I do not understand this book. It feels like the ratio of verbosity to content approaches unfathomable heights. I'm used to being told that I should express myself more simply and I usually respond that there's a reason for my choice of complexity of expression. Here, I find myself on the other side of that fence.

I imagine that a large part of my inability to comprehend comes from my complete ignorance of a large part of the terminology and the concepts that Butler builds upon. However, perhaps self-indulgently, I also claim that her language is not wired the same way I am, it's not meant to be completely precise so that it is understood even by people who express themselves differently than it: on the contrary, it is quirky, highly stylized and is very much a performance, besides essays on its subject matter, which is gender.

I cannot make that distinction myself, not before I read some of the book's sources, especially Foucault, who is mentioned a lot in the first fifth.

However, I don't see myself finishing it. Not now, at any rate.