{"product_id":"the-argonauts","title":"The Argonauts","description":"\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eMaggie Nelson\u003c\/b\u003e is a poet, critic, and nonfiction author of books such as \n\u003ci\u003eThe Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eBluets\u003c\/i\u003e, and \n\u003ci\u003eJane: A Murder\u003c\/i\u003e. She teaches in the School of Critical Studies at CalArts and lives in Los Angeles, California.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA\u003ci\u003e New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003e\"100 Best Books of the 21st Century\"\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e \"30 Best Nonfiction Books of the Last 30 Years\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e revolutionized the way queer family-making is written about, talked about and comprehended.\"\u003cb\u003e--Michelle Tea, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[Nelson's] book-part memoir, part critical inquiry touching on desire, love, and family-is a superb exploration of the risk and the excitement of change. Thinking and feeling are, for Nelson, mutually necessary processes; the result is an exceptional portrait both of a romantic partnership and of the collaboration between Nelson's mind and heart.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Maggie Nelson slays entrenched notions of gender, marriage, and sexuality with lyricism, intellectual brass, and soul-ringing honesty in \n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts.\u003c\/i\u003e\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Reading Maggie Nelson is like watching a high-wire act. Her books are inspiring. . . . Because of her dazzling sentences, I will read whatever the daredevil writes. She cozies up to ideas unlike any other American writer.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Maggie Nelson has proven her brilliance-a special blend of poeticism and philosophy, of theorizing and prose-weaving-in her eight previous nonfiction releases. But in \n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e, the gifted critic and scholar breaks generic ground with her work of 'auto theory, ' which offers a glimpse into the writer's mind, body, and home. . . . \n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e is a must-read.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"So much writing about motherhood makes the world seem smaller after the child arrives, more circumscribed, as if in tacit fealty to the larger cultural assumptions about moms and domesticity; Nelson's book does the opposite\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Maggie Nelson is one of the most electrifying writers at work in America today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--Olivia Laing, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"In \n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e, Maggie Nelson turns 'making the personal public' into a romantic, intellectual wet dream. A gorgeous book, inventive, fearless, and full of heart.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--Kim Gordon\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[Nelson's] is a radicalism that looks like the future of common sense. . . . A singular book.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eVulture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A loose yet intricate tapestry of memoir, art criticism and gently polemic. . . . It's a book about using the writings of smart, even difficult writers to help us find clarity and precision in our intimate lives, and it's a book about the no less intimate pleasures of the life of the mind. . . . \n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e is a magnificent achievement of thought, care and art.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Nelson's writing is fluid-to read her story is to drift dreamily among her thoughts. . . . She masterfully analyzes the way we talk about sex and gender.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eHuffington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Nelson's vibrant, probing and, most of all, outstanding book is also a philosophical look at motherhood, transitioning, partnership, parenting, and family-an examination of the restrictive way we've approached these terms in the past and the ongoing struggle to arrive at more inclusive and expansive definitions for them.\"\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--National Public Radio\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Brilliant like nothing else you've ever read, Maggie Nelson's \n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e is as hard to pin down as it is stunning. In sharp, intense bursts of language, Nelson melds critical theory with her most personal musings, as she navigates falling in lust and love, explores gender, sexuality, and motherhood, and builds a family with artist Harry Dodge. Although slim, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e contains worlds of thought and feeling, challenging our assumptions and moving our hearts. This book is the first must-read of the summer.\"\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e--BuzzFeed\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"In a culture still too quick to ask people to pick a side-to be male or female, to be an assimilationist or a revolutionary, to be totally straight or totally gay, totally hetero- or totally homo-normative-Nelson's book is a beautiful, passionate and shatteringly intelligent meditation on what it means not to accept binaries but to improvise an individual life that says, without fear, \n\u003ci\u003eyes\u003c\/i\u003e, \n\u003ci\u003eand\u003c\/i\u003e.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Reading Nelson is like sweeping the leaves out of your mental driveway: by the end of one of her books, you have a better understanding of how the world works...The result is one of the most intelligent, generous, and moving books of the year.