In Justin Torres’s lyrical new novel, “Blackouts,” .... erasure poetry and queer history collide to create one epic conversation between a pivotal 20th-century queer sexology text and two unreliable queer Puerto Rican narrators (or perhaps three, depending how you read the genre-bending conclusion).
A New York Times MUST READ: "Blackout" - A Radical Queer Novel Challenges the Idea of History Itself
by Anonymous | reply 24 | December 3, 2023 8:16 PM |
"One epic conversation between a pivotal 20th-century queer sexology text and two unreliable queer Puerto Rican narrators."
That sentence alone is enough for me to say "hard pass."
by Anonymous | reply 2 | December 3, 2023 2:02 PM |
Does anyone know how to get vomit out of raw silk?
I forgot to change out of my morning caftan and into my smock before reading the DL this morning.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | December 3, 2023 2:04 PM |
So is history a theory?
by Anonymous | reply 4 | December 3, 2023 2:05 PM |
As hard a pass as the world's largest kidney stone.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | December 3, 2023 2:05 PM |
Unreliable narrator(s), indeed.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | December 3, 2023 2:06 PM |
Zzzzz!!!
by Anonymous | reply 7 | December 3, 2023 2:07 PM |
[quote]...depending how you read the genre-bending conclusion
"Gender-bending" = unreadable
by Anonymous | reply 8 | December 3, 2023 2:28 PM |
Genre-bending, stupido. Not gender.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | December 3, 2023 2:44 PM |
Sounds atrocious.
Sounds like someone's meth-fueled fever dream.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | December 3, 2023 2:46 PM |
It's queer, you know.
Queer queer, queer queer queer queer, queer queer.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | December 3, 2023 2:48 PM |
If a Puerto Rican ever tells you the story of how his Prince Albert made sparks on my fillings in a bar dark room, please remember that he’s an unreliable narrator.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | December 3, 2023 2:50 PM |
Ugh. I'd rather read MTG's pile of crap.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | December 3, 2023 3:20 PM |
Sounds like a real Page Burner!
by Anonymous | reply 14 | December 3, 2023 3:30 PM |
The real danger of such things is that people read it thinking it's based on reality, even if the story is fictional, so get a very warped view of history and reality.
You know, like Ts started Stonewall and are the only reason gays have rights today.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | December 3, 2023 3:33 PM |
Based on a true story. The "two unreliable queer Puerto Rican narrators" were two queer grad students at Brown, diversity admits, neither of whom have ever had sex with the same gender (if one can say gender is not a construct), and one of whom self-identifies as Puerto Rican despite being born to wealth in a Sephardic Jewish family long establish in Connecticut's Fairfield County.
The "pivotal 20th-century queer sexology text" is a grubby dog-eared copy of The Joy of Gay Sex, which the author, another grad student coming off five years as a queer curator, designer and influencer based in Bushwick Brooklyn, offered the queer (straight male) student as a hostessing gift.
All the names, locations and events have been changed and embellished. The genre-bending conclusion is the unreliable retelling of a dreadfully dull Williamsburg New Years Eve Party that the author drags the queer narrators to, at the One South First tower, and which is attended by beautiful and rich mostly gay and straight identifying finance bros who look right through the queers, until the tension, anger, envy and cognitive dissonance reach a boiling point, producing the horrifying Incident on the Rooftop Terrace.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | December 3, 2023 4:38 PM |
[quote]Based on a true story.
So, it was based on a story about two people who went to a party and got ignored with all other elements utterly embellished?
by Anonymous | reply 17 | December 3, 2023 5:02 PM |
R17 yes, Rose. That's the basis of all the best new Queer Magical Realism
by Anonymous | reply 18 | December 3, 2023 5:24 PM |
Quick read. Well done. Meta
by Anonymous | reply 19 | December 3, 2023 5:26 PM |
They tried peddling this shit 30 years.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | December 3, 2023 5:34 PM |
R16: “ until the tension, anger, envy and cognitive dissonance reach a boiling point, producing the horrifying Incident on the Rooftop Terrace.….”
…. when they revealed their hidden Intersectionality: Muslim. And they threw his faggot ass from the rooftop terrace to the ground below.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | December 3, 2023 6:05 PM |
I believe the incident was sparked by a heated discussion of the hegemonic colonialist erasure inherent in battles over the cultural ownership of baklava.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | December 3, 2023 6:50 PM |
I thought it was an excellent novel, well-deserving of its National Book Award.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | December 3, 2023 7:11 PM |
[quote][R17] yes, Rose. That's the basis of all the best new Queer Magical Realism
Apparently, for someone who throws around faux literary terms like "queer magical realism," r18 doesn't quite understand the irony of his comment or sarcasm.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | December 3, 2023 8:16 PM |