UPC: 9780823297665 | Stroke Book : The Diary of a Blindspot (Hardcover)

UPC lookup results for: 9780823297665 | Stroke Book : The Diary of a Blindspot (Hardcover)

In the summer of 2019 Jonathan Alexander had a minor stroke what his doctors called an eye stroke. A small bit of cholesterol came loose from a vein in his neck and instead of shooting into his brain and causing damage it lodged itself in a branch artery of his retina resulting in a permanent blindspot in his right eye. In Stroke Book Alexander recounts both the immediate aftermath of his health crisis which marked deeper health concerns as well as his experiences as a queer person subject to medical intervention. A pressure that the queer ill contend with is feeling at fault for their condition of having somehow chosen illness as punishment for their queerness however subconsciously. Queer people often experience psychic and somatic pressures that not only decrease their overall quality of life but that can also lead to shorter lifespans. Emerging out of a medical emergency and a need to think and feel that crisis through the author s sexuality changing sense of dis/ability and experience of time Stroke Book invites readers on a personal journey of facing a health crisis while trying to understand how one s sexual identity impacts and is impacted by that crisis. Piecing and stitching together his experience in a queered diary form Alexander s lyrical prose documents his ongoing unfolding experience in the aftermath of the stroke. Through the fracturing of his text which almost mirrors his fractured sight post-stroke the author grapples with his shifted experience of time weaving in and out while he tracks the aftermath of what he comes to call his incident and meditates on how a history of homophobic encounters can manifest in embodied forms. The book situates itself within a larger queer tradition of writing first about the body then about the body unbecoming and then yet further about the body ongoing even in the shadow of death. Stroke Book also documents the complexities of critique and imagination while holding open a space for dreaming pleasure intimacy and the unexpected — An archive of personal trauma that addresses how a culture still toxic to queer people can reshape a body In the summer of 2019 Jonathan Alexander had a minor stroke what his doctors called an eye stroke. A small bit of cholesterol came loose from a vein in his neck and instead of shooting into his brain and causing damage it lodged itself in a branch artery of his retina resulting in a permanent blindspot in his right eye. In Stroke Book Alexander recounts both the immediate aftermath of his health crisis which marked deeper health concerns as well as his experiences as a queer person subject to medical intervention. A pressure that the queer ill contend with is feeling at fault for their condition of having somehow chosen illness as punishment for their queerness however subconsciously. Queer people often experience psychic and somatic pressures that not only decrease their overall quality of life but can also lead to shorter lifespans. Emerging out of a medical emergency and a need to think and feel that crisis through the author s sexuality changing sense of dis/ability and experience of time Stroke Book invites readers on a personal journey of facing a health crisis while trying to understand how one s sexual identity affects and is affected by that crisis. Pieceing and stitching together his experience in a queered diary form Alexander s lyrical prose documents his ongoing unfolding experience in the aftermath of the stroke. Through the fracturing of his text which almost mirrors his fractured sight post-stroke the author grapples with his shifted experience of time weaving in and out while he tracks the aftermath of what he comes to call his incident and meditates on how a history of homophobic encounters can manifest in embodied forms. The book situates itself within a larger queer tradition of writing–first about the body then about the body unbecoming and then yet further about the body ongoing even in the shadow of death. Stroke Book also documents the complexities of critique and imagination while holding open a space for dreaming pleasure intimacy and the unexpected.