My Final Project, a text animation based on “Queers Read This.”
Fun Home post
So I was personally handed fun home by my gay brother during my senior year of high school when my family was finally getting it though there heads that I was definitely bisexual, as I had been saying since I was 13. No, I’m not bitter at all. But for me it was really interesting to read about this girl who kinda figured out who she was without the label at a relatively young age, with an older male figure who was gay in her family. Obviously the relationship was really, really different, however, I did enjoy coming across this on our reading list during my second semester in college. I felt really connected to Alison when that happened, as I knew that I was going to get to explore gay culture as I never had been able to before, both in a literary sense and in an actually experiencing slices of life that were off limits as an underage high schooler.
So do you feel connected to Alison in a similar fashion at all?
If you are LGBT, when did you know? How did your family react in the context of Fun Home? Did you have anyone to look up to or to connect with when you did identify yourself?
Nevada Post-Renee
So I’m really curious as to why it’s ok for Maria to so openly assume a persons gender. If it were someone who wasn’t trans it seems like a large portion of the LGBT community would get really pissed off. Maybe Binnie was trying to call out this backwards way of functioning in the community, or maybe she herself is slightly problematic. I have been wondering a lot lately about who we consider problematic, and why we rarely look at those in out own community. I know the group of incoming freshmen that identified as LGBT+ became divided over an issue like this. Some of the members were talking about how they liked specific races, then when they were called out for being racist, they said it was just a preference.
So why do we seem to be ok with discrimination and problematic people if they’re in our group? Do we think that problematic behavior is excused when the person it’s originating from is also a minority in some way?
performative sex & third person tones
I think that the portrayal of sex in Nevada is particularly interesting because the belabored dutiful sex scene between heterosexuals is kind of turned on its head. Instead of the typical stereotype of the woman simply giving into what the man wants and faking her pleasure it seems that in this scene it’s performative on both ends. I think it’s also funny because typically in the seems that we’ve seen in other novels such as in Stone Butch Blues the perspective of the heterosexual woman is dutiful sex that doesn’t culminate in her pleasure but only the mans- this is demonstrated when Annie describes all of her sexual encounters with men as rushed and unsatisfying. Annie is even embarrassed when she says that she wants to come before being fucked. This mentality typically is associated in queer are novels exclusively with heterosexuals. It’s kind of funny how in Nevada, the same mentality is exhibited, but it’s exhibited in a scene she is supposed to be more intense/engaging. I also really enjoyed the way that the novel was written in an almost third-person stream of consciousness, if that’s even possible.
I think that sex as performative is a prominent theme as well. It seems that often the characters either use sex as a means to an end or a way of self expression rather than an inherently valuable thing: “She was like, cool, punk rock, degradation, kinky sex, how queer and great.” Though Maria did not even derive pleasure necessarily, the circumstance of the sex is what she was proud of.
I also really liked the voice of the narrator (probably because the author is so cool). “It’s herself she’s sad about. Mopey ol’ lonely Maria, the little kid with the bags under her eyes, the lonesome romantic bike fucker, the girl who likes books better than people. It’s an easy automatic go-to to characterize things as boring but it is boring to have the same exact things come up whenever anything comes up: poor me. If she were a goth she’d tell you about how broken she is, but since she’s an indie-punk diy book snob, like, here we are.” Another thing I really appreciated was the tone of the writing. I thought it was pretty relatable because again the third person narrative is able to glimpse into Maria’s mind. There’s also an element of humor to the tone.
Final Project
Hi all! This is my final Project called You Have to Be Gay to Do Stuff With Magic
It’s a short story about a kid that discovers gayness and magic in Austin.
<3-Renee
Nevada’s Open Ending
So… James ditches Maria, and that’s it? THAT’S IT?
