Response to Middlesex Books One and Two

“I think love breaks all taboos. Don’t you?” (67)

 This statement, made by Lefty during his and Desdemona’s courtship, provided me with not only a question I didn’t want to answer, but a link between all of our readings thus far. Each novel has provided us with a “love” that is “taboo” – Hester and Dimmsdale’s love is taboo because she is married and he is a priest, H.H. and Lolita’s love (perhaps “relationship” would be a better word here, but love is appropriate insomuch as that is how H.H. viewed it) is taboo because of their age difference and later, the somewhat incestuous nature of their relationship, in Angels in America, many couples face difficulty because same-sex relationships were still considered taboo, and now, in Middlesex, we have the story of Lefty and Desdemona, whose love is taboo because they are siblings.

Ideally, I would love to be able to answers Lefty’s question with an unequivical yes – perhaps it is the romantic in me, or my fixation on liberation; either way, I don’t want to think that two people in love should be kept apart by societal taboos, tied down by normative chains. But our readings have often shown that love does not overcome all (to invoke the cliche), in fact, it is very often overcome by exterior forces, morals, and obstacles. This paired with the fact that I couldn’t help but be somewhat disturbed by the brother-sister relationship in Middlesex (why am I disturbed? should I be?) suggests that in response to Lefty’s question, I would have to answer with a reluctant and sad “No.”