attachment, and interracial love (and pursuit). As I usually feel when I read Alexander Chee's writing, I felt less alone when I read The Weddings, andattachment, and interracial love (and pursuit). As I usually feel when I read Alexander Chee's writing, I felt less alone when I read The Weddings, and also somehow didn't realize how much I long for work that addresses some of the issues Chee does until after I've read them. If you're queer, the legalizing of queer marriage doesn't just mark the moment in which you can actually legally marry your partner; it also marks a shift in how one thinks of attachment and commitment, in a way that I imagine cishet couples takes that for granted. This shift is only the beginning of what this story begins to address. For me, the story's profound moves happen in two areas. One is the profound and delicate way the story addresses the white fetishizing and objectification of Asian bodies and exoticizing the facets of Asian life, but in a particularly gay male context. I have long wanted to hear someone from the gay Asian community critique the term Rice Queens (or Potato Queens, for that matter). Where I live, it was largely used as a proud identifier, and given that I didn't identify within gay male culture, I didn't feel I could express how I felt about it. But the Asian fetish turned dating strategy? is something that I've always felt needed an interrogation, and I love the way this story addresses it without the story feeling didactic or overwrought. The other aspect of the story that I'm still thinking about has to do with the complex space a queer person, often early in their journey of self-discovery, can hold with a person who seemingly makes a decision to live a straight life and how that relationship can continue to live inside of you and remain potent and unresolved. These experiences are, for me anyway, particularly connected to what it means to be a queer Asian person and I felt, forgive the cliche, less alone in reading it. The touches of these complex issues are made delicately, but are thoughtful and I'm left still thinking of the characters and what they reveal to me about my own queer Asian past and negotiation.
Merged review:
attachment, and interracial love (and pursuit). As I usually feel when I read Alexander Chee's writing, I felt less alone when I read The Weddings, and also somehow didn't realize how much I long for work that addresses some of the issues Chee does until after I've read them. If you're queer, the legalizing of queer marriage doesn't just mark the moment in which you can actually legally marry your partner; it also marks a shift in how one thinks of attachment and commitment, in a way that I imagine cishet couples takes that for granted. This shift is only the beginning of what this story begins to address. For me, the story's profound moves happen in two areas. One is the profound and delicate way the story addresses the white fetishizing and objectification of Asian bodies and exoticizing the facets of Asian life, but in a particularly gay male context. I have long wanted to hear someone from the gay Asian community critique the term Rice Queens (or Potato Queens, for that matter). Where I live, it was largely used as a proud identifier, and given that I didn't identify within gay male culture, I didn't feel I could express how I felt about it. But the Asian fetish turned dating strategy? is something that I've always felt needed an interrogation, and I love the way this story addresses it without the story feeling didactic or overwrought. The other aspect of the story that I'm still thinking about has to do with the complex space a queer person, often early in their journey of self-discovery, can hold with a person who seemingly makes a decision to live a straight life and how that relationship can continue to live inside of you and remain potent and unresolved. These experiences are, for me anyway, particularly connected to what it means to be a queer Asian person and I felt, forgive the cliche, less alone in reading it. The touches of these complex issues are made delicately, but are thoughtful and I'm left still thinking of the characters and what they reveal to me about my own queer Asian past and negotiation....more
Loading...
