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Local independent publisher Graywolf Press is on a winning streak. Over the past several years they have been publishing some really fantastic stuff. They make me feel both proud and lucky to live in Minneapolis! One of their 2015 publications, The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson is another winner. Nonfiction to be sure but not one of those books that fits into a neat category.
The volume is slim, only 143 pages. The book is written in thought chunks. I have no idea what else to call them, these paragraphs of varying lengths separated by a band of white space much wider than a regular paragraph break. Each chunk is complete but the chunks flow together too to develop an idea or make an argument or tell a story. Then there are slightly wider bands of white space that indicate a change in direction or the beginning of a new story. It makes for a meditative mood and works like thinking or conversation where you circle around things, go off on a tangent and then come back then leap to something that seems completely unrelated but turns out to be associated in some way or another. I very much liked this style and it suits the subjects Nelson writes about as well her exploratory approach.
The Argonauts themselves, you may remember them from mythology, were those who sailed with Jason on his ship the Argo to get the Golden Fleece. They had other adventures too, of course, but that is the one they are chiefly known for. So before even knowing what the book is about, we are given the signal that it is an adventure, and exploration of some kind. Within a few pages of the book we are provided further explanation:
I sent you the passage from Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes in which Barthes describes how the subject who utters the phrase ‘I love you’ is like ‘the Argonaut renewing his ship during its voyage without changing its name.’ Just as the Argo’s parts may be replaced over time but the boat is still called the Argo, whenever the lover utters the phrase ‘I love you,’ its meaning must be renewed by each use, as the ‘very task of love and of language is to give one and the same phrase inflections which will be forever new.’
The “you” Nelson is addressing is her spouse, artist Harry Dodge, who is gender fluid and does not fully identify as either male or female. Though over the course of the book Dodge begins taking testosterone and has a mastectomy. That information alone might give you an idea about how “Argonauts” applies in an even broader sense than Barthes’ original intention.
Nelson also writes about her pregnancy and motherhood and all of the cultural complications it entails as well as the physical and mental changes it brings. She writes about giving birth and how it felt like she was falling to pieces and sometimes like she was melting. She writes about her postpartum body and how she is supposed to immediately get to work according to all the magazines, and lose the baby weight, get back to her career, get back to a sex life and being sexy, pretty much as if nothing happened at all and there was no pregnancy and no baby. And she writes of her need and desire to define a boundary between her and baby:
I’ll let my baby know where the me and the not me begin and end, and withstand whatever rage ensues. I’ll give as much as I’ve got to give without losing sight of my own me. I’ll let him know that I’m a person with my own needs and desires , and over time he’ll come to respect me for elucidating such boundaries, for feeling real as he comes to know me as real.
The Argonauts is beautifully intimate without being confessional. Nelson balances out the personal with the scholarly, quoting Barthes and Derrida, Judith Butler, Jaques Lacan, Lucille Clifton, even Ralph Waldo Emerson gets a quote. She explores the broader social landscape and the effects it has on her and her family as well as the effects her “genderqueer” family has on society.
Nelson comes to no firm conclusions about anything. She accepts being in a state of constant change, living with ambiguity and having no real closure. Any time she gets near to being able to create some kind of closure, she refuses to do so. This seems to be a theme in a number of nonfiction books I have read in the past year or so and I must say I like it very much. Nelson acknowledges that ambiguity and refusing closure is uncomfortable for a good many people, but being willing to live with uncertainty creates a space for discovery and transformation. One could say it is the demesne of the Argonauts.
I honestly cannot decide if I could read this book even though I have seen such glowing reviews. I have known many genderqueer people and some were highly influential for my own journey many years ago, but most of us who live in the LGBTQ spectrum have lives that are very ordinary and real. Dull even. We don’t live to challenge norms, we live as we do to feel whole.
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roughghosts, I totally understand your hesitation. I think Nelson wants to have an ordinary life but as she sees it, just being genderqueer in a heteronormative society goes against the normal. She has an interesting discussion of heteronormativity and what it might mean should homonormativity prevail. She also has some interesting things to say about what “queer” means. I suspect you would actually find the book to be thoughtful and thought provoking.
On side note, sorry I haven’t visited your blog lately. I have been so busy I can barely keep up with my own. I hope to stop by soon!
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Thanks for the response. Don’t worry about not stopping by, you may or may not know that I just has a heart attack triggered by a pulmonary embolism so I haven’t been too active. I am finally reading again (hurrah!) but it takes me forever to decide what I want to read.
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Oh no! I didn’t know! How scary that must have been. I am glad you are ok and on the mend. I hope you are recovered soon.
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Thanks. It was a shock (a souvenir of my recent long flight home from South Africa most likely). I am lucky, but it does make you think.
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Well take care and don’t go getting anymore of those sorts of souvenirs 🙂
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An interesting review . . .
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Thanks! it was a good book!
