Category: 2016 Blog Post

I want to branch of from the in class close reading we did last Friday and the idea that Cereus Blooms at Night discusses the idea of queer space within the lines of gender and sex binaries. Originally, I thought Tyler was only gay, but it has been revealed that many other elements come into play in regard to his identity. Shani Mootoo says, “Tyler who was neither properly man nor woman, but some in-between, unnamed thing,” (71). Essentially Mootoo is addressing the idea of a person that doesn’t necessarily fall into one gender. By both exemplifying characteristics of a man and a woman, he creates for himself this sort of dual identity: the identity in which is deemed acceptable determined by his biological sex, and his actual and conflicting identity, that he even he may not be so sure of. As a result, he falls “in-between” which is “unnamed” and unknown so that he becomes almost un-identifiable. I have trouble however with the description of being an “unnamed thing”. This makes me question exactly what Cereus Blooms at Night is doing. By labeling Tyler as a “thing”, negative associations appear. Synonymous words would be “monster”, “beast”, or anything else that simply is not human. We can see why this is troubling in a novel that also has moments of trans-gender acceptance. We see the more positive example of Ambrose and how everyone around him immediately accepts him. So why Tyler? Why does he become demonized? Now I’m not exactly sure if this was Mootoo’s intent, to demonize him using the word “thing” but based on our other knowledge of his consistent ostracization throughout the book, is she providing an example of oppressive heteronormative and shame culture? She also uses the word “properly” which suggests the idea that there is clear way of presenting one’s identity and that is either male or female. But this “properness” is based immediately on one’s actual biological gender. Maybe this close attention to the ways in which one stigmatizes queer folks brings the deeper issue to light. By presenting this heteronormative culture through language in a book that is seemingly about overcoming stigma and shame, I really wonder what will happen throughout the rest of the novel.

In the reading Gender Trouble by Judith Butler, Butler states that “…the construction of the gendered body through a series of exclusions and denials, signifying (signify) absences” (Butler, 135). In other words, gender can be defined by characteristics that people don’t have instead of characteristics that people do have. For example, facial hair is normally associated with men, so if someone doesn’t have a beard then they are constructed to be feminine. For me, Butler makes this confusing by identifying gender in terms of what people don’t have instead of what they do have.

In the novel Cereus Blooms at Night gender is constantly being performed and constructed by choices of appearance. For example, when Tyler puts on the dress for Miss Ramchandin he says, “I have never felt so ordinary, and I quite loved it” (Mootoo, 78). In this way, Tyler is constructed as his queer, gay self who feels typical in society with a dress on. However, when Tyler doesn’t wear the dress he is seen as masculine by his employers (nurses) since they make him wear pants like the other male workers. Gender is identified by what Tyler doesn’t wear according to Butler.

In addition, according to Tyler, before Mala, Nana “… was the only person who had ever truly…accepted me (Tyler) and my girlish ways” (Mootoo, 71). Mala and Nana see Tyler as feminine even without the dress but according to society appearance determines gender. His choice of clothing performs his identity, to wear a dress or not. Therefor, because his identity is performed his identity is also fabricated. Society sees his gender as masculine without the dress and feminine with the dress showing that we live in a heteronormative world wear dresses are considered to be feminine. Society shapes this fabrication, which in turn assigns a specific gender to individuals making these people declare things/objects as feminine or masculine adding to societies fabrication. It is an endless circle, which feeds the idea that if identity is performed it is fabricated.

Autobiography of Red is inventive in a sense that it makes familiar things unfamiliar, by intentional discrepancy and absence. It claims to be an old Greek myth. However, it is a contemporary queer love story where Hercules who used to be a hero historically is a heartbreaker while Geryon, a red monster, is the one readers might cheer for and love. It also claims to be an autobiography, but it is rather a biography of Geryon writing an autobiography. The interview of the author, inserted at the last pages of the book, does not possess any answer or guide about interpreting the book.
The difference between what it is expected to be and what actually it is points out contradictions and oppressions of the world we are expected to live. By retelling the old myth that was pervasively known in a new perspective, the novel suggests there might be stories of minorities untold and unknown in our world. By hiding what the Geryon is writing about in his autobiography, which must be Geryon’s understanding of himself, in other words, his own identity, the biography written in a third party perspective refuses to determine Geryon’s identity. By asking questions while answering nothing in the interview, the novel opens up enough room for readers to imagine infinite possibilities in the book. Overall, the novel adapts forms of perspicuity, such as a heroic myth, an autobiography and an interview, and turns these into inspiring texts that does not dictate readers what to see, and that reveals forgotten and abandoned sides of our world.

Anne Carson, a celebrated poet and essayist, took it upon herself to retell the story of Gerson and Herakles. A novel that turned Stesichoros’ story into Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse. By blending fantasy and reality, Anne Carson introduces an inventive autobiography of a red winged monster who struggles to survive in the real world. The striking way Carson utilizes red and wings only further the perfect metaphor for otherness, to communicate Gerson’s role as an outcast. Consequently, the fantasy used in Autobiography of Red leads to our understanding on who Geryon in reality is or becomes.

