Minor Feelings Audiobook
Jessica Wade
A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness and the struggle to be human
“Brilliant . . . To read this book is to become more human.” —Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen
Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative—and its relentless and riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world.
Binding these essays together is Hong’s theory of “minor feelings.” As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these “minor feelings” occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality—when you believe the lies you’re told about your own racial identity. Minor feelings are not small, they’re dissonant—and in their tension Hong finds the key to the questions that haunt her.
With sly humor and a poet’s searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche—and of a writer’s search to both uncover and speak the truth.
"Asian Americans inhabit a purgatorial status: neither white enough nor black enough, unmentioned in most conversations about racial identity. In the popular imagination, Asian Americans are all high-achieving professionals. But in reality, this is the most economically divided group in the country, a tenuous alliance of people with roots from South Asia to East Asia to the Pacific Islands, from tech millionaires to service industry laborers. How do we speak honestly about the Asian American condition--if such a thing exists? Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively confronts this thorny subject, blending memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose the truth of racialized consciousness in America. Binding these essays together is Hong's theory of "minor feelings." As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these "minor feelings" occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality--when you believe the lies you're told about your own racial identity. With sly humor and a poet's searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and artmaking, and to family and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche--and of a writer's search to both uncover and speak the truth"--
A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness and the struggle to be human. Hong blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose the truth of racialized consciousness in America. She believes that "minor feelings" occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality-- when you believe the lies you're told about your own racial identity. -- adapted from jacket
'Brilliant, penetrating and unforgettable, Minor Feelings is what was missing on our shelf of classics ... To read this book is to become more human' - Claudia Rankine author of Citizen
'Hong says the book was 'a dare to herself', and she makes good on it: by writing into the heart of her own discomfort, she emerges with a reckoning destined to be a classic' - Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts
What happens when an immigrant believes the lies they're told about their own racial identity?
The daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up in America steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these minor feelings occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality. With sly humour and a poet's searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and artmaking, and to family and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche - and of a writer's search to both uncover and speak the truth.
The daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up in America steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these "minor feelings" occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality. With sly humour and a poet's searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and artmaking, and to family and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche - and of a writer's search to both uncover and speak the truth.
Cathy Park Hong has written three books of poetry, and has received some of the most prestigious fellowships for her writing: the Windham-Campbell Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her essays have been cited by Claudia Rankine, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Ben Lerner, and have been called 'groundbreaking' (Granta) and the 'cornerstone of contemporary criticism' (Ploughshares).
Asian-Americans are a part of our society that no one knows much about, and not many consider them when they think of ethnic groups. The author, Cathy Park Hong, starts Minor Feelings with the premise that Asians are an ignored social category often carrying their lives in the shadows of other major ethnic groups.
Although ignorance can sometimes prove to be a good thing, too much of it can be a blessing in disguise. Living in the shadows of other ethnic groups in the USA, Asians grow up with a lack of presence making it difficult for them to create a strong impression.
She categorized her negative emotions and feelings of self-doubt, insecurity, and frustration as minor feelings, and never really considered them essential. When she was in a poor state of mind, she stumbled upon Richard Pryor, a black comedian who rose to fame by emphasizing racial discrepancies.
Finally, someone was saying what she was thinking out loud. However, even Pryor was talking about the differences between black and white people, never the Asians. To her and her community, they were still non-existent. When they did get a place in the spotlight, it was always accompanied by a negative event.
Her childhood was marked by feelings of shame and a constant struggle to fit in. At school, she was bullied. In society, she was feeling excluded, and so was her family. The people she looked up to and expected protection from were as vulnerable as she was. Growing up, childhood left a negative mark on her.
The United States is, at its core, a place for all individuals to live freely and engage in acts that serve their souls in a way that does not harm those around them. The theory sounds simple and it sparks emotion in everyone, but the practice beats us to it.
Hong was looking for ways to fit in and discover that sense of belonging during her teen years. She knew English was a weak spot for Asians in general, and that people would mock her even more for her poor vocabulary, so she picked up English literature.
In time, she found that poetry developed into a real passion, and so did art. She found a group of two friends that shared similar experiences in their background and loved art and poetry. Together, they were invincible, and they would understand each other better than anyone else.
For the author, this state of affairs had deeply affected her childhood and adult life, making her realize that she can either keep living in the shadows or form a voice that could speak up for her people.
The 27-year-old Asian American woman who wants to build a voice and feel heard, the 30-year-old person who wants to learn how to deal with racism, or the 40-year-old person who likes to educate themselves on racial biases, different ethnic groups, and the history of multiculturalism in the USA.
Audiobooks turn this metaphor literal. And, indeed, the author-read audiobook resurfaces and renews age-old scholarly debates. What do we make of authorial intent when the contemporary novelist offers a reading of their own novel? And what does the literal voice of an author have to do with the metaphorical voice of her writing? Perhaps most importantly, is the audiobook a unique or promising mechanism by which minority voices can chart a pathway between art, self, and self-representation?
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