{"product_id":"worthy-of-the-event-an-essay-by-vivian-blaxell-9781964322995","title":"Worthy of the Event: An Essay","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA trans essayist with a chequered past takes on the big questions of human existence\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMove over Michel de Montaigne, there's a new girl in town\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSet against a backdrop of trans life that begins with her own transition in the 1960s, Vivian Blaxell takes us on a witty and expansive sweep through history, from Australia to Japan, to Hawai'i to Mexico, to heretofore unmapped regions of the mind. In seven devastatingly intelligent parts, her essay covers a vast range in time and space - from the arson of a Japanese temple to a transformative encounter with a coral reef, from Nietzsche and Hegel to Indigenous metaphysics, from a perplexing relationship with a beautiful man to the unknowable minds of animals. Fleshy and philosophical, searching and exalted, utterly distinctive and assured, \u003cem\u003eWorthy of the Event\u003c\/em\u003e belatedly establishes Vivian Blaxell as one of the major writers of her generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"At a time where trans rights and bodily autonomy are under threat, it's voices like Vivian's which we need to platform and listen to.\" - Soaliha Iqbal, \u003cem\u003eMissing Perspectives\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWorthy of the Event\u003c\/em\u003e will strike you as the work of a lifetime.\" - Elese Dowden, \u003cem\u003eOverland\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"These essays span years; the book seems to contain a whole library of experience.\" - Torrey Peters, author of \u003cem\u003eStag Dance\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eDetransition Baby\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Blaxell's sentences buck and slither, even as they feel like talking, like taking a walk. It's kinetic; it's intimate too.\" - Agnes Borinsky, \u003cem\u003eLA Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"An illuminating and unique addition to the essay form. \u003cem\u003eWorthy of the Event\u003c\/em\u003e is unabashedly poetic and lyrical in its tender descriptions of the worst and best things in Blaxell's life of up-and-down multitudes, while maintaining the exacting analysis of an essay by a philosophical academic.\" - \u003cem\u003eHoni Soit\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"There is a propulsive ongoingness to [Blaxell's] sentences, stockpiling clauses in an infectious style that is thrilling, vertiginous, teetering on the brink of too-much-ness, dense with poetry and ideas.\" - Rebecca Harkins-Cross, \u003cem\u003eThe Saturday Paper\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Seldom have trans women allowed themselves the montage-cut intellect claimed so readily by the prime literary flâneurs; trans womanhood has signified too much body, too much history, too much too-much, to be so fleet-footed. Blaxell writes close to the transgender body, but shows that this is never in tension with truly existential and world-historical scope.\" - Amelia C. Winter, \u003cem\u003eMeanjin\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47487779930348,"sku":"9781964322995","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/3cc51042b7775405c30563505812c9fe.jpg?v=1775768729","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/worthy-of-the-event-an-essay-by-vivian-blaxell-9781964322995","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}