The Queer Cavern

[thequeercavern]

Giovanni’s Room Blog Post #1

“I remember that life in that room seemed to be occurring beneath the sea. Time flowed past indifferently above us; hours and days had no meaning. In the beginning, our life together held a joy and amazement which was newborn every day. Beneath the joy of course, was anguish and beneath the amazements was fear; but they did not work themselves to the beginning until our high beginning was aloes on our tongue.” Giovanni’s Room pg 75

As I write this, I have found myself in a cavern of my own creation. One where my body stretches beyond its capacity while being consumed by a black hole. This black hole  offers itself to me as a transition point that leads to two roads that will ultimately define my faith. Giovanni’s room is a cavern, a non space where David can actualize his Queer desires without the pressures of the haunting heterosexual reality that lies beyond its walls. However, David’s resistance to any harmony that could come from this room becomes a parasite that eventually eats away at its walls. Queer time distorts one’s heteronormative desires and deconstructs one’s quest so thrive in an oppressive capitalistic society. It is a sacred space to operate in and runs the risk of being demolished by those who are not yet ready to move through it. David’s inability to commit to this Queer time is what leads to his own demise as well as Giovanni’s. 

In his book, In A Queer Time and Place ,  Women and Gender studies scholar, Jack Halberstam, writes about Queer time and its function in deconstructing a society built on capitalism and heteronormativity. Halberstam notes that “ A ‘queer’ adjustment in the way in which we think about time, in fact, requires and produces new conceptions of space(pg 7),” and that, “The time of inheritance refers to an overview of generational time within which values, wealth, goods, and morals are passed through family ties from one generation to the next. (pg6).” The Cavern is the new space that allows David the reimagine the possibilities and timeline of his life. Throughout the novel, David resists the reality of the cavern because of the inheritance that keeps him holstered to his life in America. He convinces himself that the safety of home, the desire to have children, the need to preserve his manhood, and his ability to ground himself in a woman is the cure for the sickness that Giovanni’s room causes him despite being the parasite himself. Queer time is jarring and can be destructive if one is not ready to live through this transformation of space.