Philosophy, Hope and Wit

Tamara Schuit

Published in The Lambda Book Report, (2004)

            Chris Cuomo's The Philosopher Queen: Feminist Essays on War, Love and Knowledge is a collection of essays and monologues that invites read­ers to re-examine their views on war, gen­der, race, science and politics. Cuomo blends narrative, self-disclosure and humor into essays brimming with questions and insight. And, by leaving many questions unanswered, Cuomo allows us to explore our own inner feelings about the topic at hand and form our own conclusions. Cuomo sums up her work best when she states, "There are so many reasons to despair. Then again, life can be awfully wonderful. Philosophy is supposed to help us negotiate a wild, wicked world, and to provide some understanding of being and existence."

Indeed, this book is surprisingly and unexpectedly refreshing. I dipped my toe in expecting dry and rambling passages. It is philosophy, after all. But Cuomo says, "This philosophy is about ethics... political theory... this philosophy joins forces with art. , . [and] is feminist." Instead I found myself sighing with relief as I plunged into passages filled with wonderful visual descriptions, hope and wit. Cuomo has essays titled "War as an Opportunity for Learning"; Justice, Joy, and Feminist Sex"; "The King of Whiteness"; "Lesbian and Its Synonyms (An Essay for All Fememnists”; and “Getting Closer”: On the Ethics of Knowledge Production.” But knowhere was this relieved sigh more true than in essays “Ethics, Earth, and Secular Sacred” and "Sisterwomanchainsaw." In both of these, the author has layered her love of nature and science to create strong and intimate tales that question our place in this world.

In "Ethics, Earth, and Secular Sacred" the reader is given a sense of the author's theories about sacredness. Cuomo posits that "sacredness creates a rubric for caretak­ing and a fundamental sense of moral order." She moves through religious and secular notions of what is sacred, and weaves in science; "secular conceptions of sacred­ness stand on firmer scientific ground... scholars don't like to discuss it, but there is an intimate relationship between passion and knowledge," she says. And here Cuomo questions the "common ground" we Americans use for our national myths:

"The first amendment articulated a model for the world--a principle that acknowledges the absolute importance of the freedom to believe whatever one chooses, and to enact whatever conception of sacredness truly moves one, as long as others' freedoms are not infringed upon in the process. Yet the conquest of the Americas was fueled by colonialists' overwhelming disregard for the sacredness of the lives of indigenous people, and the desecration of the world that native people held to be sacred. It is a tragic irony that a nation that represents religious freedom was founded on a fundamental inability to recognize the legitimacy of Native American concep­tions of sacredness."

In "Sisterwomanchainsaw" the reader is treated to a visual display of sights and sounds: Two women walking in the woods grapple with their sensibility and compas­sion as they scare the deer and sabotage the hunt. While both realize their efforts were most likely fruitless, they also know that what matters is they were not content to just let it "be"—a lesson to be learned in a world where it has become all too easy to shut a door to a woman’s shouts for help, or to walk past the homeless people on the street without really “seeing.”

While it’s impossible at times to put this book down, Cuomo's essays can get a bit long. Personally I enjoyed her simpler and shorter musings. They thunder along like a locomotive on a straightaway, building up speed before coming to a head-nodding conclusion that makes the reader think, "aha." It is here that we get a true look at the complexity of reality and the common val­ues we all share.

Tamara Schuit lives in Santa Barbara, Calif., and has written technical and marketing commu­nications for large California businesses and LGBT nonprofits for the past twelve years. She now divides her time between freelance writing and web site design and marketing. Her work has appeared in Carolina Times Magazine and TDMonthly, among others.