When I began reading Geek Love I really wasn't into it. I found it almost too grotesque, which revealed one of my own flaws as holding true to the old phrase "ignorance is bliss". As I got further into the book though I really began to enjoy it. I began to relate to the character, as we all can with our "freaky" parts of ourselves I'm sure, and when the story would drift to the narration of another character, I would crave to see the events from Oly's perspective.
One thing I wish the novel had addressed more is Miranda's story. Miranda was a very complex character and I felt like she was sort of abandoned by Oly's mission to befriend and destroy Ms. Lick. I kept wanting to know more about Miranda; why did she draw the way she did, did she ever really wonder about her parents?
Perhaps some of the mystery surrounding Miranda served the purpose of forcing the reader to share Oly's obsession with revenge instead of seeing an alternative to murder in simply speaking to her daughter. In the end however, I liked this novel. The ending was tragic, but comforting in a way, leaving the reader to know Oly did all she had left to do: protect her daughter.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Geek Love: Week 1
As a psychology major I have a bad habit of constantly diagnosing and assessing things (and characters in books) in the way that I've been taught in the last four years. The Arturans in Geek Love made me think of a disorder I recently studied called Body Integrity Identity Disorder in which a person will identify so strongly with an amputee that they begin to feel as though their limbs don't belong on them. These patients will often attempt self-amputation and the main debate with this disorder revolves around whether or not surgeons amputating the limb is helping the patient or giving in to a delusion.
Geek Love focuses mainly on physical freaks, the Binewski children are considered an accomplishment because they were born as freaks. Many of the acts mentioned that accompany the Binewski's are also quite obviously "freaks" (the human pin cushion, the babies in the "Chute", the Redheads). One of my main interests in psychology is the stigma that mental illness has even today in our culture. The reader is expected to see the Arturans as freaks, more so even than Artie because they are choosing to be freaks. A common misconception about mental illness is the factor of choice. Obviously the religious connotations of the Arturans differentiates them from any BIID patient, but it's interesting that as a reader you accept the Binewski children as "freaks" because they didn't have much of a choice, but the Arturans are a different type of freak, perhaps more looked down upon, because their brand of freak is unimaginable to most readers. Geek Love doesn't really focus on mental illness, although it would be easy to attribute many disorders to members of the Binewski family. Al and Lil could be seen as being parents suffering from Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome in which a parent will inflict injury on a child in order to gain attention for his or her self. Artie could be seen as having narcissistic personality disorder, and Chick obviously has some anxiety issues (for good reason). As bad as this habit of diagnosing is, I feel like it gives me a different perspective than most people, because I almost felt as though Artie was less evil than he appeared because his personality wasn't his choice.
I guess you can take the girl out of psych, but you can't take the psych out of the girl.
Geek Love focuses mainly on physical freaks, the Binewski children are considered an accomplishment because they were born as freaks. Many of the acts mentioned that accompany the Binewski's are also quite obviously "freaks" (the human pin cushion, the babies in the "Chute", the Redheads). One of my main interests in psychology is the stigma that mental illness has even today in our culture. The reader is expected to see the Arturans as freaks, more so even than Artie because they are choosing to be freaks. A common misconception about mental illness is the factor of choice. Obviously the religious connotations of the Arturans differentiates them from any BIID patient, but it's interesting that as a reader you accept the Binewski children as "freaks" because they didn't have much of a choice, but the Arturans are a different type of freak, perhaps more looked down upon, because their brand of freak is unimaginable to most readers. Geek Love doesn't really focus on mental illness, although it would be easy to attribute many disorders to members of the Binewski family. Al and Lil could be seen as being parents suffering from Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome in which a parent will inflict injury on a child in order to gain attention for his or her self. Artie could be seen as having narcissistic personality disorder, and Chick obviously has some anxiety issues (for good reason). As bad as this habit of diagnosing is, I feel like it gives me a different perspective than most people, because I almost felt as though Artie was less evil than he appeared because his personality wasn't his choice.
I guess you can take the girl out of psych, but you can't take the psych out of the girl.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)