Customer Reviews

Tongue First: Adventures in Physical Culture

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I thought this book was going to be eye-opening to things that I knew I would never try. Instead the author spent more time discussing (or boring us with) her opinion on the subject matters then actual time being involved in the events. If I had known that it was a book of opinions I would have never purchased it. Everyone has an opinion on these subjects, we wanted to know what it was like to experience them.

The strength of this book is its straightforward, conversational style; Jenkins demonstrates that even the simplest bodily rituals and practices (wearing makeup; using public locker rooms; sleeping) are tied into body fetishisms that mainstream culture casts as deviant (or at least daring, now that tattoos have hit the suburban mall).

Jenkins does not use abstract theoretical jargon (though as a PhD student at Columbia, she surely could); nevertheless her readings of popular culture (and her own place in it) are clearly influenced by a wide range of readings in gender theory and cultural studies. _Tongue First_ can therefore introduce the theoretical concepts of drag, performance, spectacle, and fetishism to an audience that would never pick up a book of theory.

Perhaps this makes the book less theoretically rigorous than, say, Judith Butler's _Gender Trouble_. But it sure is a lot more fun to read. To complain about its light tone (as some reviewers have) is to miss the point; _Tongue First_ does not aspire to being a philosophy textbook, but an engaged, humorous, and above all personal look at our cultural notions of the physical through the medium of Jenkins's own body.

Emily Jenkins looks at things a little more closely than most of us, and takes risks we only think about. Thanks to TONGUE FIRST, I now know what it's like to shave one's head, get a tattoo, snort heroin, and go to the 10th Street Baths -- among many other things. Thank you for satisfying my curiosity and making me think, too.

I loved this book. First off, Jenkins writes wonderfully--her descriptions of her own and others' experiences of bodily culture, from taking heroin to choosing a lipstick, vividly (and often hilariously) take the reader there. Second, the book is thought provoking. Without ever becoming didactic, Jenkins reliably offers insights every few pages that stop the reader short. Jenkins richly engages us in pondering the meaning (cultural and personal) of the thousands of choices we each make about our body.

Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I found the recording of these so-called adventures irritatingly tedious and trite. The author never quite manages to find a pulse in any of her subjects.

I was given this book as a gift, so I forced myself through it, but found nothing of what the title or the author suggested. Tongue First is really more like Tongue Last (or Tongue Not At All) as the author's experience of these areas is such a banal and empty one. She writes well, but this is more like a college thesis, obediently written, but there is no vision, interesting insight, or anything really new to say. The only times the book comes alive is through the tone of the writing, and when it does so, it is young and fresh, rather MTV-like. I had to wonder, why was this book published? Myabe when the author is older (has lived more?) she will write something better.

I was given this book as a gift, and so I read the whole thing. From beginning to end I found no "tongue", no "soul", nothing to do with the real experience it claims to represent. I felt as if I were reading a college thesis, correctly and obediently written, but empty. No imagination or what they call "writer's vision". It was like something you'd find in a dentist's office, along with the Reader's Digests, etc. Why was this published as a book? Maybe the author will write a better book when she's older?

In spirited, refreshing prose, this book allowed me to venture into and vicariously experience much of the current bodily culture scene. In places, Jenkins' astute sensitivity is touching and disturbing. I closed the last page bigger in awareness than when I opened the first.

It started off okay. Heroine never did that. I couldn't wait to see what else she was going to try. Much to my dismay I had done most everything she described. I am only 27 years old. I feel so bad for her if the experiences she talks about are really major tests or adventures. I can tell you that she really wasn't taking any chances here. I thought maybe there would be more experimental behaviors rather than tested and true life experiences that most of us have. Don't buy it and don't read it. And for goodness sakes if you liked this book please get out of that chair and experience life!!!

No insights to be gleaned here