Halberstam review.

Halberstam begins with a wonderful title and introduction. Failure is painted with quite a positive brush here, and the reversal is refreshing and queer in the very best way. The failure referred to here is the act of not living up to the roles that society has demanded of us or expected of us. If these roles are met we are considered inferior or lacking in some way. Sometimes we are even considered defective. Halberstam turns this failure into an art and a deliberate objective. The knowledable refusal to stay within the pre-existing boundries gives us freedom to live life according to ever-evolving guidelines that are informed upon our growing intellect and progressive development.

Halberstam, for me, was a joy because of the way she deals with movies including several animated films. I had never been much of a fan of animated films, save for a few classics like Toy Story, but this book has given me new interest in them. According to this book, animated films are some of the ripest for queer and psychoanalytic analysis. I had never thoguht of Dory and Marlin in Finding Nemo to be in a "queer temporal mod governed by the ephemeral, the temporary and the elusive"(pp.54)  but Halberstam clearly identifies Dory as a "Queer Fish"(pp. 54.)

Her analysis of Dude where's my Car is hilarious and confirms what I've always thought about that film; there is more to it than meets the eye. This goes the same for Halberstam's writing on Chicken Run, Bee Movie, Toy Story and many others. Halberstam has given a very interesting template for "queering" films. Films do not have to be read with the grain, sometimes, or most times, it provides a more revealing look at the film if you read it for what is under the surface. With film, there is the potential for increasingly subtle and interestingly subversive moves and at the same time there is room for insideously propagandistic moves.

I'm glad that the book was so pre-occupied with films because that is what I primarily study. This was a fantastic read, and I would even say a required read for Queer Studies.