#extremities

Would it be insane of me to say there are “gendered” roles in Koja novels that are based only on exploitation vs transcendence/artistry . And it’s at its barest in Skin where we see an almost classic tale of meaningless&false man exploiting talented&genuine women for their art and also sexually. Her story is about art and misogyny every time even if it’s about something else too. But applying this dichotomy with Skin as the hypothetical in physical, like a piece of theory to apply, there’s some interesting analysis of everything. Nakota is the man in the Cipher and Nicholas is the woman by these terms even though arguably their story is really gendered in terms of Nicholas as male and the half mocking portrayal of a certain type of man. Something to chew on, right? Inarguably there’s this dynamic of exploitation by total chance, convenience, which in the realm of Koja is a male-coded thing. And yet what is the Cipher if not a commentary on pathetic, violent, wanna be artist men? There’s some clash of inherent diametrics here which is exciting. Take Strange Angels. Grant is obviously in the man’s role, Robin in the woman’s. And What makes these assignments? In the Cipher it’s really just proximity to transcendence. For whatever reason Nicholas is chosen and then exploited for it. Strange Angels poses the question, is the dichotomy really man | woman? or is it man | any disadvantaged artist? But Koja’s portrayals of masculinity and also the inherent feminist statement of her body of work, which is seen in another very plain way in “the Neglected Garden”, probably the most direct, cut and dry example of this point, sort of refutes it’s anything but the dichotomy of these socialised gender roles. The Grant /Robin situation when given this gendered feminist reading provides really interesting insight on Grant’s behaviour and thought, I guess, and proves the fact that Koja’s ultimate exploiter is always, no matter towards whom, acting with assurance from some form of misogyny. I could say that Koja gives Robin “feminine” features to accentuate this dynamic like long hair and an attraction to men but that would be getting into some sort of skirtingly homophobic university essay bullshit . Basically, I just think playing around with this provides a neat way to look at her work and you’re fucking stupid if you don’t know by this point all my posts come fromthe mind of the futile critical essay writer . Just kidding, I love you. Smile