MIDDLESEX II
Jeffrey Eugenides
Books for Bigots
My reading is geared to Bigots. Bigots consist of a vast multitude of people in this country who are illiterate in all respects except the ability to decipher script dealing with their very limited area of expertise. Most of the folks of whom I refer spend the vast majority of their time mowing the yard or watching a football game. These two activities are sure evidence of illiteracy.
Now Middlesex, the biography of a hermaphrodite (fictional presumably) is a book that should be required reading for any would-be Bigot. The book vividly chronicles the life of a hermaphrodite, is not untasteful nor gruesome. It does what appears to be a really good depiction of growing up as a girl and ending up as a man and how the person so growing up and the family and acquaintances of Calliope but now Cal adjust to the change.
Bigots have great difficulty believing, or wanting to believe, that other people may be different from them, have different needs and beliefs, and believe them to be Bigots which, indeed, they are. We currently live in an environment when Bigotry is in the ascendance. It is difficult to believe, but more difficult to understand, that with the level of knowledge available and its easy accumulation, that someone being different from the usual or the norm is to be castigated and not allowed to define him or her self.
The general run of Bigots appear to be religious, at least in the main. Bigotry runs deep and periodically resurfaces as it is doing now and with it the espousal of religious principles as the rationale and justification for it. I espouse one principle and one only when it comes to what a person may or may not be - - they are entitled to choose for themselves. I have no business telling a person that they should declare themselves one thing or another to suit my preferences.
As I began, Middlesex is well written and gives the reader an understanding that most do not have before reading the book which, to me, is the purpose of any book worth reading. Obviously there is some sexual activity, but it is not graphic nor included for any pornographic purpose, but really a necessary topic, and probably the most important one, for a person who is a hermaphrodite.
I can't think of a better book for a current version of a bigot to read and ponder. It could have a wonderful effect on the understanding of a person who currently has none. And, I apologize to anyone who is a hermaphrodite for talking about them, but hopefully I will be excused.
Richard E H Phelps II
Mingo
