Where is the Geek Love?

Welcome to my blog!

First off –

I have a science background and, honestly, I am perfectly comfortable writing about genetic mutation, comparative anatomy, and the effects of toxic drugs on fetal organ development …from a biological perspective. I don’t know how I’ve waited this long in my post-secondary studies to enroll in a Humanities course, but until this week I was a university English class virgin. (The only junior level English course I’ve taken was by correspondence through Athabasca University.) That being said, the ENGL 387 classroom this spring has thus far been a somewhat daunting and eye-opening environment for me. Responding formally to the evidently non-scientific literature on our reading list will prove to be an intense yet welcome challenge for me.

I’m not sure if I intended this introduction/confession to be a disclaimer of what will follow in my blog, or simply to let any readers know where I’m coming from. Either way, the stage is set. It is time to dive in and rip the head off this live chicken.

Reading Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love was an eye-opening experience in itself. I admit it was difficult to get through the first three chapters: I was turned off by the vulgar language and the crude details, almost resenting the fact that I agreed to complete the reading and study of the novel when I signed up for the course. This stylistic element of Geek Love was peculiar to me (in the sense that I don’t often expose my delicate mind to such obscenities), repulsing at first, but intriguing enough to keep me turning the page for another peek. It was as if I felt some kind of sick fascination with the novel, similar to the way a freak show attracts paying customers to behold exceptional grotesqueness. Geek Love was a literary freak show and I was paying to not only privately read the spectacle, but to participate in a classroom dissection of the material. Yuck?

A theme in Geek Love that I pondered as I read was that of Love, particularly how love is a motivating force for many the characters. The novel completely defied my expectations rising in the first chapter that Geek Love is a charming tale of how a bizarre family of freaks were blended and united by their love for each other. The Binewski family characters proved to be very complex, and though love was indeed a motivator for many of their behaviors, it certainly wasn’t the quaint Family Matters-type love I was expecting.

Oly loves Arty, in a doting obsessive possessive way. Her obsession and devotion to Arty is increasingly evident throughout the novel. She plainly expresses her love in the narrative as explanation for her actions – for example, why she wanted to father a child for Arty. Interestingly, in a letter to Miranda, Oly claims otherwise: “Dear daughter, I won’t try to call my feeling for Arty love. Call it focus.” (page 315) as if she is ashamed at her love and obsession – she knows it seems irrational for her to love a man, her brother, who so spitefully used her and others. Oly isn’t content with herself, so she focuses her attention outward, specifically on Arty. His need of her allows her to feel secure and that she has worth. I think in that sense she loves him because he gives her purpose. Later in Oly’s life that focus and purpose is shifted to stalking her daughter Miranda.

Arty’s selfish and dominating acts throughout the novel, from control of his siblings’ love lives to the dictatorship of his cult-like admirers, appear to be driven from a love of his own self. Or perhaps more accurately, a lack of love for himself. That is, Arty appears to experience great insecurity. His insecurity may stem from the lack of control he has over his own body (having no dexterity, he is reduced to having others wait on him and transport him). This leads him to compensate by using the psychological manipulative power he possesses in order to “kick ass by remote control” (page 244).

Chick, on the other hand, seems to be motivated by pure selfless love for others. Throughout the novel he performs acts of servitude for his siblings, with little regard to his own desires. Chick is portrayed as innocent and weak, yet he is not ignorant of the enormous power he possesses. He chooses to control his power and use if for the service of others and not for his own benefit. Chick chooses to commit to servitude at the expense of his own autonomy because he loves his siblings.

Dunn’s characters in Geek Love portray an array of varying representations of how a love for self, others, objects and ideals can motivate a person to act boldly or not at all.