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What Are You Reading (Not On A) Wednesday
Mar. 21st, 2019 09:01 pmYesterday got eaten by admin and my ongoing effort to finish this particular crochet project before I fly out.
Currently Reading:
Fiction: Mercedes Lackey, 'The Mage Winds'; Khaled Housseni, 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'
Non-Fiction: Lauren Elkin, 'Flaneuse'
Lit Mag: Meanjin Summer 2018
Academic: none
Recently Finished:
DNF: Yelena Moscovitch, Virtuoso. I'm clearly not in a place for both the grotesque *and* the convoluted structure of this novel. One or other, maybe, but not both.
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book utterly blew me away. Aciman does fantastic work with language, wrapping sentences around affective experiences that elude most ordinary expressions. The end result isn't comfortable, not by far: desire, here, is intoxicating and devastating, fascinating and repulsive all at once. There are experiences here that I recognise as my own - nothing so structurally simple as 'relationship with significant age/power disparity', I mean experience on the level of emotion, affect, self-structuring and restructuring - and had not expected to ever see pinned down like this.
What bothers me is the combination of the chronological setting and the epilogue. The main action takes place in 1987; the final chapter spools rapidly through Elio's life and two further encounters with Oliver over twenty years. Yet, aside from one glancing reference to a necessarily uncomfortable health discussion AIDS is never mentioned.
Oh, I can buy that Oliver wouldn't mention it in 1987: he's clearly so far in denial he's swimming with the crocodiles. But I find it hard to believe it made no impact on Elio. The narration is, while very tightly focalised through 17-y-old Elio's experience, *voiced* by his older self, including not infrequent commentary on his youthful actions from the perspective of what it would mean later. I find it extremely difficult to believe that he looks back on an affair like that and *doesn't* think 'holy shit we were reckless'. And are we to believe Elio did not go on to have further relationships with men? The final chapter mentions 'people' after Oliver, suddenly coy about gender. And those people come and go, apparently, Elio loves and learns and... the great scourge of the LGBTQ community of the 80s and 90s just doesn't figure into anything for him. Nor does he consider that as a possible factfor Oliver, despite the fact that the life Oliver is living - married, with kids, perfectly normal life, and a secret past (present?) of affairs with men - is a textbook example of exactly what the 80s and 90s feared from bi and/or closeted gay men.
I feel like, having told a story that's very much a physically and psychologically grounded narrative of formative queer passion, Aciman took a step back and decided to massage it into a story that 'isn't defined by gender' or something. And that's where I think it shows through that Aciman isn't himself queer.or
Online Fiction:
I linked to it in Monday's links post, but Theories of the Point of View Shift In AC/DC's Shook Me All Night Long is technically a short story, and it is good!
Finished s. 2 of The Penumbra Podcast, after some confusion resulting from accidentally *skipping* the penultimate Second Citadel episode. Was NOT expecting the plot twist re: Sir Caroline at the end; overall very pleased.
Finished 'Strange Case of the Starship Iris' s. 1, loved it
Caught up on 'Under Pressure' podcast, still enjoying it, but not as much as Starship Iris.
In the process of catching up with 'Unwell' podcast, likewise enjoying it but not as much as Starship Iris.
Up Next:
Saving the next Rivers of London audiobook for the plane!
Music Notes: been listening to 'Diseases of England' again lately; it seems Apt.
Meanwhile, please meet my new crush and also new favourite song:
'Nobody Knows That I'm A Fraud' by Grace Petrie.
Currently Reading:
Fiction: Mercedes Lackey, 'The Mage Winds'; Khaled Housseni, 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'
Non-Fiction: Lauren Elkin, 'Flaneuse'
Lit Mag: Meanjin Summer 2018
Academic: none
Recently Finished:
DNF: Yelena Moscovitch, Virtuoso. I'm clearly not in a place for both the grotesque *and* the convoluted structure of this novel. One or other, maybe, but not both.
Call Me By Your Name by André AcimanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book utterly blew me away. Aciman does fantastic work with language, wrapping sentences around affective experiences that elude most ordinary expressions. The end result isn't comfortable, not by far: desire, here, is intoxicating and devastating, fascinating and repulsive all at once. There are experiences here that I recognise as my own - nothing so structurally simple as 'relationship with significant age/power disparity', I mean experience on the level of emotion, affect, self-structuring and restructuring - and had not expected to ever see pinned down like this.
What bothers me is the combination of the chronological setting and the epilogue. The main action takes place in 1987; the final chapter spools rapidly through Elio's life and two further encounters with Oliver over twenty years. Yet, aside from one glancing reference to a necessarily uncomfortable health discussion AIDS is never mentioned.
Oh, I can buy that Oliver wouldn't mention it in 1987: he's clearly so far in denial he's swimming with the crocodiles. But I find it hard to believe it made no impact on Elio. The narration is, while very tightly focalised through 17-y-old Elio's experience, *voiced* by his older self, including not infrequent commentary on his youthful actions from the perspective of what it would mean later. I find it extremely difficult to believe that he looks back on an affair like that and *doesn't* think 'holy shit we were reckless'. And are we to believe Elio did not go on to have further relationships with men? The final chapter mentions 'people' after Oliver, suddenly coy about gender. And those people come and go, apparently, Elio loves and learns and... the great scourge of the LGBTQ community of the 80s and 90s just doesn't figure into anything for him. Nor does he consider that as a possible factfor Oliver, despite the fact that the life Oliver is living - married, with kids, perfectly normal life, and a secret past (present?) of affairs with men - is a textbook example of exactly what the 80s and 90s feared from bi and/or closeted gay men.
I feel like, having told a story that's very much a physically and psychologically grounded narrative of formative queer passion, Aciman took a step back and decided to massage it into a story that 'isn't defined by gender' or something. And that's where I think it shows through that Aciman isn't himself queer.or
Online Fiction:
I linked to it in Monday's links post, but Theories of the Point of View Shift In AC/DC's Shook Me All Night Long is technically a short story, and it is good!
Finished s. 2 of The Penumbra Podcast, after some confusion resulting from accidentally *skipping* the penultimate Second Citadel episode. Was NOT expecting the plot twist re: Sir Caroline at the end; overall very pleased.
Finished 'Strange Case of the Starship Iris' s. 1, loved it
Caught up on 'Under Pressure' podcast, still enjoying it, but not as much as Starship Iris.
In the process of catching up with 'Unwell' podcast, likewise enjoying it but not as much as Starship Iris.
Up Next:
Saving the next Rivers of London audiobook for the plane!
Music Notes: been listening to 'Diseases of England' again lately; it seems Apt.
Meanwhile, please meet my new crush and also new favourite song:
'Nobody Knows That I'm A Fraud' by Grace Petrie.