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly, \"Best Summer Books 2015\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"\n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e finds Nelson at her most vulnerable, arguing for a radical rethinking of the terms in which we express love.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review, \"Staff Picks\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"What a dazzlingly generous, gloriously unpredictable book! Maggie Nelson shows us what it means to be real, offering a way of thinking that is as challenging as it is liberating. She invites us to 'pay homage to the transitive' and enjoy 'a becoming in which one never becomes.' Reading \n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e made me happier and freer.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--Eula Biss\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Maggie Nelson cuts through our culture's prefabricated structures of thought and feeling with an intelligence whose ferocity is ultimately in the service of love. No piety is safe, no orthodoxy, no easy irony. The scare quotes burn off like fog.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--Ben Lerner\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"There isn't another critic alive like Maggie Nelson-who writes with such passion, clarity, explicitness, fluidity, playfulness, and generosity that she redefines what \n\u003ci\u003ethinking\u003c\/i\u003e can do today.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--Wayne Koestenbaum\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Once again, Maggie Nelson has created awe-inspiring work, one that smartly calls bullshit on the places culture--radical subcultures included--stigmatize and misunderstand both maternity and queer family-making. With a fiercely vulnerable intelligence, Nelson leaves no area un-investigated, including her own heart. I know of no other book like this, and I know how crucially the culture needs it.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--Michelle Tea\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"One of the greatest books I've ever read.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--Annie Sprinkle\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Reading Maggie Nelson's\n\u003ci\u003e The Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e helped me to feel some things I've long thought about but hardly been able to express regarding the socialization of the maternal function, which is the dispersed, dispersive essence of the futurity we present to one another until one is not another anymore. There's the violence I commit in making a claim for that futurity, and the violence I endure when that claim is granted. There's the exhaustive sharing that takes form as writing. There's the 'orgy of specificity' when the inexpressible is held and released in each expression 'cause I just want to sing your name even when I don't want to sing your name. There's the love story buried in every 'I love you, ' and in every 'I love you' there's a contract for destruction and rebuilding. There's\n\u003ci\u003e The Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e, which is one of the greatest books I've ever read.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--Fred Moten\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"In the 17th century a book like Maggie Nelson's \n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e might have been called an anatomy, by which I mean it's a learned, quirky, open-hearted, often beautiful naming-of-parts. The anatomy never forgets the fragile embodied world-its carnality or its finitude. And such is \n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts\u003c\/i\u003e: a memoir (debriefing, really) at once raw, pensive, exhilarating, sad, funny, and embodied in the same profound way.\"\n\u003cb\u003e--Terry Castle\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and family \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eMaggie Nelson's \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eThe Argonauts \u003c\/i\u003eis a genre-bending memoir, a work of \"autotheory\" offering fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love and language. It binds an account of Nelson's relationship with her partner and a journey to and through a pregnancy to a rigorous exploration of sexuality, gender, and \"family.\" An insistence on radical individual freedom and the value of caretaking becomes the rallying cry for this thoughtful, unabashed, uncompromising book.\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/span\u003e 02\/14\/2016 pg. 28 (EAN 9781555977351, Paperback)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eNelson, Maggie\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMaggie Nelson is a poet, critic, and award-winning author of 'The Argonauts', 'Bluets', 'The Art of Cruelty', 'Jane: A Murder' and 'The Red Parts'. She lives in Los Angeles, California.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Nelson, Maggie\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Graywolf Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePub Date:\u003c\/b\u003e 2016-01-26\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC:\u003c\/b\u003e Biography \u0026amp; Autobiography \/ Memoirs|Biography \u0026amp; Autobiography \/ Women|Biography \u0026amp; Autobiography \/ LGBTQ+|Family \u0026amp; Relationships \/ Parenting \/ Motherhood\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.45 lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781555977351\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eASIN:\u003c\/b\u003e -\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSKU:\u003c\/b\u003e SP-9781555977351\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Graywolf Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67796420919577,"sku":"SP-9781555977351","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/0380\/5209\/files\/9781555977351_spiral.png?v=1791946692","url":"https:\/\/westbindery.com\/products\/the-argonauts","provider":"West Bindery","version":"1.0","type":"link"}