Ali Smith's Twist: Queering Tales in Girl Meets Boy and The First Person

Have you ever wondered how stories can be retold in ways that break the rules? Ali Smith, a creative writer, does just that in her books Girl Meets Boy and The First Person and Other Stories. She takes old tales, like Ovid's Metamorphoses, and gives them a fresh, queer spin. In Girl Meets Boy, Smith reimagines the myth of Iphis and Ianthe. Instead of a typical love story, she celebrates fluid identities and queer desire. She uses storytelling tricks, like jumping back and forth in time, to shake up traditional notions of gender and story structure. But Smith doesn't stop there. In The First Person and Other Stories, she experiments with short stories that are all about themselves. She plays with different story forms, like "second person" and "third person, " to mess with the idea of a straight storyline. By doing this, she transforms classic and cultural tales into spaces where unique, queer stories can unfold. Smith's approach isn't new. She draws inspiration from scholars like Judith Butler and Linda Hutcheon, who explore how stories can be twisted and transformed. Through her work, Smith shows that stories don't have to be static or follow a fixed pattern. They can be dynamic and full of surprises, constantly shaping and reshaping our understanding of identity and time.

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