{"id":1657,"date":"2021-03-07T18:48:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T23:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=1657"},"modified":"2021-03-07T18:48:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T23:48:20","slug":"am-i-a-fruit-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2021\/03\/07\/am-i-a-fruit-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I A Fruit Bowl?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/span>Why is this fruit bowl always here?<\/span><\/i> He stopped and held it by the rims.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s always here and it never<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Has any fruit in it. Been here all my life never had fruit in it yet. Doesn\u2019t<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

That bother you? How do we even<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Know it\u2019s a fruit bowl?<\/span><\/i> She regarded him through smoke. <\/span>How do you think it feels<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Growing up in a house full<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Of empty fruit bowls?\u201d <\/span><\/i>–Carson pg 68<\/span><\/p>\n

The image of the fruit bowl in this passage is particularly interesting to me as a symbol of the self. I think of a fruit bowl as a vessel for a collection of fruits, usually a variety of different ones put together in one large bowl. The idea of taking bits of different fruits and putting them together reminds me of the intersection of varying identities; in the case of Geryon, I would say it could refer to his queer identity, racial ambiguity, presentation as a red, winged \u2018monster,\u2019 and the influence of his traumatic childhood on his identity and perception of his self. I think including things like his traumatic past alongside his more physical identifiers creates a more rounded (like a bowl??) image of who he is. Also, I remember Georgis stating that \u201cit is likely that because his body is strangely marked on the outside, that his inner universal queer wings are throbbing with that much more pain\u201d (pg. 165). This highlights the way different aspects of an individual\u2019s identity relate to each other, and how certain social identities can make others more complicated\u2013 here, I am thinking in particular about oppressed\/otherwise marginalized groups (LGBTQ+ community, racial\/ethnic groups, etc) and how the combination of such identities (ex: Geryon as a \u201cgay racially hybrid young man,\u201d Georgis pg 165) can exacerbate the oppression or isolation felt as a result.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of isolation, and this sort of societal exclusion, the image of the fruit bowl as empty in the passage above is relevant and representative of Geryon\u2019s feelings of loneliness and misunderstanding. Geryon feels caged and \u201cother\u201d as a result of his identities marking him as different, and lacks consistent healthy relationships in his life (i.e. his somewhat detached mother, abusive relationship with his brother, and complicated relationship with Heracles). While I think these empty, lonely feelings can be obviously symbolized by the emptiness of the fruit bowl, I also think the fruit bowl can be imagined as empty in the way that it has this potential to be filled. I think the potential to be filled could easily become a sexual metaphor, but I was thinking of it in the context of defining the \u201cself,\u201d that this potential refers to a future opportunity to be understood (by others and in self reflection). The potential for Geryon\u2019s life to be filled with more healthy relationships with others, alongside a more complete understanding of his own identity\/desires\/place in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think the fruit bowl as an image of the self gives us the space to explore the role of queerness in this text. Particularly the lines \u201cBeen here all my life never had fruit in it yet. Doesn\u2019t \/ that bother you? How do we even \/ know it\u2019s a fruit bowl?\u201d (Carson pg 68) lead me to wonder about the types of assumptions we make about people based on the way they look or present themselves. This could be in terms of gender presentation or queer-coding, but also about the types of labels someone uses (especially outside of the cis\/binary\/heteronormative expectations of society). I wonder how these lines might reflect Geryon\u2019s thoughts about his own identity, particularly as a queer person; I am reminded of my own experiences with reflecting on my queer identity as someone who identifies as bisexual but has only had relationships with opposite sex partners in the past. The idea of using labels without \u201cexperience\u201d can be a way of \u201cother\u201d-ing, even within the queer community. I think the question of \u201chow do we even \/ know it\u2019s a fruit bowl?\u201d reflects this question of who am I, how do I identify myself, and how do I know? Georgis would supplement these thoughts with the line \u201ctaking account of the self is never a straightforward process\u201d (pg 165).\u00a0 I wonder if the question \u201chow do we even \/ know it\u2019s a fruit bowl?\u201d is even relevant, if we are focusing on self-identification. How much does it matter whether others know it is a fruit bowl, so long as the fruit bowl knows that it is and is comfortable with its identity as a fruit bowl, regardless of whether it has ever held fruit before? Or if the fruit bowl only looks like a fruit bowl \u201cshould,\u201d but doesn\u2019t identify that way?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy is this fruit bowl always here? He stopped and held it by the rims. It\u2019s always here and it never Has any fruit in it. Been here all my life never had fruit in it yet. Doesn\u2019t That bother you? How do we even Know it\u2019s a fruit bowl? She regarded him through smoke. … Continue reading Am I A Fruit Bowl?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4658,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1657","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\/1657","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\/4658"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}