Middlesex-Journal+Entry+12


 * Go west. Young man & Gender Dysphoria in San Francisco**

Pg 450- (Marc) Chagall: Russian-French artist associated with several major artistic styles and one of the most successful artists of the 20th century. He was an early modernist and created works in virtually ever artistic medium (wikipedia). Pg 450- Punchinello- A short-lived American satirical magazine (wikipedia). Pg 454- (Eugene) Ionesco- Romanian and French playwright and dramatist, and one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd. Pg 459- Guayabera- a men's shirt popular in Latin America, the Carribbean, Southeast Asia, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe. It is also more recently known as a "Mexican Wedding Shirt" (Wikipedia). Pg 469- Schadenfreude- pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others (Wikipedia).
 * Definitions:**

I think if I were to just find out that my best friend was a hermaphrodite, I would feel a little weird or uneasy at first. It would just be a weird concept to grasp but I would still be accepting. This person has been my best friend, no matter what his or her gender is. I would not want to give up a friendship just because of their sex. If I was very good friends with this person, I would try to be extremely accepting and help this friend if people are being judgmental or treating her differently. Even though the news that my friend is a hermaphrodite is new, this person would still be the same and would still be the person that I became very good friends with. I would try my hardest to be a good friend and support this friend through a tough journey.
 * Write a letter to a friend that you've just heard was a hermaphrodite. What would you want them to know? How would you feel towards them?**

When Cal starts his journey I like how he incorporates the past a lot. He compares his grandparents past to his journey now. he says "My grandparents fled their home because of a war. Now, some fifty-two years later, I was fleeing myself. I felt that I was saving myself just as definitively. I was fleeing without much money in my pocket and under the alias of a new gender. A ship didn't carry me across the ocean; instead, a series of cars conveyed me across a continent. I was becoming a new person, too, just like Lefty and Desdemona, and I didn't know what would happen to me in this new world to which I'd come" (443). I really liked this comparison. I think Cal is really able to show how he feels as he leaves. He is nervous and does not know what to expect in this "new world", just as Desdemona and Lefty felt as immigrants coming to America.
 * 7. Past vs. Present**

-Cal still sees himself as monster, continuously reminded - Still hiding- "that cold, identity-cleansing mist that rolls over the city everyday.." (469). Fog cleanses- hiding from past.
 * 4. Quotation**
 * "Running away didn't make me feel any less of a monster. I saw ahead of me only humiliation and rejection, and I wept for my life" (449).
 * When the homeless men in the park are beating up on Cal and find his old school id- "It's a f***ing freak...Im gonna puke man. Look!" (476).