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The Queer Art of Failure
The Queer Art of Failure
The Queer Art of Failure
Audiobook10 hours

The Queer Art of Failure

Written by Jack Halberstam

Narrated by Paul Boehmer

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

The Queer Art of Failure is about finding alternatives-to conventional understandings of success in a heteronormative, capitalist society; to academic disciplines that confirm what is already known according to approved methods of knowing; and to cultural criticism that claims to break new ground but cleaves to conventional archives. Halberstam proposes "low theory" as a mode of thinking and writing that operates at many different levels at once. Low theory is derived from eccentric archives. It runs the risk of not being taken seriously. It entails a willingness to fail and to lose one's way, to pursue difficult questions about complicity, and to find counterintuitive forms of resistance. Tacking back and forth between high theory and low theory, high culture and low culture, Halberstam looks for the unexpected and subversive in popular culture, avant-garde performance, and queer art. Halberstam pays particular attention to animated children's films, revealing narratives filled with unexpected encounters between the childish, the transformative, and the queer. Failure sometimes offers more creative, cooperative, and surprising ways of being in the world, even as it forces us to face the dark side of life, love, and libido.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 12, 2019
ISBN9781515919209
The Queer Art of Failure
Author

Jack Halberstam

Jack Halberstam is Professor of English and Gender Studies at Columbia University.  

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Reviews for The Queer Art of Failure

Rating: 4.031745961904762 out of 5 stars
4/5

63 ratings5 reviews

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  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I got about 60% of the way through this book and I truly have no idea what the author is trying to argue or prove. Lots of disjointed pop-culture references and WILD leaps in logic. Also, the words transsexual and transvestite are used constantly, making this a very uncomfortable experience. There was also a point where the author described the genocide committed during the Holocaust as a "waste" of human life, instead of the intentional torture and murder of thousands of people that it was I understand this book is a few years old, but dear God. I typically try to finish as book before passing judgement, but I can't put myself through four more hours of this mind melting mess.

    4 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I hate this reader. This is a book about “low theory,” but the narrator is pretentious as hell. The ideas in the book are interesting but I don’t think the narrator understands them. I guess I’ll have to finish this on paper.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Quit after an hour no direction repetitive and irrelevant wordy analysis
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Really learned a lot. Love when media is used to position analysis in a coherent and thoughtful way.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An interesting view of how the queer community gracefully accepts and works with failure. A comparative evaluation of the queer community and pop culture, with references to popular works such as Finding Nemo.