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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
It's official, Angela Carter let me down.
What happened here?
I was promised an apocalyptic gender-queer 'Baudelaire-meets-Blake-meets-Kafka' fairytale romp, but this offered more opportunities for cringing than for romping.
Maybe it's my fault for thinking (hoping?) that the Baudelaire part of that equation would mean lots of raunchy sex-and-filth, when really it just meant lots of misogyny. (I guess I could have seen that coming, but come on Angela!) The Blake is there, and in spades, as only AC could offer him--mythology, insanity, black and white polarity, innocence and experience, etc. but the underlying racial and gender politics made me extremely uncomfortable, and not in the good way that edgy literature makes me uncomfortable. This didn't challenge me to open my mind, to expand my perceptions, or to question anything that a racist and sexist culture (and history and mythology) has taught me before. This was the Conrad-ian white-burden voyage of discovery narrative played out without any real attempt at subversion. Representations of gender performance were reactionary in ways that Freud would have applauded. People of colour were exoticized, hyper-sexualized, dangerous and violent. Particularly disappointing was the rather one dimensional portrayal of the feminine; of 'woman' (and for that matter, of 'man') that never got dismantled though there was so much opportunity to do so. Furthermore, there was something almost sadistic about the use of gendered pronouns to appropriate the gender of her characters that smacked of transphobia. Apparently, for all the fabulous gender-swapping and transformation that takes place, gender doesn't actually go deeper than the skin--in this book, you are what you have between your legs.
That said, there is irony at work. Carter writing an apocalyptic America is a large part of that. Nevertheless, subverting such culturally entrenched ideas as gender and transexuality requires boldness. Angela Carter can be bold, but this isn't it. The distance needed to write her 'Americana' is too much of a distance to handle such hot issues as race and gender. I can't help but feel that a lot of her irony fell flat.
Luckily for me, her imagery, mythology and prose never did. Fluid, florid, magniloquent, effervescent...this little book still gets three stars because she wrote the hell out of it.
What happened here?
I was promised an apocalyptic gender-queer 'Baudelaire-meets-Blake-meets-Kafka' fairytale romp, but this offered more opportunities for cringing than for romping.
Maybe it's my fault for thinking (hoping?) that the Baudelaire part of that equation would mean lots of raunchy sex-and-filth, when really it just meant lots of misogyny. (I guess I could have seen that coming, but come on Angela!) The Blake is there, and in spades, as only AC could offer him--mythology, insanity, black and white polarity, innocence and experience, etc. but the underlying racial and gender politics made me extremely uncomfortable, and not in the good way that edgy literature makes me uncomfortable. This didn't challenge me to open my mind, to expand my perceptions, or to question anything that a racist and sexist culture (and history and mythology) has taught me before. This was the Conrad-ian white-burden voyage of discovery narrative played out without any real attempt at subversion. Representations of gender performance were reactionary in ways that Freud would have applauded. People of colour were exoticized, hyper-sexualized, dangerous and violent. Particularly disappointing was the rather one dimensional portrayal of the feminine; of 'woman' (and for that matter, of 'man') that never got dismantled though there was so much opportunity to do so. Furthermore, there was something almost sadistic about the use of gendered pronouns to appropriate the gender of her characters that smacked of transphobia. Apparently, for all the fabulous gender-swapping and transformation that takes place, gender doesn't actually go deeper than the skin--in this book, you are what you have between your legs.
That said, there is irony at work. Carter writing an apocalyptic America is a large part of that. Nevertheless, subverting such culturally entrenched ideas as gender and transexuality requires boldness. Angela Carter can be bold, but this isn't it. The distance needed to write her 'Americana' is too much of a distance to handle such hot issues as race and gender. I can't help but feel that a lot of her irony fell flat.
Luckily for me, her imagery, mythology and prose never did. Fluid, florid, magniloquent, effervescent...this little book still gets three stars because she wrote the hell out of it.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Craziest book i’ve ever read wtf
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Transphobia
adventurous
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Angela Carter's illuminating writing pierces through the darkness of this book's topics. I decided to read this after the passing of experimental music pioneer SOPHIE, and this book went above and beyond my expectations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I love Angela Carter. Somehow she makes the most gruesome of acts more bearable with the most stunning of writing.
It isn't my favourite. The Magic Toyshop still is. The feminist themes would have been better executed if they were more subtle and allowed the reader to embrace them rather than be force fed them until they became sick from overindulgence.
It isn't my favourite. The Magic Toyshop still is. The feminist themes would have been better executed if they were more subtle and allowed the reader to embrace them rather than be force fed them until they became sick from overindulgence.
I liked the first part...but then it just had too much fantasy, too much allegory for me. So full of symbolism, but not enough story or character development to carry that weight.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes