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leguinstan's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
The Argonauts has literally made me reevaluate the way I think about memoirs and I can confidently say that after having read this, I no longer have the same expectations about the genre that I once did.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy
Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Stalking
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Homophobia, Dysphoria, and Transphobia
suspicious_salmon's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Pregnancy
Moderate: Dysphoria, Medical content, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Transphobia, and Infertility
Minor: Alcoholism, Cultural appropriation, Excrement, Grief, Deadnaming, Addiction, Miscarriage, Stalking, and Terminal illness
dylan2219's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I mostly enjoyed this book, and I think because it is imperfect. I also respect it a lot, not only for its boldness and intimacy, but because I think Maggie Nelson is willing to be messy, contradictory, and occasionally wrong in ways that writers are often afraid of. This book is essentially a long meditation on various interlocking themes, always personal, but equally tied to big-picture concerns like sexuality, gender, language, love that writers always try to nail the final word on. Nelson never does, she knows she can’t, so she instead invites us to watch her try her best. That means some parts of the book are bizarre, far-fetched, obscure, cringeworthy, or wrong. But there are moments of brilliance and beauty, and I think these require the mistakes, I never wanted them edited out. I read this book quickly, and thus there’s a lot in it that I can’t really unpack and some things that I personally don’t think I know enough to comment on. I learnt a lot, though, and I think this is best read quickly and fluidly – to take “the pleasure of abiding” as Nelson puts it – rather than trying hard to work through Nelson’s thoughts given that they are often scattershot, instinctual, repetitive, and subject matter shifts sometimes within a paragraph. If this book has a form, it’s a tangent, or a series of tangents that are networked together by ideas, feelings, or sometimes just the sound or texture of the words. This builds, however, to a really stunning conclusion, where Nelson smartly hones in on two life-defining moments for herself and her partner, and crystallises her concerns imperfectly – she admits as much – but with emotional heft and clarity.
Two things I took away particularly:
Two things I took away particularly:
- This book deals with subjects and experiences many people – myself included – aren’t really connected to personally (at least not yet) and its very intellectually dense, but I never felt that Nelson was talking down to her reader, instead she’s insanely empathetic and intimate, and she doesn’t wave her (genuinely) “radical” behaviour as something unattainable or fashionable. She gives the impression of almost falling into things by accident, as a consequence of following her instincts and desires, and that makes the book so much more accessible, fun(ny), and meaningful
- Given that this is lots of personal anecdotes and stories, and that Nelson tries to tie them to bigger ideas, this can come across as self-indulgent to some, the classic mistake of thinking your own experiences are the experience of everyone. But Nelson isn’t afraid to show herself as occasionally ignorant, solipsistic, or narcissistic in her feelings and ideas. For her, this is part of the messy process of trying to understand things that are new to you, you make mistakes. By including these elements I felt instead that she was capturing a rare kind of self-effacement, the inherent difficulty in trying to relate one’s personal life and feelings to “theories” or ideas that are apparently meant to explain them, or radical demands that completely upend our conception of them. A lot of writers – especially academics - instead write with knowledge presumed, or as if it just isn’t very difficult for others to accept what they are saying: this appears to be objective, but is actually pretty arrogant. Nelson definitely believes the personal is political, but equally, that any text that is going to deal with these terrifyingly human aspects of ourselves – love, sex, childbirth, parenting, discrimination, violence, desire - requires the repeated challenges of “lived experience” as academics like to call it, hence you’re back to the drawing board, the tangents and the concentric circles of the ideas that now feel much more humble, relevant, and achieveable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Death of parent
Moderate: Grief, Dysphoria, Medical content, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Incest and Alcoholism
cryptidcas's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
tense
slow-paced
4.5
confusing, poor structure, amazing points
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexism, Stalking, and Transphobia
Minor: Abortion
mallory10100's review against another edition
emotional
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
poetic, LGBTQ, memoir
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Homophobia, Infertility, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Transphobia, Terminal illness, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, and Vomit
megg's review against another edition
Ugh I was expecting something akin to stone butch or bechdel, and I could see this was trying to be that, but utterly failing. Don't whine to me about how hard having a partner who wants hrt or top surgery is. And I don't care about ur obscure philosophy references. Completely insufferable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria, Infertility, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia
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