Middlesex (novel): Difference between revisions
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Cal resembles the hero Odysseus. Just as [[Poseidon]] and [[Athena]] beset Odysseus, so did the chromosomes hassle Cal.<ref name="Salij">{{cite news |title=Neither here nor there: 'Middlesex' is about a girl who becomes a boy and the division between Detroit and Grosse Pointe. |author=Salij, Marta |newspaper=[[Detroit Free Press]] |date=2002-09-25 |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-7429373_ITM |accessdate=2010-03-21 }} {{subscription required}}</ref> Christina McCarroll of the ''[[Christian Science Monitor]]'' wrote that "Eugenides wrangles with a destiny that mutates and recombines like restless chromosomes, in a novel of extraordinary flexibility, scope, and emotional depth."<ref name="McCarroll">{{cite news |title=A look at the Pulitzer winners: Middlesex |author=McCarroll, Christina |newspaper=[[Christian Science Monitor]] |date=2003-04-10 |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0410/p21s01-bogn.html |accessdate=2010-03-22 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5oPbTcPRR |archivedate=2010-03-22 }}</ref> Book reviewer Frances Bartkowski identified Callie to be like a [[Chimera (mythology)|Chimera]]—a monster composed of multiple animal parts—in that in the end, she would transform into her own sibling of the other sex.<ref name="Bartkowski40">{{Harvnb|Bartkowski|2008|p=40}}</ref> When Callie is in New York, she goes to the [[New York Public Library]] and searches for the meaning of the word "[[hermaphrodite]]".<ref name="Bartkowski41">{{Harvnb|Bartkowski|2008|p=41}}</ref> She becomes shocked when the dictionary entry concludes with "See synonyms at MONSTER."<ref name="Bartkowski41"/><ref name="Eugenides430">{{Harvnb|Eugenides|2002|p=430}}</ref> Callie is not a [[Frankenstein]]; she is more like [[Bigfoot]] or the [[Loch Ness Monster]]. Scholar Frances Bartkowski states that Eugenides' message is "we must let our monsters out—they demand and deserve recognition—they are us: our same, self, others."<ref name="Bartkowski41"/> The book discusses [[Sapphic love]]; Callie has sexual relations with the Obscure Object, her closest friend.<ref name="Turrentine"/><ref name="Bartkowski40"/> |
Cal resembles the hero Odysseus. Just as [[Poseidon]] and [[Athena]] beset Odysseus, so did the chromosomes hassle Cal.<ref name="Salij">{{cite news |title=Neither here nor there: 'Middlesex' is about a girl who becomes a boy and the division between Detroit and Grosse Pointe. |author=Salij, Marta |newspaper=[[Detroit Free Press]] |date=2002-09-25 |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-7429373_ITM |accessdate=2010-03-21 }} {{subscription required}}</ref> Christina McCarroll of the ''[[Christian Science Monitor]]'' wrote that "Eugenides wrangles with a destiny that mutates and recombines like restless chromosomes, in a novel of extraordinary flexibility, scope, and emotional depth."<ref name="McCarroll">{{cite news |title=A look at the Pulitzer winners: Middlesex |author=McCarroll, Christina |newspaper=[[Christian Science Monitor]] |date=2003-04-10 |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0410/p21s01-bogn.html |accessdate=2010-03-22 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5oPbTcPRR |archivedate=2010-03-22 }}</ref> Book reviewer Frances Bartkowski identified Callie to be like a [[Chimera (mythology)|Chimera]]—a monster composed of multiple animal parts—in that in the end, she would transform into her own sibling of the other sex.<ref name="Bartkowski40">{{Harvnb|Bartkowski|2008|p=40}}</ref> When Callie is in New York, she goes to the [[New York Public Library]] and searches for the meaning of the word "[[hermaphrodite]]".<ref name="Bartkowski41">{{Harvnb|Bartkowski|2008|p=41}}</ref> She becomes shocked when the dictionary entry concludes with "See synonyms at MONSTER."<ref name="Bartkowski41"/><ref name="Eugenides430">{{Harvnb|Eugenides|2002|p=430}}</ref> Callie is not a [[Frankenstein]]; she is more like [[Bigfoot]] or the [[Loch Ness Monster]]. Scholar Frances Bartkowski states that Eugenides' message is "we must let our monsters out—they demand and deserve recognition—they are us: our same, self, others."<ref name="Bartkowski41"/> The book discusses [[Sapphic love]]; Callie has sexual relations with the Obscure Object, her closest friend.<ref name="Turrentine"/><ref name="Bartkowski40"/> |
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Daniel Soar of ''[[London Review of Books]]'' opined that [[Olympus]], a parallel to Bithynios, served well as the setting of a debacle that is the "story's catalyst". Legend denoted that after a cocoon dropped into her teacup, Princess Si Ling-chi, who was resting under a [[mulberry tree]], conceived silk. The princess ordered her maid to walk after grabbing ahold of the thread's loose end. In Mount Olympus during [[Justinian I|Justinian]]'s days, |
Daniel Soar of ''[[London Review of Books]]'' opined that [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]], a parallel to Bithynios, served well as the setting of a debacle that is the "story's catalyst". Legend denoted that after a cocoon dropped into her teacup, Princess Si Ling-chi, who was resting under a [[mulberry tree]], conceived silk. The princess ordered her maid to walk after grabbing ahold of the thread's loose end. In Mount Olympus during [[Justinian I|Justinian]]'s days, silkworm eggs were contraband transported from China to Byzantium by missionaries. A parallel is drawn when Desdemona, a raiser of silk cocoons, attempts to bring them to Detroit. Because the silkworm eggs are considered parasites by the immigration officials, Desdemona must dispose of them. Soar noted that "for the three generations of Greek Americans who people ''Middlesex'', the mulberry trees of Mount Olympus are an appropriately antique beginning: they are the egg inside which everything began".<ref name="Soar"/> |
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===Genres=== |
===Genres=== |
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