Bluets

“Do not, however, make the mistake of thinking that all desire is yearning. ‘We love to contemplate blue, not because it advances to us, but because it draws us after it,’ wrote Goethe, and perhaps he is right. But I am not interested in longing to live in a world in which I already live. I don’t want to yearn for blue things, and God forbid for any ‘blueness.’ Above all, I want to stop missing you.”

Bluets is a melancholic immersion into the mind of a writer obsessed with the color blue, steeped in longing for a lover that is no more. Each short section is like a separate chord, complex and beautiful on its own. As you read, you may find yourself setting the book down and closing your eyes so that you can appreciate the gorgeous craftsmanship at work in these short pieces.

Maggie Nelson's poems are strikingly harmonious, yet have a vulgar and a lunatic side. Overall, that makes for a great read!

Didn't really enjoy this one. It is intriguing, reading a book written only about a colour. But at the same time I feel as if the author was trying too hard. The writing style was good, though. It's a new way I've explored of expressing oneself. But the thoughts, opinions, comments (? Idk, honestly) did not really seem to connect (at least to me) and were way too random and seem to come one after the other without any purpose whatsoever.

Maggie Nelson's Bluets packs a punch despite its small size. It can be read over the course of two days (one, really) as I did, but it could as easily be studied over a much longer period of time. There were some passages that eluded my understanding, but were beautifully written all the same. The most unique part of this piece is her style -- the book is written as a numbered list. I would definitely recommend this book, especially because even if you don't end up liking it, it doesn't take that long to read so you wouldn't lose much time.

Disappointing read right after “The Argonauts.” Makes me like her writing less.

Tired and obtuse in that breakup way. I probably would have loved it at the right time in my life. As it is? Meh.

Writing the story of one’s life it is challenging; writing about your life must be one of the hardest things that one has to do. Autobiographies is one of most beloved forms of writing. A good autobiography can be fun and fascinating. A good autobiography must also be brutally honest.

An autobiography can take several forms, historical, philosophical, or poetic. Maggie Nelson’s Bluets is an experimental memoir, a blend of autobiographical writing, literary realism, analysis, and philosophical quotations and comments.

Bluets is a personal exploration, a captivating, candid, funny at times, book about the blue colour, about what blue means to Nelson, where blue is identified with love, loss, depression, sex, loneliness, shame, pain.

Bluets is written in fragments, the way Wittgenstein did, in order to think sequentially. Some of the fragments may seem district but together they create a unified, intense and beautiful narrative

This extraordinary book is one of those gems, a raw and vivid piece of Lapis lazuli, that I’m inclined to say very little about so as to leave it all for you to discover. Told in numbered fragments, this biblio-bijou is many things. It’s a memoir, philosophical and emotional meditation, and a scientific study of Nelson’s lifelong love affair and obsession with the color blue, all of which are interwoven with her efforts to navigate intense heartbreak, ongoing longing and existential isolation, and the life-altering injury of a dear friend. This makes it the book sound like a very heavy read, and indeed it had me in tears throughout, but its format keeps it from ever feeling punishing. Perhaps it’s also part of the enigmatic magic of the color blue.

A study/meditation of the color blue, also of loss, pain, love. OMG, heartstoppingly beautiful. I'd read this book 50 more times and never read the same thing twice. I probably will. I liked it that much.