Bracing cultural criticism flows from the pen of Elaine Castillo
Boundless erudition and eloquent exasperation define Elaine Castillo鈥檚 debut nonfiction, 鈥淗ow to Read Now,鈥� an incandescent collection of essays that provokes and discomfits, but ultimately engages, edifies, and thoroughly entertains. 鈥淥f course, How to Read Now runs off the tongue a little easier than How to Dismantle Your Entire Critical Apparatus,鈥� she writes, but that鈥檚 exactly what can make people better, stronger, smarter readers.聽
Castillo鈥檚 2018 debut novel, 鈥淎merica Is Not the Heart鈥� 鈥� both a nod and challenge to Carlos Bulosan鈥檚 classic, 鈥淎merica Is in the Heart鈥� 鈥� was critically lauded, nominated for significant awards, best-of listed, and earned her the designation of being one of Financial Times鈥� The shrewd insights she wove into her fiction 鈥� about identity, inequity, immigration, politics 鈥� rise brilliantly to the surface here, shining with piercing truth, bolstered with significant research (20 annotated pages of works cited), and tempered with surprising humor.聽
Castillo, whose father was a security guard and her mother a nurse originally from the Philippines, was raised in Milpitas, California, in the 1980s and 鈥�90s 鈥� then a town of mostly Filipino, Vietnamese, and Mexican working-class immigrant families. Castillo credits her father with making her 鈥渁n inveterate reader all [her] life.鈥� By middle school, she was reading Plato鈥檚 鈥淪ymposium,鈥� 鈥渁 fact that none of my white teachers believed, and in fact actively and aggressively tried to disprove 鈥� another lesson familiar to many kids of color I know.鈥� With her father as guide, she continued to defy expectations 鈥渢o read across borders, and to read in translation.鈥澛�
To be an 鈥渦nexpected reader,鈥� she insists, 鈥渉as turned out to be the most valuable gift of my intellectual life.鈥� The unexpected reader, she explains, 鈥渋s someone who was not remotely imagined 鈥� maybe not even imaginable 鈥� by the creator of that artwork or anyone in its scope.鈥� By being that unexpected reader, Castillo can point out the careless violence, misogyny, and racism in controversial Nobel Prize-winning writer Peter Handke鈥檚 novel 鈥淎cross.鈥� She can recognize beloved Jane Austen characters as 鈥渆ntwined with Britain鈥檚 empire and slave economy.鈥澛� She critiques the author of the bestselling novel 鈥淎merican Dirt鈥� as 鈥渁 white woman monetizing border trauma to hawk at predominantly white suburban readers.鈥澛�
Each of her essays has indelible lessons to explore and absorb. The titular 鈥淗ow to Read Now鈥� begins with 鈥淲hite supremacy makes for terrible readers,鈥� confronting the detrimental effects of assumptions that center the experiences and viewpoints of white people. Reading, she also reminds us, doesn鈥檛 happen only on the page: 鈥淚鈥檓 talking about how to read our world now. How to read films, TV shows, our history, each other. How to dismantle the forms of interpretation we鈥檝e inherited; how those ways of interpreting are everywhere and unseen.鈥澛�
In 鈥淩eading Teaches Empathy, and Other Fictions鈥� 鈥� arguably the strongest among an already essential collection 鈥� Castillo challenges the well-intentioned platitude 鈥渢hat reading more and more diversely will somehow build the muscles in us that will help us see other people as human.鈥� Her reaction is blunt: such a superficial attitude diminishes writers of color into 鈥渓ittle more than ethnographers,鈥� the reading experience akin to 鈥渁 quick zoo visit.鈥� 鈥淭he result is that we largely end up going to writers of color to learn the specific 鈥� and go to white writers to feel the universal.鈥澛�
This is not a collection of essays to race through; instead, it should be read thoughtfully and with an open mind to encourage fresh understanding. Castillo refers to Toni Morrison鈥檚 鈥淧laying in the Dark,鈥� published in 1992, as the 鈥渦rtext on the insidious racial backbone of our reading culture鈥� and yet she was alarmed to learn how few people had read it when she referenced the work on her book tour. Three decades later, pairing 鈥淧laying in the Dark鈥� with 鈥淗ow to Read Now鈥� seems a foolproof means to becoming better readers.
Terry Hong writes the blog for the .听听
