\u201cLove it was that drove them forth. Love that brought them home again. Love hardened their hands against the oar and heated their sinews against the rain. The journeys they made were beyond common sense; who leaves the hearth for the open sea? Especially without a compass, especially in winter, especially alone. What you risk reveals what you value. In the presence of love, hearth and quest become one\u201d (Winterson, 81)<\/p>\n
Carson\u2019s little red monster Geryon journeys several times for love, or at least for infatuation. \u201cSometimes a journey makes itself necessary\u201d (Carson, 46) is stated in the section \u201cHades\u201d, where Geryon runs away for a time to Herakles\u2019 home to see the volcano. This escapade, while brief, made in Geryon\u2019s teen years is his first journey for love. It is a literal, physical journey to the other end of the island, but I think it also represents a more metaphorical move as well. Geryon is entirely infatuated by Herakles, so he makes a knee-jerk choice to follow him, regardless of the consequences that might arise from that move. One of the consequences, Geryon foresaw and was willing to take, upsetting his mother. But Geryon also got his heart broken on that trip. But from that moment, Geryon places his bets with Herakles, in Winterson\u2019s words, \u201cwhat you risk reveals what you value\u201d (Winterson, 81).<\/p>\n
Years later, Geryon\u2019s priorities remain the same. He hurls himself into another spur of the moment journey with Herakles \u201cbeyond common sense\u201d (Winterson, 81). This time, however, Geryon\u2019s choice is even more unusual. Herakles is in a relationship with Ancash, and it has been years since the two were together. Geryon knows both of these facts and still goes to Peru with the pair. He even questions his own motives, \u201cLima is terrible, he thought, why am I here?\u201d (Carson, 124). Yet Geryon stays because of his desire to be near Herakles. I think \u201cIn the presence of love, hearth and quest become one\u201d (Winterson, 81) is a fitting summary of Geryon\u2019s motives. For most of his life, Geryon has felt alone and adrift. But in Peru during this wild unplanned quest to go see a volcano, Geryon has a few moments of contentment and belonging. He seems to find his hearth flying above the volcano and standing in front of the burning bakery.<\/p>\n
There is a geographical and temporal irregularity and queerness in Geryon\u2019s actions. When we see choices like his made in romantic movies or novels, we remark on how unrealistic they are. In our day-to-day lives in a temporally and geographically heteronormative society, we don\u2019t go on spur of the moment adventures with our exes and their current partners. But that reluctance falls in line with a normative timeline, where you settle down with someone who has a common geographic convenience to you. They go to the same college, or you work at the same place, live in the same town, or have another shared connection in the way your life is lived. And we don\u2019t interfere with other people\u2019s relationships; polyamory, cheating, even flirting with someone in a relationship are all frowned upon by \u201cnice\u201d society. But both Geryon and our narrator rebel against that. This action that defies social norms and works against traditional conceptions of romance or love are inherently queer and breed new ideas of who we are \u201callowed\u201d to love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cLove it was that drove them forth. Love that brought them home again. Love hardened their hands against the oar and heated their sinews against the rain. The journeys they made were beyond common sense; who leaves the hearth for the open sea? Especially without a compass, especially in winter, especially alone. What you risk … Continue reading Hearth and Quest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}