M-Sex Three Trustworthy?
Is Cal/Calliope a reliable narrator? There are a number of passages in which he says openly, "I don't know if this is what happened, but it's how I imagine it." (His grandparents' story, his own conception, the bootleg scene on p 110.) Given that he is honest about what he doesn't know, does that make you believe him more or less? As a reader, did you believe his account of his life? Of the way he felt as a girl? Do you believe he really didn't know?
posted by JenniNapa at
6:33 PM
2 Comments:
hmmmm....it did seem a bit strange how he kept saying that, but I assumed that he had been told various versions of the stories (by Desdemona, his parents, etc) and was relating what he understood to be the truth. So for the most part, I do believe him. As for believing he really didn't know? I find it hard to believe that he didn't know as Callie that he was not entirely female. It seemed he had more male characteristics than female from the start of puberty. I honestly can't believe that the doctor and nurses who were at the delivery didn't notice something was wrong!
By
PCOSMama, at 8:28 PM
I can believe that the doctors didn't notice at birth! Can you imagine how hard it must be to tell parents "You have a baby... that's all we're sure of right now"? I remember seeing an article on the Today Show several years ago (I can't find a link to the story or I would post one) and they showed photos of children's genitalia that were malformed compared to their genetic make-up. Some of them seemed so obviously the gender that they were not!
Anyway, I remember thinking about a college professor that I had who used to tell us that when we were reading a book we should be asking ourselves "Who is this bastard and why is he lying to me?" Narrators are frequently unreliable sources of information; they serve their own stories and may not be giving you the correct information about the other characters. How could Cal have possibly know what Desdemona or Lefty were thinking when they made love in the lifeboat after they were married? Lefty wasn't around to impart information by the time Cal knew there was something different and Desdemona didn't seem in much condition by the time the truth about Cal came out to be sharing that kind of information. I question all but the most essential details about Lefty and Desdemona's relationship - i.e. they were siblings, they came from a small town in Eastern Europe, while immigrating to the US after their town was invaded and destroyed they were, indeed, married. Beyond that, I can't imagine that their thoughts or feelings were anything more than conjecture. I think it tells us quite a bit about Cal and his relationship with his family that he would go to great lengths to avoid demonizing his family as people who would commit incest, but rather paint them as ignorant and rather innocent.
Another reason that I tend to question Cal's reliability is the fact that he claimed to be comfortable as a female. Other than his attraction to The Object, he said that he was comfortable as a girl. While as a child I can certainly understand that he might not have had contact with enough naked girls to understand that he wasn't really like them, he was obviously uncomfortable in the locker room in middle school. He went to great lengths to make sure that no one saw him undressed and that tells me that he knew something was different other than just a shyness over undeveloped breasts.
By
MamaChristy, at 7:18 PM
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