According to Bell Hooks, in order “to heal the splitting of mind and body, we……attempt to recover ourselves and our experiences in language” (Hooks 175). The use of language is the only attempt to understand our mind our body and who we represent, essentially it identifies who we are or who we are trying to identify. Throughout the novel, the use of red was emphasized as one of Garyons’ quality, who he was. Gerson was red sen in his childhood, as was everything about him, from the “red silk chalk” used by his teachers to the way he was described to us (Carson 26). It becomes more clear when he set down the total facts known about himself, first and foremost of which is that “Geryon was a monster and everything about him was red” (Carson 37). He was such an other, so unique, that he would not take the traditional route to his classroom at school. Gerson would walk to the far end of the building and “stand motionless until someone inside noticed and came out to show him the way. He did not gesticulate. He did not knock on the glass. He waited. Small, red, and upright he waited” (Carson 25). There he stood and waited to be included, the outcast, the other, the unique. Now, the question is why red? We know that Geryon is not literally red, or is he? In my perspective, red is a standout color, a color that is seen and placed out of other colors, isn’t that what Geryon is. Geryon is not like anyone else. He is unique and his redness only speaks for who he is. But red is not the only thing that makes him an other, a unique individual, his wings also display who he is.

At first, Geryon’s wings were noticeable. His mother used to “neaten his little red wings and push him out the door” (Carson 36). When time went on, Geryon decided to hide his wings because he knew his wings set him apart. However, when he was in Buenos Aires he understood that “twelve percent of people are born with tales” but only he has been born with wings (Carson 97). By him entitling the photograph “No Tails”, Geryon expresses a sign of self-acceptance. Essentially, he is embracing his otherness, his uniqueness, the one thing that sets him apart from other, the one thing that makes him who he is.

Anne Carson blends reality and fantasy to further understand the character of Geryon. The inventive wings and redness character are metaphorically figures that emphasize the uniqueness of Geryon and portray an image of otherness. The purpose of this invention if for the reader to understand that language can be interpreted in different dimensions, in this case we encounter a characters’ life who we never get to hear, because he is different. What a better way to understand the unique than by blending fantasy with reality, an inventive form of writing.

In class we have been discussing the idea that Autobiography of Red is re-writing history, that the myth of Hercules killing Geryon is bending, rendering, and transforming a point in mythology into a Queer narrative. We have also discussed that Anne Carson challenges the regular forms of language by writing the novel in prose, however the book reads more like a novel, but there are no paragraphs with no distinguished chapters. All of this is true and an aspect of the inventiveness of this novel is the deviation from reality and fantasy. This bending of both topics is not just the idea that Geryon is a red-winged monster; it’s the idea that Anne Carson puts the fantasy aspect of the novel in the reality. What I mean is the setting of novel is reality, the characters are reality, and the experiences that are happening to the characters are reality. For example, Geryon’s incestuous abuse from his brother, his mother’s constant smoking and disconnection from her son’s and Geryon’s love for Hercules, one could argue are reality–real experiences of the modern world. However Geryon is the focal point of the fantasy, a red-winged monster. It’s Anne Carson’s use of language that disillusions our grasp of having a distinguished conception of reality or fantasy, as they both coexist together. The reality is the volcanoes, the weather, the people, and the experiences of love, anger, and confusion—exist as reality through a fantastical creature that embodies not only a myth but also an otherwise ostracized being of queerness.

The book’s title is Autobiography of Red a Novel in Verse; the two words that stand out here are autobiography and novel. An autobiography is a person writing about his or her own life while a novel is “A fictional prose narrative of considerable length.” The key word in the definition of a novel being fiction, which is the opposite of what the telling of personal life experiences represents. The purpose of this inventiveness is to show to the reader this person who uses the word red to express his feelings is also using a Greek myth to express himself in his autobiography, which gives him the ability to add fiction to his life story. Throughout the novel Geryon is trying to discover himself and express who he is through his autobiography. It is obvious that Geryon sometimes doesn’t know how to express him self which is shown by the use of the word red being things/emotions that he cant explain. So, at some points in this book he changes the truths of his life into fiction of what he wishes he could feel. This is shown when he writes an autobiography and then his mother at the parent teacher conference asks if he ever writes about anything with a happy ending and he then writes “New Ending. All over the world the beautiful red breezes went on blowing hand in had” (Carson 38). Geryon here uses his imagination to write a new ending like someone would use in a novel to create what he could experience.

 

 

 

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/novel

The beauty of higher education is that young adults are specializing their time and areas of interest to pursue their passions outside of the institutions that consumes so much of our lives currently. Whether these pursuits are in biology, linguistics, physics, or art history, collectively we are the individuals who will bring these perspectives in the world to come. In theory this creates a world that so desperately needs balance. Reality never seems to fully take place what theorists may predict however. Inevitably this balance is threatened and typically not achieved outside of college campuses. While college students are not quite molded into the people we are meant to be yet, adults tend to forget to challenge their mindsets the way students are today. This can lead to a dangerous assumption of understanding the norms that students spend countless hours in their specialized fields daily. From my own experiences, I have been finding myself increasingly more frustrated with the social injustices that were never there before since I was never looking and how to express these problematic issues to those who do not study these issues has been difficult to say the least.

While I was one of the individuals who did not know much about the history of women’s suffrage or the inhumane discrimination that individuals of the gay and gender queer community have and still currently experience, educating myself within these areas has truly made me see the world differently. Despite how cliché it may sound, a different perspective creates an existence in the world that was simply never there. Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red introduces a new light of thinking through the life within a story told countless times before. The myth of Hercules typically focuses on the path the demi-god takes rather than the little red monster Geryon. Carson is able to capture a part of his character that has never been observed before, metaphorically representing the queer and marginalized individual through Geryon’s life. Dina Georgis’ excerpt regarding the novel explicitly explains how Geryon’s autobiography is an inventive take on the myth. She shares “Geryon’s own experience” is narrated to us, not in words or in a digested story of his life but in obscure photographic stills of life fragments in excess what can be known about his body” (Georgis 156). In the face of trauma or those who have been neglected, often two narratives are never the same, but certain trends and patterns develop through those who are willing to share them. Rather what makes Geryon’s autobiography inventive is not what he is saying, but how. His story is told through a lens of a camera. Anne Carson is able to revolutionize this concept through repeating a story that has been told for centuries.

Anne Carson’s novel, Autobiography of Red, deviates from expectations by retelling the myth of Geryon and Herakles while allowing Geryon to remember the more traditional version. Instead of simply rewriting the myth, Carson is examining Geryon’s story in the context a story that ends in Geryon death. This process of contextualizing the novel against the ancient myth is made apparent when Carson writes, “New ending/All over the world the beautiful red breeze went on blowing hand/in hand”(38). This is a declaration that, by the end of the novel, the ending of the myth will have drastically changed.
By engaging Geryon’s death in the traditional myth of Herakles, and stating a new ending, Carson is not only challenging our perceptions of the heroic Herakles inside the text, but in the context of the myth, and, perhaps, even in the broader scope of the ideals of conquest and power that the mythical Herakles represents.
But this is a dangerous interpretive path as it leads us away from the main character, who is promised a new ending, Geryon. If we take this self-aware focus on shifting the story as a shift from the traditional narratives, then we must shift our perspective away from a traditional hero, and towards Geryon, a character who lacks clear symbolic structures. His identity is something unclear, symbolized by the vague word “red,” otherwise undescribed by language. And it is only through the contextualized shift in focus that Geryon’s redness can be giving a new ending, while remaining separate from language

In chapter eleven of bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress she quotes a poem by Adrienne Rich, which states “Words impose themselves, take root in our memory against our will.” (hooks, 167) This quote illuminates the ways in which dominant narratives infiltrate and undermine a multitude of identities. Carson’s Autobiography of Red reinvents and reimagines a Greek myth grounded in machismo and transforms the story into a narrative about queer love. Carson’s shift of this story humanizes the ways in which queer narratives are typically understood. Although the protagonist experiences different traumas, the novel does not end in tragedy. Carson creates multifaceted characters that shape one another throughout the story. Geryon is empowered through self-discovery and the recognition that he is not alone. In the last chapter, Geryon states “We are amazing beings…neighbors of fire” (Carson, 146) illustrating the power of his existence and others that occupy spaces similar to him. hook’s discusses the ways in which marginalized peoples take oppressive language and create a type of counter-hegemonic speech thus finding liberation through language. (hooks, 175) In a similar way, Carson makes stories such as Geryon’s visible and forcibly claims space that has not been given to marginalized queer identities in canonical literature.

Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red retells the ancient Greek myth of Herakles slaying Geryon, a red-winged monster. From Geryon’s perspective, we discover his humanity, and the toll that his relationship with Herakles took on him. From Geryon’s perspective, we discover a love story that we otherwise wouldn’t have known about. I think that retelling this story from Geryon’s perspective also causes the reader to question who was really the “bad guy”. This is to say that we often misinterpret who characters are when we only hear about them from one perspective. From the ancient Greek myth, we are lead to believe that Herakles is the hero and Geryon is evil. From Autobiography of Red our opinions shift because Geryon is the one getting his heart broken by Herakles. I think that the retelling of this ancient Greek myth is significant because it notifies the reader to be skeptical of the narrator, as there is always another side to the story. Furthermore, this retelling is showing readers the perspective of someone who is misunderstood. More specifically, this retelling is giving someone who is misunderstood the chance to be understood and even accepted. If we don’t hear the stories of those that we don’t understand, then we can never learn to accept them. I also think this novel exposes which story society is more willing to accept and continue telling. Geryon is misunderstood and therefore his story is ignored, much like how people who identify as anything but normal are silenced. Anna Carson’s Autobiography of Red reimagines the myth of Herakles and Geryon and gives a voice to the character who was silenced.