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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
I was shocked to find that I loved this book. Not one for non-fiction, I read this solely because my advisor made me and, of course, he was right. Not only did it contribute significantly to my thesis research, it fully made me want to live in New York or San Francisco - somewhere I could be at the center of queer cultural production. Muñoz writes about his friends and about artists he never met with the same relationality, respect, and reverence. His voice carries through the text in an engaging way - engaging the reader to both the topic and himself.
The list of films I want to watch, books I want to read, and people I want to google thoroughly was too long for me to keep track of. I was exposed to almost 100% new characters and elements of queer history. And the few names I did know were put into a different light. For instance, I previously disdained Andy Warhol, solely because I stan Valerie Solanas, but Muñoz's use of Warhol's work as critical to an analysis of utopian thought at least makes me want to watch "I Shot Andy Warhol" and maybe "13 Beautiful Boys."
I knew I wasn't the most versed on queer culture before my own time, but Cruising Utopia made me want to rectify that. Combined with a refreshing, forward looking / potential oriented queer theory, and an understandable use of temporality and temporal distortion - this non-fiction was a non-failure. Thank you, Muñoz, what a gift.
The list of films I want to watch, books I want to read, and people I want to google thoroughly was too long for me to keep track of. I was exposed to almost 100% new characters and elements of queer history. And the few names I did know were put into a different light. For instance, I previously disdained Andy Warhol, solely because I stan Valerie Solanas, but Muñoz's use of Warhol's work as critical to an analysis of utopian thought at least makes me want to watch "I Shot Andy Warhol" and maybe "13 Beautiful Boys."
I knew I wasn't the most versed on queer culture before my own time, but Cruising Utopia made me want to rectify that. Combined with a refreshing, forward looking / potential oriented queer theory, and an understandable use of temporality and temporal distortion - this non-fiction was a non-failure. Thank you, Muñoz, what a gift.
First of all, it's always a joy to find an academically dense, intellectually rigorous book that also happens to be beautifully composed and fun to read. Muñoz accomplishes that difficult task with seeming ease.
I really enjoyed this rebuttal to Edelman's No Future. Muñoz offers a view of queer utopia that recognizes queerness as the coming potentiality, something that has not yet arrived, a hopeful future beyond normativity and reproductive futurism. He engages with queer photography, art, literature, and performance as windows into the possibility of queer utopia. Muñoz offers a radical political vision and critique, but does not fall into the trap of sheer negativity present in so much criticism. He retains a thread of hope. A hope in the possibility of not becoming weighed down in pragmatic political debates about marriage and gay rights. A hope for the coming anti-normative queer potentiality.
I really enjoyed this rebuttal to Edelman's No Future. Muñoz offers a view of queer utopia that recognizes queerness as the coming potentiality, something that has not yet arrived, a hopeful future beyond normativity and reproductive futurism. He engages with queer photography, art, literature, and performance as windows into the possibility of queer utopia. Muñoz offers a radical political vision and critique, but does not fall into the trap of sheer negativity present in so much criticism. He retains a thread of hope. A hope in the possibility of not becoming weighed down in pragmatic political debates about marriage and gay rights. A hope for the coming anti-normative queer potentiality.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Perfect example of how academic pontification on social justice can actively work towards rescinding the hard-won victories of marginalized groups. The idea that gay men who want the ability to get married (or as Muñoz puts it, 'participate in the problematic institution of marriage') are somehow regressive for fighting for that right is absolutely ludicrous. I was under the impression that the 'problematic' part of marriage was that men used it to exploit women...it doesn't work the same with two men, as in there is not the same potential for sex-based exploitation.
In spite of its refreshing frankness about gay sex, this text is shockingly detached from the actual struggles average gay people face every day, and about what gay liberation actually looks like. The ideas that gay suicide is an act of self-liberation, that gay men who enjoy masculine men are brainwashed or ignorant, that the fight for gay marriage rights is not one worth fighting, are not just the opinions of an academic writing theory to further his career--they are active dangers to the rights gay people have fought tooth and nail to hold.
The idea that we must abandon an imperfect present in the worship of an untouchable, glorious future is enough to stop any liberation movement in its tracks. Hopefully no one from Twitter gets ahold of this.
And, sidenote, but I was supposed to read this for class, but it got cut because of COVID. And thank God it did. Because I have to say I'd have been annoying to have in class for discussion if we were talking about this.
In spite of its refreshing frankness about gay sex, this text is shockingly detached from the actual struggles average gay people face every day, and about what gay liberation actually looks like. The ideas that gay suicide is an act of self-liberation, that gay men who enjoy masculine men are brainwashed or ignorant, that the fight for gay marriage rights is not one worth fighting, are not just the opinions of an academic writing theory to further his career--they are active dangers to the rights gay people have fought tooth and nail to hold.
The idea that we must abandon an imperfect present in the worship of an untouchable, glorious future is enough to stop any liberation movement in its tracks. Hopefully no one from Twitter gets ahold of this.
And, sidenote, but I was supposed to read this for class, but it got cut because of COVID. And thank God it did. Because I have to say I'd have been annoying to have in class for discussion if we were talking about this.
Gave it a shot but there's no way I can read this under the library's constraint when someone put a hold on it. Too dense and complex to hurry through before the due date. Someday!
A book I find myself returning to, to dwell in. Important in ways difficult to articulate, pushing ever forward to an imagined different.
Exquisite. José Muñoz's academic partiality to performance studies greatly enhances his argument for queer futurity. That is to say, Muñoz exemplifies the necessity for change embodied in time and space, and the constant (re)consideration(s) of hope and potentiality inherent in queer Otherness. Where the text lacks rhetorical frankness, it excels in intellectual thought, adds to the critical advancement of queer thought that continues to challenge queer assimilation into popular, heteronormative culture.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced