No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies
A Lyric Essay
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A Michelle Obama Reach Higher Fall 2022 reading list pick
A Library Journal "BEST BOOK OF 2022"
"Aguon’s book is for everyone, but he challenges history by placing indigenous consciousness at the center of his project . . . the most tender polemic I’ve ever read."
—Lenika Cruz, The Atlantic
"It's clear [Aguon] poured his whole heart into this slim book . . . [his] sense of hope, fierce determination, and love for his people and culture permeates every page."
—Laura Sackton, BookRiot
Part memoir, part manifesto, Chamorro climate activist Julian Aguon’s No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies is a collection of essays on resistance, resilience, and collective power in the age of climate disaster; and a call for justice—for everyone, but in particular, for Indigenous peoples.
In bracing poetry and compelling prose, Aguon weaves together stories from his childhood in the villages of Guam with searing political commentary about matters ranging from nuclear weapons to global warming. Undertaking the work of bearing witness, wrestling with the most pressing questions of the modern day, and reckoning with the challenge of truth-telling in an era of rampant obfuscation, he culls from his own life experiences—from losing his father to pancreatic cancer to working for Mother Teresa to an edifying chance encounter with Sherman Alexie—to illuminate a collective path out of the darkness.
A powerful, bold, new voice writing at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental justice, Julian Aguon is entrenched in the struggles of the people of the Pacific to liberate themselves from colonial rule, defend their sacred sites, and obtain justice for generations of harm. In No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies, Aguon shares his wisdom and reflections on love, grief, joy, and triumph and extends an offer to join him in a hard-earned hope for a better world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this incandescent debut, human rights attorney Aguon celebrates the power of thought and literature through probing reflections on finding hope in the face of an "unforgiving timeline." Assuming "we have about eight years left to get our collective shit together... and ensure the future habitability of the earth," Aguon meditates on the ways that "bearing witness" can help foster change in a declining world. In "The Properties of Perpetual Light," he considers the brilliance of Black feminist Audre Lorde's words, which attempt to "close some gap between blindness and our better selves." The book's title essay, meanwhile, addresses the inescapable grip of colonialism on Guam, Aguon's homeland, while ruminating on his vision of a global justice movement anchored "in the intellectual contributions of Indigenous peoples... who have a unique capacity to resist despair through connection to collective memory." Looking to Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, Aguon urges readers to "listen to one's own heart.... anyone who interferes with another's destiny will never discover their own." In eloquent maxims that call forth comparisons to Thoreau, Aguon pits lofty ideals against a backdrop of racism, brutality, and habitat destruction, but optimism prevails: "What is hope," he wonders, "if not a stubborn chink of light in the dark?" This is bound to inspire any activist.
