Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through

"Time is the thing a body moves through, an essay" is a juvenile work. I purchased the book recommended by a fellow curator and art historian. T Fleischmann's use of language is inchoate at best, immature, overall inadequate and disappointing, at times lazy: it should come to no surprise to the reader that the very title use the word 'thing' to express what is seemingly presented as an important subject: the word 'thing' together with generalized colloquialism is deployed at any critical juncture throughout the book: when the author feels the need to share some deep thoughts whether about their experience as a gender-fluid person or the work of Felix Gonzales-Torres (and this is when the book is rather disappointing as it misses the opportunity to engage the reader through a compelling choice of vocabulary); or when the author drags us into an endless plethora of "generalities and half truths" to quote from the very book. Over all the essay is a regurgitation of a stream of consciousness (and this could make for a compelling read actually but...no!) delivering inarticulate and confusing platitudes such as " It's very important, I think, to keep going to a gay beach, because that way people who are strangers to you will be able to meet their friends there." Ultimately, the author fails to provide anything new, relevant and engaging about the work of Gonzales-Torres and while I appreciated how the author describes their experience of the works, these passages are nothing short of a page of the diary of an eight grader who just visited a museum on a school trip. The essay would have benefitted some serious editing (guidance for and support to the author, it feels unfair to leave them to their shortcomings this way). However as one reaches the end of the book, the reader is left with a blob of self-referential and at times self-absorbed (but I can condone that as it is an essay after all) material, with no head and no tail. The author also needs to expand their view past their millennial perspective: statements such as "Another way I'm of my generation, fleeing the suburbs and small towns of Middle America for its coastal cities around the turn of the twenty-first century" feels so a-historical and navel-gazing by de-contextualizing what LGBTQ+ people have been doing since the 1960s. These statements disseminated though the books add a rather limited lens to an already rather limited choice of vocabulary. Would I recommend the book? No, after reading it, I can share that it is not worth purchasing. Sorry, disappointing.

I really appreciated reading this essay. Its takeaways are so plentiful, rich, and varied that I need to read it a second time, so that I can catch/relish each one and fully appreciate their collective resonance. I enjoy that T Fleischmann approaches Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s work and in so many different ways: topically, thematically, and conceptually, while stylistically echoing its poetic beauty. It is confessional and wide-ranging—a ‘portrait’ of the author in the Gonzalez-Torres tradition. Cannot wait to read what they write next!

This book is an essay on T’s personal gender explorations as related to art broadly, and to the works of artist Felix Gonzales-Torres, specifically. It is a brave piece of writing, and provides insight into the lives, thoughts, and experiences of people whose own experiences might be very different from our own.Prior to reading this book, I had some familiarity with Gonzales-Torres’ work, but this book helped me view it from an alternate, and deeper, perspective—by personalizing it and integrating it into T’s own life. I appreciate this new degree of understanding.I would recommend this book to everyone, regardless of whether you are a person whose life transpires primarily within the LGBTQ community. It behooves all of us, as moral citizens, to contemplate and hopefully understand our fellow human beings as much as possible.

This book length essay traverses the body and the bodies the body connects with while moving through time. It posits the idea of nonlinear time through art and how it intersects in the body/life of the persona. The persona examines relationships with two love interests, one past, one current and possibly future, along with sexual encounters, and the changing of their own body and self on the midst of it all. Through a personal and intellectual lens, the persona exposes a queer time of revolt.

This was assigned to me as a fine arts grad student. It was a nice break from critical theories I’d been reading in class.This love story to prose puts you in the shoes of the author. It’s a beautifully written piece, almost like a stream of consciousness, about love, art, place, and ice. A lovely quick read, I’d recommend it to anyone.

T's poetic words mesmerized me

Super dull, couldn’t get past the first 90 pages, great queer and trans representation and important to consume and buy work from fellow community members but it just really didn’t hold my attention. Lots of tangents.

This book is a gorgeous meditation on art, bodies, writing (what is we abandon metaphor, or if metaphor becomes impossible?), ice, and the author’s movement across identities, spaces, and relationships. The writing is meditative but also aggressive, always grounded in T’s exploration of interlocking themes. I really loved it and have recommended it promiscuously.

I love how whimsical and deep it is. The queer companion to I Love Dick (for the way visual art, gender theory and memoir are intertwined)