Throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family's most precious-and dangerous-asset.Īs the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love is a cruel joke turned into a sensitive novel, but a sensitive novel played for laughs. eNotes critical analyses help you gain a deeper understanding of Geek Love so you can excel on your essay or test.
Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins. Discussion of themes and motifs in Katherine Dunns Geek Love. Their offspring include Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan. Less a typical nuclear family than a nuked one, the Binewskis despise ‘norms’-to the extent of killing or abandoning those of their infants born without a speciality.Here is the unforgettable story of the Binewskis, a circus-geek family whose matriarch and patriarch have bred their own exhibit of human oddities (with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes).
“The target of Dunn’s grotesquerie is our hypocritical culture, which claims to celebrate individualism but vigorously promotes conformity and conventional beauty. Geek Love asks the question ‘what greater gift could you offer your children than an inherent ability to earn a living just by being themselves?’ Thus, Al Binewski and his wife, Crystal Lil, ‘experimenting with illicit prescription drugs, insecticides, and eventually radarscopes,’ give birth to a series of crowd-pleasingly deformed children. “HUR-REE! HUR-REE! Step right up, lady and gentlemen readers! Welcome to Aloysius Binewski’s Fabulous traveling carnival and freak show! See Arturo Binewski, the amazing legless, armless Aqua Boy! See Electra and Iphigenia, the beautiful piano-playing Siamese twins! Meet Olympia Binewski, the bald albino hunchbacked dwarf! Read Katherine Dunn’s provocative, inventive, funny, gristly and hugely compelling third novel! HUR-REE! HUR-REE!… Although critics often overlook its intimations of social class, Katherine Dunns Geek Love is a working-class novel and, in some ways, an allegory of American class conflict that culminates in Oly Binewskis struggle with Miss Lick.
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