HATE: The Uses of a Powerful Emotion, does what it says

HATE: The Uses of a Powerful Emotion
ŞEYDA KURT
Verso Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$9.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: A radical re-imaging of a revolutionary emotion. An international bestseller across Europe.

Who is allowed to hate? Hatred, this grating, corrosive feeling, is omnipresent, roaring from the streets or whispered in bourgeois homes. It thrives in parliamentary speeches, conspiracy theorists' fantasies and children's bedrooms—and certainly not in secret, even if many would like to see it restricted there.

German bestselling author Şeyda Kurt frees hatred from its banishment and sets out on the trail of its potential for resistance. She is particularly interested in people as subjects of hatred in a capitalist, racist and patriarchal world. Who are these haters and what power relations do they base them selves on? Who is allowed to hate? Which feelings paralyse, and which ones guide us to a fairer, more caring society?

Ruthlessly, humorously and going beyond any self-righteous indignation, Şeyda Kurt explores the possibility of a serviceable hatred that connects with people who feel a deep sense of discontent and helps us to find a collective way forward.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I got this title because the question "Who is allowed to hate?" is existentially important for an old queer man living in the felonious yam's interregnum of horrors.

What a privilege it is to hate, to feel free to express, and to demand others attend to, this toxic, corrosive, personal hellscape. The unexamined heights of selfishness and power arrogated to one's self via, usually, group membership is astonishing. I suspect, along with the thinkers Author Kurt draws explicitly from, that all humans feel hatred. It is the implicit...or arrogated..."right" to speak it out loud and expect that to be just ducky with those who hear you is such an outstandingly arrogant act.

It is a short book, barely two hundred pages, so of necessity it does not pretend to be magisterially comprehensive. We're given a lot of food for thought, some data, mostly though we're in what felt to me like a graduate-school party conversation about the roots and consequences of expressing hatred publicly and with impunity. Consequential parts of Author Kurt's argument are explicitly related to settler colonialism. The way these two things intertwine is best expressed by the nostrum "Peace is always the peace of the victors." The loudest criticism is very much perceptible as carefully aimed without ever having the...nerve, foolishness, whichever way you choose to go with it...to explicitly call out the current wars of extermination being pursued.

Surprisingly to me, the author does not demonize hate itself, acknowledging the role this powerful (if caustic) emotion can play in the pursuit of justice. In this time of need for fuel to resist injustice and oppression, that struck me as both welcome and wise.

As a read, the style of the writing is more free-form than not, often venturing into poetical and storytelling modes. I wasn't always thrilled by this. It's also true that one should be prepared for flashes of humor (they mostly didn't land for me) that feel...off-message, forced. So it was a case of loving the message but barely liking the messenger's voice that led me to rate the book a hair under four stars.

I still think you'll enjoy your read of it, if you're ready for what's on offer.

AUGUST 2025 is #WITMonth again!

Boydell & Brewer's beautiful 2019 banner
Women In Translation Month (#WITMonth) is a long-running project, since 2013, now observed in the US in August. It's meant to address a lack of attention (readership follows attention) to women writing in, or translating from, languages not English. "The project also promotes works by underrepresented trans and nonbinary writers, unless they otherwise ask not to be included in the gendered project," per their FAQ, so I feel more comfortable supporting their laudable aims.

I seek out women's writing all year round. I'm trying to promote translated literature as a delight to read, a fascinating extra layer of peeking into a non-US culture's storytelling, by using the hashtag #WITMonth year-round to make it easy for those seeking out translations at any time. There's also #NationalTranslationMonth in September for the US reader not committed to gender politics. I'm a bit more lax about hashtagging that one.

I don't set numerical goals very often, they feel performative for me because I read so very much...old, disabled, not much into TV, and hooked into the DRC ecosystem means I've got enough reading material to last until I'm dead...twice over. For 2025's #WITMonth, I'll state as my goal to publish a review of a title at least once a day six days a week. Five full weeks in August this year means at least thirty reviews.

Since July 2025 was a sixty-two review month, barring a horrible unknown thing preventing me, I ought to get there with room to spare. I encourage everyone who visits my blog to join me to whatever level is attainable to you.