A review by cassiacow
Cruising Utopia, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Then and There of Queer Futurity by José Esteban Muñoz, José Esteban Muñoz, Tavia Nyong’o, Joshua Chambers-Letson

hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

Muñoz's thinking of queer utopias and how they interact with the past is worthy of great consideration - however, I feel that this book has some issues in terms of cis-gay-male-centrism that speaks to larger issues in the lens through which LGBTQ+ utopias are imagined. That's not to say that this is the fault of the author or that the intersection of past and future aren't worthy of consideration through the art that he examines - however, it is something that I wished I'd have known ahead of time as a trans woman. The concept of 'ephemera as evidence' is one that particularly resonated with me - queer artists leaving traces which speaks to a larger queer existence, and their imaginings of how the future could be. Overall, I think that the argument for queer hope that I found in this book is one of the strongest I've seen - if you are looking for somewhere to find joy or trying to look towards a queer horizon, this is the book for you.