Bluets
Ratings66
Average rating3.8
To truly rate and comprehend this, I think I would need to be in an academic setting to discuss. Maybe I'll reread when I'm older and wiser
I like when the writing style is symbolic and sounds like streams of consciousness. This is why I enjoyed Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and Bluets. It feels like I'm reading a diary, as if I'm connected deeper to the protagonist. Bluets is meant to be poetry and it's funny because it also reads like a thesis about the color blue. The author included so many references which are interesting to me. I especially like when they relate blue to their friend in the hospital. The ending was just okay for me but hoped it was a bit better.
It's giving By Grand Central Station. Heavy on the Wittgenstein and Plato, but light on the narrative or thematic cohesion. Nelson makes the decision to restrict details of her lover to the type of sex they were having (for fear of displacing her memories with her writing, as with childhood photographs), but what results for me is a paradoxical combination of deep, powerful longing and nonchalance that I struggled to connect with.
At a job interview at a university, three men sitting across from me at a table. On my cv it says that I am currently working on a book about the color blue. I have been saying this for years without writing a word. It is, perhaps, my way of making my life feel “in progress” rather than a sleeve of ash falling off a lit cigarette. One of the men asks, Why blue? People ask me this question often. I never know how to respond. We don't get to choose what or whom we love, I want to say. We just don't get to choose.
I loved the legends and mythological stories about the symbolism of the colour blue, and I was impressed by the writer's obsession with this colour and her perseverance in collecting pieces. The main focus of the book is sadness, depression and its association with coloured dreams, warm feelings and blue visions. With many inner feminine revelations. I loved the book because it reinforced my preference for the colour blue
3.5
Very interesting to read, I liked the writing and the way Nelson expresses her thoughts.
read this about two years ago and thought it was an incoherent mess. but after seeing continued praise for it and thinking about how my mindset and opinions have changed over the hundred-plus books i've read since then, i decided it was time for a revisit. i can now comfortably say i right the first time.
I really don't understand the positive views of this books- it had a few good ideas and shorts, and I give it a star for that, but I overall found it to be glorifying depression, obsession, and wallowing, and thought it often said a whole lot of nothing in many words.
One sentence synopsis... A series of loosely connected pieces of prose examining love and the loss of a relationship through observations about the colour blue.
Read it if you like... when books are described as ‘lyrical' and ‘poetic'.
Further reading... ‘Too Much and Not the Mood', Ocean Vuong, or Mary Gaitskill.
This is the only book I've ever re-read in my entire life. There's a lot that went over my head in 2019 and there's definitely stuff I can't grasp even now. But I think this is one I'll revisit all throughout my life and find gems as I grow. Probably my favorite book of all time. So many different moments in time are weaved together. It feels so stream-of-consciousness but expertly crafted at the same time. It's honest and its weird and sporadic and inquisitive and wise. I can see how people might be off-put by some of these things, but I think its chaos is part of its charm. Everything is held together by a very thin thread (blue!). I think this blend of poetry and prose (and research ofc) is Maggie Nelson's sweet spot and I wish she'd just keep writing shit like this. I just want more. <3
Disappointing read right after “The Argonauts.” Makes me like her writing less.
Tired and obtuse in that breakup way. I probably would have loved it at the right time in my life. As it is? Meh.
”If a colour could deliver hope, does it follow that it could also bring despair?”
Blue, blå, blauw, bleu, blau, κυανό, azzurro, azul, sinij, modra, blár..... a colour that carries powerful imagery, thoughts and memories...
Maggie Nelson is a writer I've always wanted to know more about and a beautiful review by my good friend Hannah convinced me that the time had finally come. It was a deeply poignant, haunting, almost transcendental reading experience.
In this book, we have the writer's musings on the colour blue and its various aspects. It is interesting that our societies associate blue with masculinity, imposing it on the infants (even in our progressive era) and with life. The majority of the flags of our countries contain a shade of blue. It is everywhere, the sky, the sea...A significant percentage- myself included- considers blue eyes as being the most attractive. They can be mesmerizing but they can also appear cold, soulless, threatening. Baby blue and indigo blue are utter opposites. The more I come to think of it, the more I believe that no other colour has so many facades and identities. Here, Nelson associates blue with love, loss, suffering and despair.
”And what kind of madness is it anyway, to be in love with something constitutionally incapable of loving you back?”
These are heartfelt confessions on a deep, dark abyss of a love that has been betrayed, a hope that is lost. Blue accompanies loneliness and, at times, a feeling of surrendering fully to the pain that comes when you are unable to anything to prevent disaster. I admit that I was touched by the despair that permeated the short entries of this book and the deep sadness. It almost made me feel uncomfortable as if I were an unknown by-stander watching the moment of utter emotional collapse. However, don't be discouraged. The writing is so rich and evocative. It is raw and powerful, giving voice to feelings that we have all experienced at least once in our lives. There is a distinctive aura of sensuality in the language and the theme of sexuality and its implications is central and communicated in a very realistic manner.
There are very interesting entries with true gems of information. To give you a tiny example, I was particularly fascinated by the habit of the bowerbird that clutters his domain with blue objects to attract the attention of the female. There are references to cultural icons from Thoreau, to Emerson, Goethe and Stein, to Leonard Cohen and Billie Holiday. There are parallels and narratives related to History, Mythology, stories of saints, sacred places and sinners...
This is a very special book, difficult to label. Is it a memoir? A re-imagined reality? A poetic confession? To me, it felt like poetry from a bleak place, heavy laden with the ache of an unfulfilled hope. I can't see how can anyone read Bluets and not be haunted by it...And if you find yourselves fascinated with Blue and the mysteries it hides, it is only natural...
”I have been trying for some time to find dignity in my loneliness. I have been finding this hard to do.”
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