Genes tell the mythology of the contemporary age. Cal Eugenides traces his personal mythology through an unlikely series of events that conspire to create the perfect circumstances to produce Cal exactly as he/she is. This tale is spun like most other myths, with fibers of truth and patterns of exaggeration, but it reflects a very […]
While reading Middlesex, a certain quote, the origin of which I cannot place, kept popping into my head: “We accept the love we think we deserve.” Our sense of deserving in life is shaped the by the shame we cannot overcome. The characters in Eugenides’ novel each negotiate the embodiment of this feeling, preoccupied by […]
Throughout Books One and Two of Jeffery Eugenides’ Middlesex, we the reader are placed in the unusual position of casting our hopes with the success of a character, Cal, whose sexual identity—and, correspondently his path through the world—is quite unlike that of the overwhelming majority of his readers. This trick is nothing new (I am not an […]
Middlesex hinges on questions about sexual identity, but the narrator’s cultural background informs this as well as most aspects of the novel. The juxtaposition between Greek and American culture comes with a juxtaposition of sexual histories and sexual views. The events leading up to Cal’s conception are essentially like the two “colliding” (a word […]
Although predominantly recognized as a tale of a sexual identity crisis, Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex also devotes a large part of its focus to the role of family. This shifting institution includes characters such as Uncle Pete, who prides himself as being a medical expert with the authority to instruct Milton about the proper time to […]
Before I started reading the first two books of Middlesex, I automatically assumed I would be writing a blog post about the nature of being born intersex and societal labels and the prejudices that arise because of those labels, etc. But as I started reading the novel, I was shocked to see how little of […]
“It has taken away my armor my shield/ But I hadn’t realized how strong I had become” Doc 4 A deadly epidemic has created both controversy and a stronger sense of identity. The AIDS epidemic caused a huge polarization among the gay community; there were those who became more courageous and those who grew […]
In Act 2 Scene 9, Roy Cohn makes an interesting observation about the power of labels. When his doctor tries to get him to openly admit to being homosexual he refuses adamantly and responds, “Like all labels they tell you one thing and one thing only: where does an individual so identified fit in the […]
My friend recently found out that his boyfriend was diagnosed with HIV, and I was surprised by how he talked about it. “HIV isn’t really a big deal anymore. You can live with it, and the government pays your rent. But it kills you psychologically.” He spoke about the idea of living with the knowledge […]
Since finishing Sula last week, the story, its characters, and the person I perceive in the author have stuck in my thoughts. In fact, I’ve found some fascinating commonalities between Toni Morrison’s novel and the play by Tony Kushner, beyond the fact that the two writers share a first name. While reading the former, I […]
