Single: Arguments for the Uncoupled PDF
Preview Single: Arguments for the Uncoupled
Single SEXUAL CULTURES General Editors: José Esteban Muñoz andAnn Pellegrini Times Square Red, Times Square Blue Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and Samuel R. Delany the Limits of Religious Tolerance Janet R. Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini Private Affairs: Critical Ventures in the Culture of Social Relations Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Phillip Brian Harper Latinization of American Culture Frances Négron-Muntaner In Your Face: 9 Sexual Studies Mandy Merck Manning the Race: Reforming Black Men in the Jim Crow Era Tropics of Desire: Interventions Marlon Ross from Queer Latino America José Quiroga In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives Murdering Masculinities: Fantasies Judith Halberstam of Gender and Violence in the American Crime Novel Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch: Greg Forter Essays on Race and Sexuality in the U.S. Dwight A. McBride Our Monica, Ourselves: The Clinton Affair and the National Interest God Hates Fags: The Rhetorics Edited by Lauren Berlant and of Religious Violence Lisa Duggan Michael Cobb Black Gay Man: Essays Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire, Robert Reid-Pharr and the Black American Intellectual Foreword by Samuel R. Delany Robert Reid-Pharr Passing: Identity and Interpretation The Latino Body: Crisis Identities in in Sexuality, Race, and Religion American Literary and Cultural Memory Edited by María Carla Sánchez and Lázaro Lima Linda Schlossberg Arranging Grief: Sacred Time and the The Explanation for Everything: Body in Nineteenth-Century America Essays on Sexual Subjectivity Dana Luciano Paul Morrison Cruising Utopia: The Then and The Queerest Art: Essays on There of Queer Futurity Lesbian and Gay Theater José Esteban Muñoz Edited by Alisa Solomon and Framji Minwalla Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism Scott Herring Queer Globalizations: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism Extravagant Abjection: Blackness, Edited by Arnaldo Cruz Malavé and Power, and Sexuality in the African Martin F. Manalansan IV American Literary Imagination Darieck Scott Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries Juana María Rodríguez Karen Tongson SINGLE Arguments for the Uncoupled Michael Cobb a NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress.org © 2012 by New York University All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cobb, Michael L. Single : arguments for the uncoupled / Michael Cobb. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–8147–7254–6 (hardback) — ISBN 978–0–8147–7255–3 (pb) — ISBN 978–0–8147–7256–0 (ebook) 1. Single people. I. Title. HQ800.C73 2012 306.81'5—dc23 2011052259 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In Memory of Will Munro, who had us all dance, together. William, it was really something . . . This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Bitter Table for One 1 The Inevitable Fatality of the Couple 41 The Probated Couple, or Our Polygamous Pioneers 69 The Shelter of Singles 105 Welcome to the Desert of Me 157 Notes 203 Index 217 About the Author 227 vii This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments If writing this book has taught me anything, it’s that a single per- son doesn’t have to be lonely, which matters because sometimes we’ll each have to confront the worst heartbreak, in our own solitary way. When that happens, and when you need to literally regroup, you’re lucky if you can see and embrace the wide world of friendship, interest, work, pleasure, and love that might just help you not collapse. I wrote the majority of this book while one of my dear friends, Will Munro, fought and lost his battle with brain cancer. Often the book was my retreat away from the world of his sickness. At times I wrote it in hospital waiting rooms, or beside him as he slept. (So his influence, care, and spirit of collaboration tint all the sentences.) In all these moments, I was never without a group of the most impressive caregivers, friends, colleagues, ac- quaintances, strangers, and animals that could soothe the worst tragedy, the worst catastrophe. In the world of work, the University of Toronto English De- partment and its students have had my best interests always at heart and have made teaching, research, and writing exciting. Who knows why they’ve embraced me so, but they’re just the greatest. A few of the many need special mention (but, as be- fore, I could just list the entire faculty and staff): Alan Ackerman, Alan Bewell, Elspeth Brown (an honorary English department member), Brian Corman, Jeannine DeLombard, Paul Downes, Andrew Dubois, Elizabeth Harvey, Antonette diPaolo Healey, Cristina Henrique, Linda Hutcheon, Daniel Justice, Deidre Lynch, Lynne Magnusson, Jill Matus, Alice Maurice, Naomi Morgenstern, Andrea Most, Nick Mount, Heather Murray, Mary Nyquist, Clare Orchard, Tanuja Persuad, Mari Ruti, Donna Sabo, Sara Salih, Cannon Schmitt, Dana Seitler, Paul Stevens, and ix
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