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A review by flowerbinsh
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
2.5
Read as a requirement for my Queer Genre class.
I hate to give someone's memoir such a low rating, especially one that gives such important topics a space for discussion, but this one was just definitely not for me. I loved the conversations surrounding gender and transness, and how language can both fail and help in these regards. I was also so intrigued with the criticism of queer sex being inherently deviant, as well as parenthood and sexuality being exclusive of each other.
The parts of this memoir that really turned me off, however, (pun slightly intended), were the extremely graphic and erotic passages. Honestly, this is probably due to the internalized prudishness of American society, but I really feel uncomfortable reading about the graphic sex lives of strangers and having to discuss them in an academic setting. I also found some of the explicit passages about surgery and pregnancy to be too much for my very-squeamish body lol.
I think this is a great read for those wondering about gender identity and how this crosses over into parenthood, as long as you're okay with reading about BDSM and kink and the gross aspects of the medical word in explicit detail.
I hate to give someone's memoir such a low rating, especially one that gives such important topics a space for discussion, but this one was just definitely not for me. I loved the conversations surrounding gender and transness, and how language can both fail and help in these regards. I was also so intrigued with the criticism of queer sex being inherently deviant, as well as parenthood and sexuality being exclusive of each other.
The parts of this memoir that really turned me off, however, (pun slightly intended), were the extremely graphic and erotic passages. Honestly, this is probably due to the internalized prudishness of American society, but I really feel uncomfortable reading about the graphic sex lives of strangers and having to discuss them in an academic setting. I also found some of the explicit passages about surgery and pregnancy to be too much for my very-squeamish body lol.
I think this is a great read for those wondering about gender identity and how this crosses over into parenthood, as long as you're okay with reading about BDSM and kink and the gross aspects of the medical word in explicit detail.