In the memoiristic strands, Nelson tells, in no particular order, of getting sober, falling in love and getting married, supporting her partner’s morphing gender expression, becoming a stepmother, getting pregnant, giving birth and parenting a newborn. In “The Argonauts,” poet, critic and essayist Maggie Nelson addresses and dismantles this question from a deeply personal angle, weaving a loose yet intricate tapestry of memoir, art criticism and gentle polemic. How to preserve a critique of normalcy when deviants start looking normal too? As gay marriage has ceased to be an oxymoron, some sexual outsiders have intensified their warnings against assimilation. If these are necessary correctives, they’re also new variations on a critique that has a longer history in LGBT communities. This spring, browsing the new-book table, we can see these topics discussed in Kate Bolick’s “Spinster” and Meghan Daum’s anthology “Shallow, Selfish, and Self-Absorbed,” in which 16 contributors explain their deliberately child-free lifestyles. The unchecked reign of three ideas - children as the future, families as the building block of society, and parenthood as the ultimate vocation - is breeding broad discontent.
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