So I’m reading ‘Paul takes the form of a mortal girl’ and I don’t know how I feel about it.
It’s about Paul who discovers that he has the ability to change his gender at will, and he does quite often to experience different parts of the queer scene in the early 90s. I mean, originally, I was excited for it because I thought it’d be about a genderfluid/genderqueer character learning what it means to be himself or something like that—a commentary that could relate to current queer issues.
But a lot of what I’ve read is sex, and Paul’s experience with sex as being able to change his gender and genitals at will. And this could be a great point, you know? Sexual freedom, sexual positivity—I do like that aspect of those scenes but…it’s overkill? Paul’s not really taking anything from these experiences; he’s just experiencing them, and after a while, I just start skimming the scenes because they aren’t very relevant to the story.
It also seems less about allegory and relatability than I expected it to be. It reads like I’m reading stories based on the author’s own experiences, especially when it comes to the lesbian scenes. There’s a lot of slur throwing—which I expected—but sometimes it feels totally unnecessary.
And then there’s to random fairytales sourced throughout.
The book is so surface level. I dog-eared the pages I thought could’ve been about something, but now that I think about it, it’s one of those rants you hear and go “Well, yes. You didn’t know that?” I feel like I’m working overtime to find meaning behind words the author didn’t even put there.
I’m going to try to finish it but lord…
