As a poet, Maggie Nelson is concerned with the sufficiency of words -- their ability to accurately convey how we feel, and who we are. As a visual artist, her partner Harry Dodge is less convinced. So when the two met and fell in love, a life event that her new memoir, The Argonauts, centers on, Nelson began to question her allegiance to language. 'Words,' she notes, 'change depending on who speaks them; there is no cure.'
Most of the words she examines, positing their inadequacy along the way, are used to describe sex or gender, directly or indirectly. She's saddened by Harry's inability to publicly convey a gender-fluid identity -- born Wendy Malone, the artist has undergone a handful of name changes.
Nelson's writing is fluid -- to read her story is to drift dreamily among her thoughts. And, although some of her assertions are problematic, she masterfully analyzes the way we talk about sex and gender.
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