Special Topics in Being a Human

272 pages

English language

Published Sept. 9, 2021 by Arsenal Pulp Press.

ISBN:: 9781551528540

(1 review)

As an author, educator, and public speaker, S. Bear Bergman has documented his experience as, among other things, a trans parent, with wit and aplomb. He also writes the advice column “Ask Bear,” in which he answers crucial questions about how best to make our collective way through the world.

Featuring disarming illustrations by Saul Freedman-Lawson, Special Topics in Being a Human elaborates on “Asking Bear”’s premise: a gentle, witty, and insightful book of practical advice for the modern age. It offers Dad advice and Jewish bubbe wisdom, all filtered through a queer lens, to help you navigate some of the complexities of life—from how to make big decisions or make a good apology, to how to get someone’s new name and pronouns right as quickly as possible, to how to gracefully navigate a breakup. With warmth and candor, Special Topics in Being a Human calls out social inequities and …

As an author, educator, and public speaker, S. Bear Bergman has documented his experience as, among other things, a trans parent, with wit and aplomb. He also writes the advice column “Ask Bear,” in which he answers crucial questions about how best to make our collective way through the world.

Featuring disarming illustrations by Saul Freedman-Lawson, Special Topics in Being a Human elaborates on “Asking Bear”’s premise: a gentle, witty, and insightful book of practical advice for the modern age. It offers Dad advice and Jewish bubbe wisdom, all filtered through a queer lens, to help you navigate some of the complexities of life—from how to make big decisions or make a good apology, to how to get someone’s new name and pronouns right as quickly as possible, to how to gracefully navigate a breakup. With warmth and candor, Special Topics in Being a Human calls out social inequities and injustices in traditional advice-giving, validates your feelings, asks a lot of questions, and tries to help you be your best possible self with kindness, compassion, and humor.

1 edition

raveller reviewed Special Topics in Being a Human by S. Bear Bergman

Beautiful and something I'd want to keep close

5 stars

We all have the public, achievement, visible side of our lives. And then the parts of our life that may or may not be visible, but that's how we are really doing. That's what we really want to talk about. That's where the heartbreak is. This book is a guide to the heartbreak parts, to how we are really doing. Not a self-help book about how to get through school or your first job, but about how to get through the heartbreak and feelings of rejection or the true friendships or how to take steps toward what makes your heart soar. It's like the essential oil of advice columnists, the part where they reflect back to you what your real concerns and priorities are.

I want to gift this book as a sweet 16 present, a graduation present, a 40th birthday present, to just about everyone as well as myself. …

We all have the public, achievement, visible side of our lives. And then the parts of our life that may or may not be visible, but that's how we are really doing. That's what we really want to talk about. That's where the heartbreak is. This book is a guide to the heartbreak parts, to how we are really doing. Not a self-help book about how to get through school or your first job, but about how to get through the heartbreak and feelings of rejection or the true friendships or how to take steps toward what makes your heart soar. It's like the essential oil of advice columnists, the part where they reflect back to you what your real concerns and priorities are.

I want to gift this book as a sweet 16 present, a graduation present, a 40th birthday present, to just about everyone as well as myself. It's one of those books where you don't really read it, you work through a page and then let that page ferment in your mind for a month.

It helps with some of the trickiest things. How to know when your instincts are telling you no versus when your conditioning or that critical voice in your head is undermining your dreams. How to thrive where there is no time, no money, no rest. How to apologize. How to argue. How to receive a compliment or criticism. Not just "you should accept compliments" but how to actually do these things, step by step, with illustrations and bullet points. Like "how to be a better human for dummies." Without universalizing, without skirting over the our entanglement in imperialist white supremacist heteropatriarchy.

I need my own copy to refer to and another to cut out and make posters for my wall.