Aristotle and Dante prt 2 ("The End of Summer" and "Letters on a Page")
What does Ari and Dante teach us about able-bodiedness?
How does Aristotle and Dante make use of intertextuality and multimedia to explore genders, sexualities, national identities, and bodies?
quick plot recap: what's happened so far?
one of the boys is exploring sexualities (Dante is narrating his experiences in Chicago);
cry counter: 7.5.5
dad issues and the distance (bonding over sad sad dreams and Ari wants more and it's painful); oh man, mutual pain and shared trauma
we have to talk about the letters in the prose
no one's called me beautiful -- the gutting use of dramatic irony oh my god
Mrs. Quintana and telling Ari she will love him forever (keying in on mother feelings)
how does Saenz fold in parent's potential engagement and affective networks (if parents are reading along)?
the coming out letter
the coming out letter X 2
the specter of Ari's brother - in-between/liminal
separating the boys!
"I'm NOT GOING TO TELL YOU THAT I MISS YOU ANYMOOOOOORE"
THE POST-SURGERY FEELS
The relationship to family and culture and Latino American and caught in between
Ari's interiority
"I always upset him. And other people, too. I guess that's what I do" (194)
"I love his smile. I wish he would smile all the time" (113).
"that's what I did with everything. I kept it inside" (126)
the creation of journaling, healing, and writing and wellness; it's also about comfort and intimacy (with oneself)
dad distance and getting glimpses and connections, but not knowing how to handle it
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the interiority develops a sense of intimacy or understanding between Ari and reader
when we see the letters versus the prose fiction of Ari interpreting the letters (dramatic irony)
"a universe of boys" (213)
I love swimming. And I love you.
"I'm sorry for
the chapters and the use of letters to denaturalize temporality
there is so much time between letters
the temporal slippiness allows some flexibility in "keeping up" with the characters;
if we're thinking that sexualities have pathways, the use on slippery temporality shows us that there are different forms of explorations
"I tried to picture Dante with short hair. I tried to imagine him kissing a girl" : this opening in chapter nine shows us the socialization of sexuality and gender;
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Ari's recurring nightmare of running over Dante while he is looking at Ileana; the idea of internal conflicts about desires; images of who is "right in front of you" and the spatialization of desire
"She's a good kisser. [...] Are you kissing another girl? Or are you kissing a boy?" - the emphasis on fluidity and exploration with sexualities (not couched in biphobia)
Chp 28 - the "do you masturbate" letter (219) - why are you mad about being seen as a sexual subject? How do we situate this within self-consciousness and anxiety? Is there something about Hispanic culture that informs this here?
We don't talk about our bodies like that in our family;
Aristotle's first journal is a biopolitical exploration of Mexican American childhood and how bodies get folded into grand notions of Americanness (and it's phallic power) and the production of body hair
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the intertexts starts with Dante and Aristotle's names
Dante the poet; adaptation and intimacy
the d