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tammihiiri 's review for:
Argonautit
by Maggie Nelson
2,5/5
I wish I could have liked this book more, but it just wasn't made for me. Partly it was because I don't enjoy books written as a stream of consciousness, I just need structure.
Mostly, however, it was due to its contents. I don't mind reading philosophical pondering or queer feminist theory - or personal accounts of sexuality or motherhood for that matter. However, there was no balance between these, and the result was a pseudo-intellectual mess. Maybe it all makes sense to people who have the exact same background as the author, but I felt really excluded, even as a queer and a feminist. I do not know any of the people and texts she was referencing; I guess I am simply too uneducated and - most of all - too foreign.
In the end, despite the author's insistence that she wants to reveal everything, she didn't give me anything - I can't shake the feeling I should have already known everything about her and her story beforehand for it all to make sense. Maybe in her community (of circle jerking queer feminist theorists) this is a masterpiece, but I clearly am not a part of that clique.
I wish I could have liked this book more, but it just wasn't made for me. Partly it was because I don't enjoy books written as a stream of consciousness, I just need structure.
Mostly, however, it was due to its contents. I don't mind reading philosophical pondering or queer feminist theory - or personal accounts of sexuality or motherhood for that matter. However, there was no balance between these, and the result was a pseudo-intellectual mess. Maybe it all makes sense to people who have the exact same background as the author, but I felt really excluded, even as a queer and a feminist. I do not know any of the people and texts she was referencing; I guess I am simply too uneducated and - most of all - too foreign.
In the end, despite the author's insistence that she wants to reveal everything, she didn't give me anything - I can't shake the feeling I should have already known everything about her and her story beforehand for it all to make sense. Maybe in her community (of circle jerking queer feminist theorists) this is a masterpiece, but I clearly am not a part of that clique.