(no subject)
Despite 'Geek Love' being a strange, and often grotesque account of a 'controlled' family, the book truly emphasizes the importance of self-worth, albeit through the sideshow mindset of Al and Lil's offspring. The characters are often wary of those they consider normal (and how often are we as well?), but never falter from their own acceptance and pride in their disfigurement, which reaps mounds of comparison to our own freakdom: the range of oddities we are born with or develop (such as a nail biting fascination, or webbed feet), that we must face, and often, become proud of like a child with a huge scar on his knee. Sometimes it's either accept our deformities or force ourselves to live with them in regret. When one's born with a hump or flippers, it's hardly a hassle to consider acceptance. The hump's there. It ain't going anywhere.
In 'Geek Love' and 'Freaks', the characters are hardly shamed by their appearance, though they are perhaps sensitive about it, such as when Hanz believes Cleopatra is having a bit of a laugh at his figure. On not one occassion have they fallen to their knees, sorrowful and anxious, forsaking their identity. Instead, such as 'Freaks', they have a party and drink wine, and in 'Geek Love', make a childhood career out of it. At this age of societal unrest, and issues of identity, we should all be so lucky to have a deformity, something to mark us out from the crowd, a badge of identity, webbed toes and lizard skin.
In 'Geek Love' and 'Freaks', the characters are hardly shamed by their appearance, though they are perhaps sensitive about it, such as when Hanz believes Cleopatra is having a bit of a laugh at his figure. On not one occassion have they fallen to their knees, sorrowful and anxious, forsaking their identity. Instead, such as 'Freaks', they have a party and drink wine, and in 'Geek Love', make a childhood career out of it. At this age of societal unrest, and issues of identity, we should all be so lucky to have a deformity, something to mark us out from the crowd, a badge of identity, webbed toes and lizard skin.