a bitter and power-obsessed movement. I concluded that article by saying, “While we may be shut up in our homes, or at least willfully avoiding certain goings-on, our minds are free to explore the realities presented by war and strife, and the blatant glorification of war itself, throughout history.” For many of us, that parade, our current situation, and the months following Jan. 6, 2021, have been sharp lessons in what it means to have power exercised upon the self. When I sat down to write the August Literary Hill column, I found myself back in those same emotions which I felt in June, and I felt on the afternoon of Jan. 6th: an individual watching a complex, beautiful city forced to play host to the terrible whims of power and might.
So, with those feelings in mind, I present to HillRag readers, The Occupied City Reading List. No novels, no histories, but a short list of philosophy. I have heard time and again that no one reads, time and again that to present a reading list, like the one that follows, is a performative act. I reject such cynicism. If we do not take our personal philosophies seriously, we will lose ourselves in that cynical river which is our current descent into dictatorship. That is if we have not already been lost. . .
The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois
“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.”
We ought to be reminded that The District is one of the United States’ most diverse and complex cultural cities. To say that DC means something to black people all across the United States is an understatement. Du Bois’ 1903 The Souls of Black Folk is one of the most important works ever written in the United States, and indeed Du Bois’ notion of double-consciousness is as foundational to an understanding of the complexities of US American culture, as it is enriching of one’s own view of self. The Souls of Black Folk is available for free on Project Gutenberg.
Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa
“A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary.”
Anzaldúa’s 1987 Borderlands/La Frontera is a remarkably personal work of philosophy: poems are interwoven with complex essays on culture, gender, colonialism, and all of this writing makes up a complex and thoughtful work of intersectional feminism. One could, to my mind, reasonably claim that District Residents inhabit a democratic borderland, neither represented in a meaningful way within the Federal Government, yet administered harshly by it. . .
Pilgrimages Peregrinajes by Maria Lugones
“There are “worlds” we enter at our own risk, “worlds” that have agon, conquest, and arrogance as the main ingredients in their ethos.”
This 2003 book by renowned feminist Maria Lugones presents readers with two extremely thoughtful concepts, among many others in this vastly complex work: “world”-travel and loving perception. What Lugones does well to unpack for us, is how we intermingle with the cultures, powers, and ambitions of others: that is to say, she provides a very insightful way of looking at our intersections. For District Residents, this is deeply complicated by how we are represented in the Senate and the House. And now again, for District Residents, it is complicated further by who controls our police and the military presence in our city.
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
“Persecution of powerless or power-losing groups may not be a very pleasant spectacle, but it does not spring from human meanness alone.”
Arendt’s 1951 work was originally published in English rather than in German, the language she spoke in her family and at university. I do not need to connect the dots for you on why. I likewise do not need to do much explaining as to why this work is an essential read for not just District Residents experiencing this current moment, but for all US Americans.
So, take your personal philosophies seriously. Cynicism’s allegedly enlightened indifference will not reward you with anything other than bitterness. Du Bois, Anzaldúa, Lugones, and Arendt all offer us modes of thinking, by which we can be the mechanism of our own intellectual development. And by engaging that mechanism, we may eventually, and collectively, find our way out of this mess, if it is not too late.
And also, fellow neighbors: please be safe.
George Koors is a novelist and is the author of Sing Lazarus and Always the Wanderer. You can email him at georgekoors.iv@gmail.com, follow him on Instagram or YouTube @gbk7288, or visit his website georgekoors.com.