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robinks's review against another edition
3.25
Graphic: Sexual content, Pregnancy, Stalking, and Transphobia
Moderate: Death of parent, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Cancer and Abortion
lottiegasp's review
4.75
I thought it had really interesting perspectives about being queer, feminist and shunning societal norms while cherishing love and family. Rightfully so, a lot of feminism focusses on empowering women and genderqueer people to be single and child-free, to not be stuck in unfulfilling and unequal relationships, and to find and cherish love elsewhere. But for people who do seek and find love through their romantic partner and children, I think it is important to consider how to do these things in a way that does not simply reinforce the hetero status quo. This is something Nelson grapples with, while portraying how she and Harry have approached things.
At some parts in the middle I found the writing and references to other scholars a bit dense. Nevertheless, I overall appreciated the rich, aesthetic literary writing style, which is perhaps more common in fiction than memoirs.
Graphic: Pregnancy, Medical content, and Sexual content
Minor: Transphobia and Deadnaming
There are explicit descriptions of consensual sex. And detailed description of pregnancy and labour. There are some brief descriptions of transphobia, but the book focusses much more on trans joy. The author deadnames her partner once, presumably with his permission. There is a gutwrenching description of a parent dying, which is beautifully written but very sad.steveatwaywords's review
5.0
This book is not easily navigable. While written in fragmentary pieces, the narrative is delivered in its entirety, a submersion of its whole, and one wonders at its turnings. Nelson writes while on a subway, at a cafe, surrounded by tumult, but what she offers is insular and contained, a cerebral dissection of her own life and how words, language, people shift. Derrida remarked that he wondered most about the sex lives of philosophers. Nelson has here made a powerful bridge (more a marriage) between the abstraction of teleology and the workings of body.
Graphic: Sexual content and Death of parent
Moderate: Stalking, Grief, Medical content, and Cancer
Minor: Biphobia, Transphobia, and Murder
jaiari12's review
3.0
Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Transphobia, Terminal illness, Stalking, Sexism, and Pregnancy
maess's review against another edition
4.75
Moderate: Alcohol, Cancer, Grief, Homophobia, Sexism, Stalking, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Death of parent, Medical content, Sexual content, Abortion, Terminal illness, Addiction, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Transphobia, Vomit, Outing, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy
o3tri's review
1.0
Graphic: Miscarriage, Cultural appropriation, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexism, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Cancer, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Death
Moderate: Transphobia, Homophobia, Hate crime, Lesbophobia, Stalking, Fatphobia, Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Religious bigotry
leguinstan's review
4.5
While much has been said about Nelson's heavy incorporation of queer and feminist theory in her memoir, the sense of uncertainty expressed in The Argonauts is what made the biggest impression on me. From the meandering stream-of-consciousness writing to the chain of unanswered questions peppered throughout her theoretical musings, Nelson makes it apparent that for all her erudition she is just as unmoored as the rest of us. This is in stark contrast to what most of us expect from a memoir: a strictly chronological presentation of a sequence of events leading to a significant change or revelation in the memoirist's life. Nelson intentionally leans into the contradictory, ever-evolving aspects of her identity and resists the instinct to compress her life into the confines of a narrative arc.
While I found it very easy to appreciate these aspects of the work, I can't say the same for the aforementioned incorporation of theory which had me frustrated at several points. And aside from this frustration, I also find it more difficult to find the value in what is arguably the single most inaccessible aspect of the memoir. But considering the fact that Nelson is entrenched in academia and that she is interested in queer and feminist theory, would a removal of the theoretical analysis in The Argonauts be a less authentic representation of Maggie Nelson's life? Can authenticity sometimes be at odds with accessibility? Is this genre-mashing a reflection of Nelson's multiplicity?
The reading experience may not have been smooth sailing, but Nelson's boldly experimental, vulnerable, thought-provoking writing makes up for the bumpy ride.
Graphic: Pregnancy
Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Stalking
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Homophobia, Dysphoria, and Transphobia
pang's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Sexual content
Moderate: Stalking and Grief
Minor: Transphobia
aliciae08's review against another edition
3.0
It both reads like someone’s journal—scattered, but with the central theme hidden inside; and it also reads like someone’s xotero—their notes on articles that moved them just enough to be considered for a dissertation.
I didn’t love this book, but I definitely didn’t hate it either. It’s solidly a 3 for me. Sometimes the writing was pretentious and the sentences convoluted, but other times they were clear. Nelson talks honestly about motherhood and birthing, what her relationship looks like to her with a gender fluid partner and how their life is made up with all it’s mess, all it’s grief/fear and all it’s love.
Graphic: Pregnancy
Moderate: Death of parent and Transphobia
Minor: Cancer, Stalking, and Murder
souplover2001's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Pregnancy
Moderate: Sexual content, Stalking, and Transphobia