Cal’s riveting tale of transformation in Books III and IV of Middlesex is hardly contained to his imagined person. This transformation that Eugenides so deftly splices onto the page reverberates up through his fingertips into the the author himself, through the rods and cones of the reader as she deduces meaning, pattern, and emotion through […]
It is a testament to the crude fascination of scientia sexualis that with such a novel case of gender identity, everyone was busy trying to collect and examine the physical details of Christine Jorgensen’s life. This is epitomized in Document 3’s text from a Time’s article:“The New York Post put the facts on the […]
Cal’s story traces the lines of her life through the well-trodden path of a young girl’s development, suddenly shifting towards the well-worn path of adolescent boys, but stops and hovers in the middle. He did not have to struggle to break gender boundaries. In a very real sense, it came naturally. Cal’s story is harder […]
Though viewed as a medical spectacle, hermaphrodites are more readily accepted into society than transsexuals. Those born with mixed genitalia are regarded as having been born that way, destined by God to occupy a place on the fringes of mainstream society. However, transsexuals are viewed in a harsher light, as critics claim that it is […]
Middlesex questions and attacks the notion of identity. It demonstrates how our sexual identity reaches far beyond so-called “orientation” and takes root in race, gender and family relations. The first half of the book closely follows the structure of a kinship alliance. Desdemona and Lefty demonstrate loyalty to their Greek heritage, perhaps Desdemona moreso than […]
In last week’s class, Lee proposed a great question that we didn’t talk too much about, so I’ve decided to use it as the launch point for this week’s readings (particularly that of the last two books of Middlesex). The question was something along these lines: Is it important for an author to have an […]
Of everything we’ve read this semester, I have to admit that Middlesex has been the least gripping for me. Maybe it’s the pace, Cal’s voice, switching from “Angles in America,” predominantly dialogue, to lengthy prose, or maybe it’s something in me–my disintegrated family, my hurting heart–that makes it the wrong book to read at the […]
