“Queerness is essentially about the rejection of here and now and an insistence on potentiality or concrete possibility for another world” (Munoz, 1).
Throughout the novel, Cereus Blooms at Night, characters such as Otoh and Tyler seem to share a sense of queerness with Mala Ramchandin. For example, while discussing his complicated relationship with Mala, Otoh states, “I felt as though she and I had things in common. She had secrets and I had secrets. Somehow I wanted to go there and take all my clothes off and say, ‘Look! See? See all this? I am different!'” (Mootoo, 124). In openly saying that he wanted Mala to see his androgynous body, Otoh suggests that Mala understands his unconventional, or queer, means of existence. At first, this comparison seemed somewhat unprecedented, especially with a perspective of queerness only in relation to gender and sexuality. Otoh and Tyler exemplify the complexities of gender and sexuality through their means of gender performance, and, although Mala has lived a life of anguish, she does not seem to exhibit characteristics of queerness in gender or sexuality.
Yet, upon further reading, I can now see how Mala may fit into queer discourse. As Munoz’s notion of queerness suggests, transgressions of conceptions of “here and now” can constitute queerness. Throughout the later years of her life, Mala rejects the “here and now” of the present world and often chooses to live in the past to create a possibility for another reality in which she can protect Pohpoh, punish her father, and pursue a relationship with Ambrose.
I thinks it’s interesting to explore shared queerness in Cereus Blooms at Night because so many characters deviate from the norm and are ostracized by society. I think it’s also important to discuss the shared pain of Mala, Tyler, and Otoh. Although they have not experienced the same pain, they all have had invisible scars left on their bodies. And I’m not too sure whether or not the book confirms it but I conceptualize Otoh as trans. And I think it would be fascinating to explore politics of visibility as they relate to trans bodies in this book. Otoh articulates that he wants to expose his body to Mala but trans nudity is something we as a society are not ready for, in my opinion. I’ve personally only seen semi nude photos of trans people and they are usually high fashion and professional, very artistic, and policed to the very extreme. They are usually thin trans women with no body hair and enough surgery for us to say they are trans enough. Also, I wonder how in the book these characters navigate their colonized bodies, and I think the act of decolonizing one’s body would be another interesting lens to look at this book through.
I think it’s really interesting that you are constructing your own definition of queer by understanding how these very different characters share a particular queerness. I also found it really insightful to perceive how contradictions of time and chronology reflect a type of queerness – this seems to be what you are suggesting for Mala. I think it would be interesting incorporate some of our theoretical texts in with this idea. Lastly, the quote you chose is extremely pertinent and helped me understand better both the characters as well as the novel.
I think that Queer Time can also be brought into play. Mala manipulated time in order to comfort herself. Not only is her time queer as she is seeing and protecting her younger self, but the way she is physically conducting her life can be called queer/deviant. She allows nature to take its course within her household and work around it, where the norm is to force nature to work around man made impositions. I also think it is incredibly interesting that both Otoh and Tyler perform and explore their queerness comfortable in Mala’s presence.