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Scarred
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My husband's heart surgery made him a new man.
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The Nerve Date with Jacqueline
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'Tis the season to be daring.
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The Road
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Looking to celebrate your holiday with two hours of solid despair? /entertainment/
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Sex Advice From . . . Turkey Farmers
by Kristen Gangwer
Q: What can turkeys teach us about sex?
A: Absolutely nothing. With barnyard birds it's business, not pleasure.
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Watch Your Back
by Susan Barnett
What can you tell about a person from their t-shirt?
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Dealbreaker: The Self-Help Book
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How DIY therapy can ruin dating.
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Savage Love
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How do I tell my girlfriend that I'm pregnant? /advice/
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Pop Culture We're Thankful For
by the Nerve Editors
Toasts from around the Nerve family table. /entertainment/
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The Five Sexiest Apocalypse Movies
by Phil Nugent
Perfect for curling up with the last man (or woman) on earth. /entertainment/
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My First Time
by You
"I remember the zip of the door, and our naked dash across the dark campground to his tent..."
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Things Drunk People Say
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"Get the duct tape. You have dropped your last beer."
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Five TV Families to Avoid on Thanksgiving
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These clans will make you appreciate your own. /entertainment/
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Miss Information
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So many women, so few decision-making skills. /advice/
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Hosting Your Own Hedonistic Thanksgiving
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Drinking, smoking, and gorging with your friends: this can be the best holiday of the year.
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Culture Wars: Will James Cameron's Avatar live up to the hype?
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Worthy successor to Aliens, or the world's most expensive Smurfs movie?
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The Confessies
by You
The Robert Pattinson Award for Twilight Devotion
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Platinum Goddess
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Forget gold: these women are striking in silver, and not much else.
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Mutual of Omaha
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In my Jewish Nebraskan youth group, they taught more than Hebrew.
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Planet 51
by Scott Von Doviak
The premise is Pixar-caliber; the execution is strictly terrestrial. /entertainment/
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Sex Advice From . . . Dungeons and Dragons Players
by Eric Larnick
Q. What has D&D taught you about dating? A. Some days you're the knight, some days you're the dragon. /advice/
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Nerve Made Me Do It: New Moon Midnight Screening
by Jack Harrison
We send a professor of medieval literature to face 1,000 screaming Twilight fans.
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Reader Feedback on "Gender Blender"
(cont)
At the end of the article, you make reference to “the novel's hybrid nature is appropriat[ness] to its theme” and the “the contradictions of its characters.” You seem to find Calliope’s existence dual and contradicted, but intersex conditions are natural and common, occurring in about one in every 2000 people. But children whose healthy genitals do not fit the “standard” for male or female genitalia are routinely surgically “normalized,” as infants, without their consent—mutilated. This intersex genital mutilation (IGM) is epidemic in the United States, not in the past, but in the present day. It is an unacceptable violation of human rights.
It’s not surprising that you didn’t have much information about intersex; very few people do. IGM thrives in secrecy and shame, and it’s important to see how IGM connects to portrayals of “hermaphrodites” in the media. I strongly urge you to visit the Intersex Society of North America (www.isna.org) to find out more about intersex and the intersex patient advocacy movement. I hope the information you find there will help you rethink your viewpoints, and use of language, about intersex.
--fn
09/18 |
You state you “first heard Middlesex described as a novel about a hermaphrodite.” You may be unaware that the present-day term used to describe a person who has a congenital anomaly of the reproductive system is intersex. A smaller subset of intersex conditions is what some doctors term “ambiguous genitalia.” The word hermaphrodite is considered offensive when used by non-intersex people.
Next, you say that, rather than focusing on the character’s intersex conditions and genitals, “the novel's true accomplishment doesn't lie in its subject matter but in its execution.” Yet one of the two quotes you showcased is the author’s “discreet” description of Calliope’s genitals. Why did you find this a necessary quote, if it was not the “true accomplishment” of the book?
--fn
09/18 |
I first read Eugenides' "Virgin Suicides" years ago, and have since pushed copies of the book on any friend I thought would get it. Eugenides writes with a simultaneous combination of hormonal intensity and detatched observation, a paradoxical blend that makes for a still but rampant read. I've been waiting for "Middlesex" for some time now, and now that I've read it I am only more certain of Eugenides' gift. This is at the same time an epic, sweeping story, spanning worlds and generations, and also a sensitive, introspective study of the essential elements of one's identity and personality. Eugenides manages to wind together storytelling styles that would clash in many other attempts, but his fusion of lyricism, reserve, calm, description, intensity, and above all, supreme wit, unite seamlessly in a huge, beautiful work that's definitely worth the time.
--EES
09/15 |
Lordy!
I read an excerpt of the novel in the July 29, 2002 edition of the New Yorker, and from the start, it draws you in.
Although it was nearly one in the morning, I stayed up reading, and cannot wait to get my hands on the full novel.
--myl
09/06 |
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