Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Bluets

Bluets is a collection of 240 essays, ponderings, notes, and reflections on Maggie Nelson's relationship to the color blue and the emotions and history to which she relates the color. Some are connected, others are disjointed and read like a list of fun facts. I won't say this was terrible, but I also won't say that I got much out of reading it. There was much more description of the act of "fucking", and use of that word as a noun to describe the actions of sexuality intercourse than I expected when I started reading. It jarred whatever tenuous grip the essays had on me because in our current vernacular in the are I grew up, "fucking" is more often used as a modifier than a noun in it's own right. Near the middle of the book, sections Nelson wrote about her paralyzed friend were uncomfortable to read. She fetishizes and excoticises the blue hue her friend's limbs have taken on due to their disuse. She acknowledges that her obsession with her friend's paralyzed body is weird, but continues documenting her fascination. Close after that section, Nelson uses the R-slur in reference to Andy Warhol's opinions on sex.
I feel like I read through someone else's diary with the hope of getting to know them better, but I really just feel is a little icky.
I think I just don't really like essays this short. 240 essays in 100 pages doesn't give each essay enough space.
Nelson's writing style is academic, but conversational enough to be easily consumable.

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spinesinaline's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

I have heard rave, rave reviews for this one but something about the format didn’t sit right with me. All of the poems are in a long numbered list and the constant citations, while interesting, sometimes distracted from the poet’s own words. I wouldn’t have minded if the format switched up a bit. As for the content, some standout passages but most didn’t hit connect for me.

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pn__'s review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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_kimb's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

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ymziegler's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

3.5

Not my cup of tea, but I recognize that this is a very cool concept that was well executed.

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