{"id":4702,"date":"2022-02-09T19:17:38","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T19:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=4702"},"modified":"2022-02-09T19:20:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T19:20:53","slug":"how-to-be-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/09\/how-to-be-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Be Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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How to Be Human<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Christman\u2019s new collection is humorous, vulnerable, and impressive in equal measure.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Review by Hayden Kvamme<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In How to be Normal<\/em>, Phil Christman tackles some of the topics that threaten to tear America apart: gender, race, culture, faith, and family, to name a few. The result is a series of essays humorous, vulnerable, and impressive in equal measure. Perhaps above all, though, the book succeeds by daring the reader to engage these issues seriously without closing herself off to the possibility of being surprised or even delighted in ways she least expected.<\/p>

How does Christman accomplish this? For one thing, the persuasive power of the book works beneath the surface. Christman has little interest in making sure you agree with him (though, don\u2019t get me wrong, he\u2019d be glad if you did). With their suggestive, playful tone rooted in anecdote and reflection, the essays elude straightforward analysis. The effect is to invite the reader to come alongside the author, as if sharing an afternoon coffee on a break, rather than sitting nervously alone at a desk, pen in hand, waiting for him to slip up. It\u2019s not that Christman makes any attempt to hide his leftist take\u2014he doesn\u2019t. His perspective, though, doesn\u2019t hinder his openness.<\/p>

While the essays can stand alone, there is a flow to the sequence. Each essay explores stereotypes and generalizations from all sides of the ideological spectrum juxtaposed with Christman\u2019s personal experiences and reflections. Each time, some kind of tension develops between them. Yet it\u2019s not that he finds his life or that of his associates exceptional. Quite the opposite\u2014and that seems to be the point. In the first essay, for instance, on masculinity, Christman freely admits his male privilege and agrees with the point his coworker intends to make when she says, \u201cAs a man, you never think about how much space you take up.\u201d Yet he goes on to relate humorous experiences from his own life that demonstrate, as he says to the reader, that \u201cthe wording of the statement is so literally false in my case.\u201d Whether at the gym, in the workplace, or on social media, Christman is constantly fretting about the space he takes up. Even here, his tone lacks any stench of defensiveness, so that even a skeptical reader is beckoned on. All of this opens the door to his deeper analysis, which culminates in an exchange he has with his wife, who finally calls him on upholding some, in her words, \u201chierarchical bullshit.\u201d Christman quips, \u201cI cannot quite accept the emotional consequences of this, but I know she is right.\u201d A similar tone is struck in the essays on whiteness, bad movies, middlebrow, and faith that follow.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Christman\u2019s voice is marked by a genuine, successful effort at \u201csolidarity with regular people\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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For all its reach, though, the work inevitably has a few blind spots. In the essay on whiteness, for instance, full endorsements of popular anti-racist works are few and far between, for good reasons which Christman explores well. Nevertheless, this can leave the reader a bit squirmy, wondering what Christman makes of, say, The New Jim Crow<\/em> or The Color of Law<\/em> (neither of which make an appearance). Readers could likely cite similar examples in other essays. For Christman, though, one can imagine these criticisms becoming genuine conversation starters. These are certainly the places where I\u2019d want to begin once the coffee was poured. And that\u2019s just it: one gets the feeling Christman would take the time to sit down for the chat with grace and honesty.<\/p>

In one of the later essays of the book, Christman focuses on Mark Fisher. Reflecting on Fisher\u2019s engagement with the likes of \u201cLyotard, Lacan, and Deleuze,\u201d Christman concludes that Fisher\u2019s books that deal heavily with these figures don\u2019t feel<\/em> heavy or difficult: perhaps Fisher\u2019s greatest talent was his ability to talk about these thinkers in a way that made their ideas practical and useful. These writers generally strike me as obscurantist to the point of dishonesty; I have never trusted them, and yet there is something in Fisher\u2019s authorial voice that makes me trust him<\/em>. Reading him is like taking a brisk walk with your smartest friend.<\/p>

Christman\u2019s authorial voice makes a similar impact. Like Fisher\u2019s, Christman\u2019s voice is marked by a genuine, successful effort at \u201csolidarity with regular people.\u201d This isn\u2019t just a neat trick, or great writing, but approaches what seems to be the heart of the matter for Christman. As he writes at the end of the introduction, \u201cOur only home is each other.\u201d The rest of the book, like an improv soloist, takes that premise and runs with it in a myriad of directions, gaining depth as it goes.<\/p>

In Jesus\u2019s parable of the prodigal son, love between father and son looms large. (So it is for Christman, whose own father\u2019s love shaped him in profound ways.) Yet, like the first hearers of the parable, so the reader of How to be Normal<\/em> stands in the place not of the younger son but of the older: on the edge, perhaps unsure of whether to join the celebration. The trouble, of course, is that at the table are all kinds: tax collectors, sinners, elites, zealots, anti-maskers, zoomers, and everyone in between. Sitting at the table, Christman\u2019s invitation isn\u2019t so much to normalcy as to humanity. You might not always agree with the person sitting across from you, let alone Christman himself. But as the pages turn, Christman isn\u2019t asking for your ear; instead, he is lending his own, open to surprise and possibility. He\u2019s lending it not just to you, but to your estranged father, or crazy aunt, or that coworker you can\u2019t stand. We might as well sit down and see how it goes.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Hayden Kvamme<\/strong>\u00a0is an associate pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Rochester, Minnesota, where he shares in all aspects of pastoral ministry. A math major at Dartmouth, Hayden graduated from Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, IA, where he wrote his thesis,\u00a0The Character of the Justified Sinner: A Christological Account of the Formative Power of Worship<\/em>\u00a0in conversation with James K. A. Smith\u2019s Cultural Liturgies\u00a0series.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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How to Be Normal<\/strong> was published by Belt Publishing on February 1, 2022. Fare Forward appreciates their provision of a review copy. You can purchase your own copy on their website here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil Christman\u2018s new collection is humorous, vulnerable, and impressive in equal 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