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brenden_odonnell 's review for:
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
by Jeanette Winterson
I’m so happy I’ve finally gotten around to reading this queer classic. It’s such a brilliant exploration of the ways that religion, family, and society can corrupt one another, and how sexuality and passion cut through it all to reveal a different kind of spirituality.
When her family banishes her, Jeanette is heartbroken by the illusion of being separated from God. But she nonetheless never comes to think of God as a betrayer: “The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God who was my friend” (170). Temporarily displaced from God because severed from her people, Jeanette takes a leap of faith away from faith. And she’s aware, the whole time, that there’s no right choice in the matter. I’m stunned by the beautifully incisive monologues when we’re faced not only with Jeanette’s courage, but also her philosophical processes which eradicate any chance of an easy answer. I’ll end with my favorite quote from the text:
"I have a theory that every time you make an important choice, the part of you left behind continues the other life you could have had. Some people's emanations are very strong, some people create themselves afresh outside of their own body. This is not fancy. If a potter has an ideas, she makes it into a pot, and it exists beyond her, in its own separate life. She uses a physical substance to display her thoughts. If I use a metaphysical substance to display my thoughts, I might be anywhere at one time, influencing a number of different things, just as the potter and her pottery can exert influence in different place. There's a chance that I'm not here at all, that all the parts of me, running along all the choices I did and didn't make, for a moment brush against each other" (169).
When her family banishes her, Jeanette is heartbroken by the illusion of being separated from God. But she nonetheless never comes to think of God as a betrayer: “The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God who was my friend” (170). Temporarily displaced from God because severed from her people, Jeanette takes a leap of faith away from faith. And she’s aware, the whole time, that there’s no right choice in the matter. I’m stunned by the beautifully incisive monologues when we’re faced not only with Jeanette’s courage, but also her philosophical processes which eradicate any chance of an easy answer. I’ll end with my favorite quote from the text:
"I have a theory that every time you make an important choice, the part of you left behind continues the other life you could have had. Some people's emanations are very strong, some people create themselves afresh outside of their own body. This is not fancy. If a potter has an ideas, she makes it into a pot, and it exists beyond her, in its own separate life. She uses a physical substance to display her thoughts. If I use a metaphysical substance to display my thoughts, I might be anywhere at one time, influencing a number of different things, just as the potter and her pottery can exert influence in different place. There's a chance that I'm not here at all, that all the parts of me, running along all the choices I did and didn't make, for a moment brush against each other" (169).