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4 reviews for:
Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory
Michael Warner, Social Text Collective
3.76 AVERAGE
4 reviews for:
Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory
Michael Warner, Social Text Collective
3.76 AVERAGE
Makes some interesting and challenging points. Is marred a bit by being from the 1990s and too caught up in postmodern thought. I think postmodernism was a big step backward. It is understandable that after the many defeats of the left and the left's political retreat to academia but the postmodern analysis is baroque as it is ineffective. Issues of queer identity are important but it is too wrapped up in Postmodernist jargon to be easily communicated which is the point.
i'm not really sure i got a whole lot from this collection of essays in that it didn't broaden my horizons or challenge the way i think about things. i imagine it was pretty groundbreaking in 1993, but read today, a lot of the evisceration of popular theory (particularly in the fuss and sedgwick essays) is just tremendously satisfying and laugh out loud funny. the extent to which professionals tried to explain away any not straight/cis sexuality/gender expression is so bizarre and overwrought, relies on so much circular logic, and is just so blatantly biased that to a modern reader it reads like some sick elaborate joke. some of the essays were a real slug to get through, some of the work is dated. it's hard to rate. 3 stars is "liked it" and i guess that kind of covers the general feeling i had when i put the book down.
i'm not really sure i got a whole lot from this collection of essays in that it didn't broaden my horizons or challenge the way i think about things. i imagine it was pretty groundbreaking in 1993, but read today, a lot of the evisceration of popular theory (particularly in the fuss and sedgwick essays) is just tremendously satisfying and laugh out loud funny. the extent to which professionals tried to explain away any not straight/cis sexuality/gender expression is so bizarre and overwrought, relies on so much circular logic, and is just so blatantly biased that to a modern reader it reads like some sick elaborate joke. some of the essays were a real slug to get through, some of the work is dated. it's hard to rate. 3 stars is "liked it" and i guess that kind of covers the general feeling i had when i put the book down.