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chaetrain's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
paul preciado loves a list and the beginning is slow but the sex scenes are so good and the second half theoretically picks up rly well
elle_esse_di's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
lizawall's review against another edition
5.0
A long time ago one of my teachers told me it wasn't enough just to write a love song to Foucault, you had to actually build on him, and I was like come on that's impossible, but Preciado totally does it here. And that is only one of several ways this book blew my mind. Crazy compelling, it is a sex/drug/philosophy page turner that will keep you up late and make you wonder if you should take testosterone too.
Before I read this, I was going to go see her at NYU but I spent so much time eating falafel and EVERY LAST sweet potato fry that I didn't get there until it was already full. Wish I had ditched some of those fries because, I feel like I have to know what she is doing NOW -- this book was already out for awhile before it was translated, and what will the next be?
Before I read this, I was going to go see her at NYU but I spent so much time eating falafel and EVERY LAST sweet potato fry that I didn't get there until it was already full. Wish I had ditched some of those fries because, I feel like I have to know what she is doing NOW -- this book was already out for awhile before it was translated, and what will the next be?
katellison's review against another edition
5.0
dudes rock
"I don't recognize myself. Not when I'm on T, or when I'm not on T. I'm neither more nor less myself...I'm not opting for any direct action against representation, but for a micropolitics of disidentification, a kind of experimentation that doesn't have faith in representation as an exterior it's that will bring truth or happiness."
"I don't recognize myself. Not when I'm on T, or when I'm not on T. I'm neither more nor less myself...I'm not opting for any direct action against representation, but for a micropolitics of disidentification, a kind of experimentation that doesn't have faith in representation as an exterior it's that will bring truth or happiness."
ralowe's review against another edition
2.0
the consideration of the trade ethic whereby an inventor tests their invention upon themselves is inspired, with some similarities to donna haraway's thoughts on sharing suffering, you know, if we fucking absolutely have to have laboratories or something. also, i learned a great deal from the anthropology of birth control and puerto rico. but some other (polemic?) challenges and information here made these difficult to savor. (and i got distracted tripping on whether or not there was some kind of mbembe citational snub re: the term "necropolitics.") reading this i was faced continually with the question of what is produced through insisting on an absolute distinction between trans and queer (not that this is ever consistently unequivocally declared in this text as such). by a certain kind of account of trans, trans is its difference's own disappearance into the same. is there anything useful concerning this disappearance that can be drawn from similar discourses on blackness (re: assimilation)? i also wonder about (not that it is ever consistently unequivocally declared in this text as such as such) of the purported difference of particular forms of deviance. foucault (say, via haraway) seemed cautious about how deviant knowledge is formed and for whom. not sure if i'm a "deleuze person"ќ per se but i think frequently deleuze conceived time (bergson, eternal return, giambattista vico in joyce's *finnegans wake*) against descartes in such a manner that the urgent tone inflected in a lot of writing coming out of paris seems unfounded. and is there anything pressingly novel to add to foucault regarding the particularities of the technologies of subject-formation? representational instability places opportunity for interventions in an elsewhere to be designated later. this deferral elides an encounter during a talk at the university of chile with thirty-five chilean feminists where allegedly debate turned into dialogue. was the encounter transphobic? surely, such dialogic encounters are why people take the risk of publishing voices like paul b. preciado. go find someone else to be in dialogue with him about calling his cock "jimi hendrix."
zoolmcg's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
wAfter I'd read An Apartment of Uranus, this was an immediate addition to my TBR. Now that I've finished it, I can certainly say I prefer the former, but that this is also an essential text in uncovering the politics behind transition and gender.
I find Preciado to be a very authroitative and definitive writer, which pays off extremely well when the essays are focused, interesting and engaging. I have many favourites in this book, but the ones that jump out to me the most were Testogel, Gender and Hackers (within The Micropolitics of Gender in the Phamacopornagraphic Era), and Packaging Disciplinary Architecture: Dialpak and The Invention of The Edible Panopticon (within Pharmacopower). These dissections of hormones and the history of transgenderism were fascinating and enlightening, presnenting stories and facts that opened my eyes to so many implications behind the capitalist intent of pharmacology.
I also really enjoyed many of personal annecdote slices found in between the more academic essays. Preciado's relationship with Despentes is presented as a whirlwind of love and lust, with testosterone fueling the hightened libido they both share. I thought it was a really beautiful showcase of queer love and sex, and the honesty stuck me as beautiful.
My only note within this is with the consistency and with the focus. I found a few of these essays to be meandering in their topics, where things are stated and expanded over and over again, to the point where I wasn't sure exactly what was being discussed. I know for a fact I'll be rereading this again in my life, so I'm sure there are things that passed me by on the first read that I'll pick up in the second. But at what point does merely 'missing some parts on the first read' become the fault of the text?
Preciado is an astounding writer with brilliant ideas. He's definitaly a role model for me in my own writing, and I love the way he presents trans truths in the most unflinching way possible. Nothing here is sanitised for the cis reader - theories are presented and we are all sat down to be enightened by them. I'd recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about the history of hormones, transgenderism, and Preciado's personal philosophy.
I find Preciado to be a very authroitative and definitive writer, which pays off extremely well when the essays are focused, interesting and engaging. I have many favourites in this book, but the ones that jump out to me the most were Testogel, Gender and Hackers (within The Micropolitics of Gender in the Phamacopornagraphic Era), and Packaging Disciplinary Architecture: Dialpak and The Invention of The Edible Panopticon (within Pharmacopower). These dissections of hormones and the history of transgenderism were fascinating and enlightening, presnenting stories and facts that opened my eyes to so many implications behind the capitalist intent of pharmacology.
I also really enjoyed many of personal annecdote slices found in between the more academic essays. Preciado's relationship with Despentes is presented as a whirlwind of love and lust, with testosterone fueling the hightened libido they both share. I thought it was a really beautiful showcase of queer love and sex, and the honesty stuck me as beautiful.
My only note within this is with the consistency and with the focus. I found a few of these essays to be meandering in their topics, where things are stated and expanded over and over again, to the point where I wasn't sure exactly what was being discussed. I know for a fact I'll be rereading this again in my life, so I'm sure there are things that passed me by on the first read that I'll pick up in the second. But at what point does merely 'missing some parts on the first read' become the fault of the text?
Preciado is an astounding writer with brilliant ideas. He's definitaly a role model for me in my own writing, and I love the way he presents trans truths in the most unflinching way possible. Nothing here is sanitised for the cis reader - theories are presented and we are all sat down to be enightened by them. I'd recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about the history of hormones, transgenderism, and Preciado's personal philosophy.
smallredboy's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Hermoso libro. Díficil de captar a veces, ya que no soy el más bien versado sobre filosofía, pero lo que logre entender me gustó muchísimo; Preciado realmente fue un visionario por su concepto de la farmacopornografía - aún se lee muy bien tantos años después de que salió el libro. Además, me gustó la exploración sin pudor y sin censura sobre el sexo y la muerte.