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Wow, this sounds interesting and maybe a little challenging. I like the idea of the book’s ambiguity, though I myself don’t always do well when ‘stories’ are presented ambiguously. I do like Graywolf Press. Didn’t they used to have a literary review? Or maybe I am thinking of Hungry Mind (which I am not sure if it is still around?). I think I have a couple of their books of essays (Graywolf that is). I like the sound of the autobiographical bits about motherhood, however. Isn’t it awful how magazines and advertising give us such high and unrealistic bars against which we have to measure ourselves?!
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Danielle, it was pretty easy to read though it does not tolerate a wandering of attention! It is Hungry Mind you are thinking of. They no longer exist, went out of business quite a few years ago now. It was a big loss. I think Rain Taxi Review has kind of filled the niche and done a good job at it.
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I have to say this sounds amazing. I love ambiguity and open ends! I’ve been meaning to read Bluets for a while, Maggie Nelson seems to be such an interesting writer.
I meant to ask you, have you read any Joanna Russ? I’m reading Extra(ordinary) People at the moment, and I thought of you. I’m enjoying the stories very much.
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Helen, I’ve heard good things about Bluets and didn’t realize it was hers until I had started reading Argonauts and now I’d really really like to read Bluets.
I have read Russ, not much though, she seems to be hard to find sadly. I have read Female Man and her books of nonfiction How to Suppress Women’s Writing. I will have to see if I can get my hands on a copy of Extra(ordinary) People!
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Sounds great Stefanie. I love your description of her conclusion that “ambiguity and refusing closure is uncomfortable for a good many people, but being willing to live with uncertainty creates a space for discovery and transformation”. I think that’s true. I’m not sure how I live up to it in my own life, but I certainly appreciate it in novels, films etc.
As for postpartum life – I say “ignore the magazines and use your common-sense”. You will never be the same after you’ve had a baby. I’m talk talking physically here – though I think you’ll never be the same physically even if you MIGHT get back to LOOKING the same – but mentally. Life is different. There’s no closure after having a baby – it goes on and on and on until you (or, heaven forbid) that child dies.
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whisperinggums, I know, it’s easier said than done, right? Uncertainty is so much work and can be so tiring and certainty, even when it is false, is so much easier.
Thanks for your insight on postpartum life! Having never had children myself, it really helps me fit the pieces together in terms of the Argonaut theme. 🙂
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Oh good, Stefanie. Just my experience of course but I think pretty universal for we ordinary, ie not magazine, people!
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Aw, I like Graywolf. They’re small but they’re plucky!
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Indeed they are! 🙂
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I am now at that age when my children and my children’s friends are having children. I could be wrong, but this “new generation” (yikes, I sound like one of “the ancients”) of Moms and Dads seem more at ease with the whole transition. I never suffered any of the postpartum woes but certainly agree that postpartum life changes FOREVER. In my case, all to the good. I read a review of this book somewhere; as usual I can’t remember where, and wondered whether it would be a good choice for an “almost” child of mine who is having her first baby at the age of 39.
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Grad, the book is really good but not all about motherhood. Motherhood is one big piece to be sure, but there is a lot about Nelson’s relationship to Harry too. Having children does change your life forever, it’s a big decision to have or have not.
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This was a great review. I have Argonauts on my TBR but knowing you liked it so much makes me want to push it up towards the top! (I’m also interested in her post-partum stuff. The issue of boundaries was a huge one for me after the birth of my son four years ago. I think if you’re an older mother (I was 34) then it comes as quite a shock to not recognize your life after having the baby. Intense stuff!)
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Laila, glad you enjoyed it! I think you will like the book very much when you get a chance to read it. I look forward to your thoughts!
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I’m so glad you liked this book so much because I loved, loved, loved it! And Bluets is amazing. As is her book Jane, A Murder. I’m on a mission to read everything Nelson has written. I reviewed it for Shiny New Books here, if you are interested: http://shinynewbooks.co.uk/non-fiction-issue-6/the-argonauts-by-maggie-nelson/
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Rebecca, I remember when you read Bluets and how much you liked it. I put it on my TBR list and now I want to read it even more! Thanks for your SNB review link!
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I love Maggie Nelson and think she is a force of creative good in the world! I’d buy this right now, but it’s prohibitively expensive in the UK at the moment and I had better wait until the paperback comes out. I’ll be on it then, though!
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Litlove, I have now become a Nelson fan, she is so very creative and doing interesting things. Too bad the book is so expensive in the UK right now. I hope the paperback comes out soon!
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The way you speak the narration is pleasing me to have this book right now. I always liked Maggie Nelson’s books and she keeps amazing me with her writing.She has something original and fresh as always to gain reader’s satisfaction….The Argonauts looks fresh and applealing, looking forward to read it.
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This is the first of Nelson’s books I have read and it won’t be the last. You have it right with fresh and appealing. She’s a really interesting writer. I hope you enjoy the book you read it!
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