While Nevada’s open-ended ending is frustrating to readers, I think it serves to facilitate and address the novel’s larger theme of solutions giving rise to other challenges. Let’s try to remove ourselves from our frustration and try to think about why our story ended without a resolution from Maria. The narrative of our story illustrates the challenges, insecurities, and frustrations experienced by Maria post-transition. Many trans narratives take place during the character’s discovery of the desire to become another sex or another gender, and concludes on the philosophical internalizations of making this change and how it is to effect the rest of their life. With Maria, we see are invited into the post-transition life. Sure, things have resolved for Maria. Ultimately, however, as a woman, she still describes having a disconnected relationship with her body, and goes as far as to fake an orgasm with her partner. In addition, we follow her through the consequences of her self destructive decisions only to finalize: a trip to Nevada and a bunch of drugs will fix everything. We see that it doesn’t. I think this anti-climactic ending supports the over arching theme that one solution gives rise to other challenges that need a solution. Maria made the transition from man-to-woman. That didn’t solve everything for her. If it had, there wouldn’t be a book to write about in the first place. The ending poses to suggest that her journey to Nevada poses as a temporary solution to the larger issues she must address within herself. Just as her transition into a woman didn’t solve all of her problems, but granted temporary relief and self satisfaction for the time begin until those deep rooted insecurities surfaced, once again, to sabotage her relationships, her job, and her self-perceptions.
How do you think Maria’s narrative pre-tansition would compare to her post-transition narrative? Do you think she would have similar struggles, or would they be much more intense?
How does the third-person narrative dictate your assessment of Maria’s characterization. Did it change how you felt about her? Could you analyze her more closely? Or did the third-person narrative draw you further from her as a character?
My Final Project
Hey y’all,
I’m really going to miss this class. I have never enjoyed a class this much, so I’m glad I got to experience it with all of you! I thought I’d post my final project which is just one spoken words poem and a love song. I’m really proud of this song, I spent way too much time writing it, but probably not enough time actually recording it (oh well, sorry for the weird balance issues with the parts).
New flow who this?
The entire structure of how “Nevada” is written is much different than any of the previous works we’ve read over this semester. The only other novel I can think to compare it to would be “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe” in the way that it’s perceived and read as just a flow of thoughts onto the page. From the narration, the reader is unable to get a bigger picture of what’s going on in the story than what is usually found in most third person writing. We are only able to see into Maria’s stream of thoughts and therefore unable to see patterns in her character that she is unable to see herself, such as her “annual” abandonment of New York City. The zoom in focus into Maria’s thoughts and actions allows her to feel more “real” and “relatable”, her focus on negligible and self involved details is something that usually isn’t able to be established through a third person narrative but feels more personal.
I like Maria a lot as a character, but it’s hard not to become frustrated by her self sabotaging actions. It’s her focus towards self sabotage that I believe contributes to her inability to connect with others or to connect with her own feelings. Allowing herself to care and invest in her relationships would detract from her ability to make life more difficult from herself.
- Why do you think Maria continues to self sabotage? Do you think it’s a character flaw or something she came into the habit of in a way to cope with life?
- What are your thoughts on the stream of consciousness from Maria and it’s role in the third person narrative?
Lotta Loose Ends
The ending of Nevada is frustratingly anti-climactic. The book ends with James ditching Maria at a casino to go back to his unsatisfying relationship with his girlfriend. There’s no more after that; no resolution with Maria or what she’s going to do. There are a TON of loose ends left.
The ending, in my opinion, is super absurdist. There’s no meaning or anything to the ending; it simply ends with James wishing his girlfriend would give him head, something very mundane and sexual . Compared to a lot of the other books we read which at least had an ending, this is extremely different. Compare it to Zami where Lorde ends it with philosophical musings on her own life and struggles in the book. Not just narratively, there’s something missing in the ending of Nevada. There’s no closure, none.
I’m sure this is completely intentional on Binnie’s part. Perhaps she wanted to instill the frustrating bleakness of life or something equally depressing. There’s not a lot of room for happy interpretations here.
Looking at this from the perspective of Maria as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl as I posted earlier, it’s a definite subversion of the trope. Maria just absolutely fails at being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl here. James just ditches her and just goes back to his previous way of living. You really can’t fix a person if they really don’t want to be fixed.
Of all the books we read this semester, I feel like this has one of the more bleak endings. I know it leaves me bleak.
Questions
- Why do you think Imogen Binnie ended the novel this way?
- Do you think James was justified in leaving? Why or why not?
