17 days ago
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Posted On: October 19th 2026, 02:09 pm
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#review / We Radiant Things by Franny Choi
Last week I had one of those perfect evenings. The sun was still up and not quite set, I could sit outside comfortably, I was at my favorite third space — a little coffee / bottle shop that almost is never busy — outside at a picnic table. There is a big open lot to the left where a garden used to be, which I loved, but I don’t mind the days like this when I can see kids playing on the other side of the fence — just being kids under the ever speeding setting sun.
But this is not what I want to focus on right now, I’m here to talk about this book by Franny Choi, a collection of essays that has captured all my attention and praise.
It is an exploration into the representations of Asian femmes as cyborgs/robots in popular media and language to uncover what this means for how we’ve historically understood race, sexuality, labor, and technology, among many other things.
> continued on the next slide
In short, what does it mean to continually be compared to robots, the model citizens, the objects of objectification? And I think it offers a hopeful question of how does one you escape the pressure to prove they are worthy of, well, anything.
One thing about reading essays that rely heavily on popular culture is, at least for myself, much of their relevance comes from being able to relate to the references, to be near the time or the range of events where you too feel included. This is all to say I feel luckily to be in the audience of those who grew up with the Terminator, or remember watching Ex Machina for the first time. Choi is a great companion, I’m learning from her, seeing the parallels she seamlessly paints connecting historical past to the very current present — all alongside her own story. Like all great writing she’s making be question and confront things I haven’t before.
The last two days I’ve been rereading and relistening to the same portion in the I, Roomba chapter — about technology and its promise to free up time for us — most often the white majority — but how really, this time isn’t allowed for peace or rest, it’s just time back to be more efficient in other ways.
It makes me think of all the AI
Last week I had one of those perfect evenings. The sun was still up and not quite set, I could sit outside comfortably, I was at my favorite third space — a little coffee / bottle shop that almost is never busy — outside at a picnic table. There is a big open lot to the left where a garden used to be, which I loved, but I don’t mind the days like this when I can see kids playing on the other side of the fence — just being kids under the ever speeding setting sun.
But this is not what I want to focus on right now, I’m here to talk about this book by Franny Choi, a collection of essays that has captured all my attention and praise.
It is an exploration into the representations of Asian femmes as cyborgs/robots in popular media and language to uncover what this means for how we’ve historically understood race, sexuality, labor, and technology, among many other things.
> continued on the next slide
In short, what does it mean to continually be compared to robots, the model citizens, the objects of objectification? And I think it offers a hopeful question of how does one you escape the pressure to prove they are worthy of, well, anything.
One thing about reading essays that rely heavily on popular culture is, at least for myself, much of their relevance comes from being able to relate to the references, to be near the time or the range of events where you too feel included. This is all to say I feel luckily to be in the audience of those who grew up with the Terminator, or remember watching Ex Machina for the first time. Choi is a great companion, I’m learning from her, seeing the parallels she seamlessly paints connecting historical past to the very current present — all alongside her own story. Like all great writing she’s making be question and confront things I haven’t before.
The last two days I’ve been rereading and relistening to the same portion in the I, Roomba chapter — about technology and its promise to free up time for us — most often the white majority — but how really, this time isn’t allowed for peace or rest, it’s just time back to be more efficient in other ways.
It makes me think of all the AI
Comments (3)
17 days agosilviaalmeidax
this book sounds so important and amazing! have never heard of it before so adding to my list right now!
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