As I think of the second half of Eugenides’ saga, the image two images seem to beg further investigation: Calliope at the library, finding out who she is (at least as far as a dictionary definition can limit) and Cal in Bob Presto’s peepshow, head above water and body visible to all, who pay a […]
The Peiss piece “Transformation of Transsexual Jorgensen” poses a question that Cal in Middlesex must answer for himself. How xan people who are different be “cured”? And of course, we must ask ourselves not how they can be “cured,” but rather if they should be — and if the word “cure” should be used in […]
Within the Bounds of the Heterosexual Imagination I thought that Serlin’s essay Christine Jorgensen and the Cold War Closet drew some interesting parallels with Middlesex. Interestingly, the essay makes the assertion that Jorgensen was rejected by the general public after it was discovered that she was not a physical “hermaphrodite” who made the choice between […]
Speaking of the threshold of revelation… Part 2 of Angels in America provided the perfect set up for the second half of Middlesex, with Cal/Calliope providing the perfect portrait of the “threshold of revelation.” Simply speaking, if I didn’t fully grasp it at the end of Angels in America, I certainly do now.
“Can transvestites be cured?” asked Time in an article reporting on Christine Jorgensen (Peiss, 375). If the article were about Cal, perhaps the question asked would be: Can hermaphrodites be cured? Within these questions lies the assumption that these things – these genders – need to be cured. “In some cases of transvestitism, as in […]
“Five minutes old, and already the themes of my life – chance and sex – announced themselves” (216). In our last seminar, we attempted to draw a clear line between fate and destiny, a divinely determined vs. mystical propulsion of the universe and its characters. Well, Cal doesn’t quite dive for the line, and […]
The theme of the monster, that John pointed out in our last class, continues to resurface throughout Books 3 and 4 of Middlesex. What is interesting to note is that the point when Cal finally accepts him/herself as a unique being, not a monster, is when his/her body is displayed in a freak show of […]
You can’t unring a bell!
In a novel of epic proportions such as Middlesex, images play a very important role. The narrator spends much time dwelling on the significance of certain images, whether comparing the burning city of Smyrna to his own childhood memories of a fireside charring of scrapped wrapping paper, or speeding time in explaining the functioning of […]
“I think love breaks all taboos. Don’t you?” (67)
