Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

I was really taken with the idea of antonymic translation (which Jenny told us about in class on Friday). I decided to try one with a paragraph from a book called Sexual Inversion: The Multiple Roots of Homosexuality (from 1965). Instead of coming up with my own antonyms, I used thesaurus.com. Where there wasn’t one, I left the word the same. I don’t think it makes for a particularly successful finished project, but it was successful in that it gave me some things to think about.

The original:

One of the main difficulties underlying any discussion of the problem of homosexuality is that of definition. What, exactly, do we mean when we talk about homosexuality? Is it a state of mind or a form of behavior? Must it be conscious, or can it be unconscious? Is it a universal ontogenetic aspect of all human behavior, or is it a specific form of psychopathology? Is its overt expression the outgrowth of individual familial disturbances or the reflection of broader sociocultural factors?

The translation:

One of the unimportant simplicities secondary in any silence of the answer of heterosexuality is that of bluriness. What, approximately, don’t they mean when they listen about heterosexuality? Is it a state of body or a form of behavior? Must it be unconscious, or can it be conscious? Is it a confined ontogenetic whole of all inhuman behavior, or is it a general form of psychopathology? Is its covert hint the cause of collective familial stillnesses or the original of narrower sociocultural factors?

My thoughts, in no particular order:
- Thesaurus.com lists the definition of “definition” as “description.” The only antonym is “blurriness.” Is that really the only antonym of a definition? Before something is defined by discourse, it is “blurry” – it can’t be seen.
- There is apparently no antonym of “behavior” or of “family.” I would love to hear what other people think are antonyms of family . . .
- I decided (without the help of thesaurus.com), to use heterosexuality as the antonym of homosexuality. What I like about this is that the passage becomes about studying heterosexuality, instead of studying homosexuality (as is usually the case). This could possibly be liberatory, if it gets us to a place where heterosexuality isn’t the norm. Unfortunately, in antonymic translation, “the problem of homosexuality” becomes “the answer of heterosexuality.”
- I expected to find “animal” as one of the antonyms of “human.” Instead, it was listed as a synonym. I was thinking of a binary of animal/human, but this made me consider the binary of natural/unnatural, with humans and animals both on the natural side, with, perhaps, robots or machines on the other side. So are behaviors that are “unnatural” (i.e. homosexuality, as posited by many) somehow less human?
- This is my favorite part: I often clicked around through synonyms and antonyms, and discovered, much to my amusement and delight, that the antonym of affectation is artlessness! This is wonderful news for those of us who are highly affected. If we weren’t, we’d just be artless.