Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 09:39:29 +0200 (MET DST)
Subject: Re: shani mootoo



how wonderful to stumble into cereus blooms at night again! thank you for 
mentioning it. Smita Tyagi Vir from Canada just gave it to me as a 
present, and on reading it I realized I'd never read anything quite like 
this. 

nevertheless, it keeps puzzling me: why the close association between rot,
decay, and abhorrent wriggling insect life on the one hand and queerness
on the other hand? of course, the decay is connected to the father's
sexual violence, but the structure of the narrative connects it to
homosexuality, travesty and trans-sexuality too. on the other hand, we are
also made to understand the attraction of insect life, so that it loses
some of its repulsiveness, and allows us to look closer into the abysses
of sexual violence - maybe preparing us for accepting the queerness of
non-dominant sexualities? but why the horror, then? 

as you see, I'm still pondering the book, like you. keep returning to the 
fact that the father's body apparently hasn't rotted away into a skeleton 
after all these decades, but is still happily rotting when we're 
confronted with it - logically impossible, but narratively significant.
  
anyway, my partner, who's working in a bookstore, has read it too and 
loved it, ordered it and is recommending it to her customers, so we may 
have a shani mootoo hype here in amsterdam - i'd like to know the opinion 
of others, too.

isabel



 Isabel Hoving
Holendrechtstraat 24 hs
1078 TT Amsterdam
020-6763352/525.3883
fax 020-525.3052
mail i.hoving-AT-let.uva.nl

On Mon, 31 Aug 1998, S Rahman wrote:

> i'm glad you asked
> shani mootoo's novel 
> cereus blooms at night
> is excellently queer
> i've been thinking about it a lot these days
> and would LOVE
> to know what you and/or any other list members think of it
> it published in vancouver by press gang, 1996
> you should also know about shyam selvadurai's funny boy
> 
> 
> On Sun, 30 Aug 1998, Shamira wrote:
> 
> > Can anyone recommend any writers of queer South Asian fiction or any particular novel(s) - it would really help with my work! Whenever I've tried to do a search I find trikone magazine (which I have) and little else!
> > 
> > Cheers!
> > 
> > Shamira
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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