Lauren Berlant's "The Female Complaint" delves into the experiences of women and girls within a patriarchal society. The book explores the ways in which women's complaints and expressions of dissatisfaction are often dismissed or ignored. Berlant examines the historical and cultural contexts that shape women's experiences and the ways in which these experiences are understood and represented. The book challenges traditional notions of femininity and explores the complexities of gender and power. "The Female Complaint" offers a nuanced and critical perspective on women's lives and the ongoing struggle for gender equality.
This autobiography provides a candid look into the life of Nina Simone, from her childhood as a piano prodigy in North Carolina to her rise as a renowned singer and civil rights activist. The book, written with Stephen Cleary, includes her experiences with racism, her relationships, and her struggles with mental health and personal misfortunes. It also highlights her significant contributions to music and her involvement in the civil rights movement, influenced by her friendship with Lorraine Hansberry and her reaction to the deaths of key figures like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.[1][3][4]
This graphic memoir is a companion piece to Bechdel's earlier work 'Fun Home', which dealt with her relationship with her father. 'Are You My Mother?' delves into Bechdel's relationship with her mother, an unaffectionate amateur actor trapped in a marriage to a closeted homosexual. The book interweaves memoir with psychoanalysis, drawing on the works of Donald Winnicott, Virginia Woolf, and other literary figures. It follows Bechdel's quest to understand her mother through dreams, therapy sessions, and personal reflections, ultimately concluding on a note of acceptance and appreciation for the complexities of their relationship.
Abby and Patrick welcome writer and scholar Jordan Stein to tackle a fundamental psychoanalytic concept that’s also a fundamentally slippery one: fantasy. What, exactly, are these things we call “fantasies,” which arise in a liminal zone between what we consciously, intentionally imagine and what seems to come to us, unbidden, from the unconscious? How do fantasies straddle the gaps between the real world as we understand it, scenarios we know to be impossible, and things we try, nonetheless, to envision otherwise? How is fantasy different from desire? And above all, how what does fantasy reflect our understandings of other people, living or dead, whom we may “know” only via the popular imagination, as cultural figures, and yet who come to play crucial roles in our own self-fashioning and navigation of life events? Jordan’s wonderful new book, Fantasies of Nina Simone, offers a perfect springboard for pursuing these questions, while also casting new light on the biography, oeuvre, and legacy of an artist whose ability to give literal voice to so many different characters and fantasies has few other parallels in twentieth century music. Abby, Patrick, and Jordan’s conversation ranges widely through Simone’s work, from her classic songbook standards to her transformational covers of singers as from Bob Dylan to Sinatra to the Bee Gees, and explores what we know, and what we can only fantasize about, her personal transformations, political engagements, and singular expressions of joy, loneliness, yearning, and so much more.
Books by Jordan Alexander Stein: Fantasies of Nina Simone, Avidly Reads Theory, When Novels Were Books.
A Spotify playlist for Fantasies of Nina Simone is available at: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6QUnsR5Pl8qbQ1jzqYLb0a
Have you noticed that Freud is back? Got questions about psychoanalysis? Or maybe you’ve traversed the fantasy and lived to tell the tale? Leave us a voicemail! (646) 450-0847
A podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now. New episodes on Saturdays. Follow us on social media:
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Ordinary Unhappiness 
