Constant Reader Book of the Month August 2023: Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli

 

I ended up learning of Simon Versus the Homo Sapiens Agenda slightly after Love, Simon arrived in theaters.  It has always been my habit to read the book before I see the movie. I think I read the book in the spring of 2018 and very quickly became enamored of Albertalli’s work.

Since Simon became a groundbreaking phenomena when it hit shelves in 2016, Albertalli has become the gold standard when it comes to gay and lesbian romances. Her two companions to this series The Upside of Unrequited and Leah on the Offbeat directly dealt with it; Kate in Waiting dealt with the difficulties of a teen love triangle when a gay teen and a straight girl had the same crush and the consequences of it, and Yes No Maybe So dealt with a biracial romance involving a political campaign for a candidate running against a homophobic state legislator.

  Imogen, Obviously would at first glance seem to be keeping in with the typical model for an Albertalli work. The title character Imogen Scott is a senior in an upstate New York on spring break who goes to visit one of her best friends Lili, who was a year ahead of her in high school and is now going to the Blackwell College. Imogen is already feeling guilty because even though she’s within thirty miles of her friend, this is the first time she’s visited her since she matriculated the previous fall. So when she visits Lili in her dorm for the first time, she’s already prone to her friend a favor – even one as outrageous as this.

Lili, you see, is a lesbian who has only recently come out of the closet. When she went to her dorm, like all freshman, she started lying about her sex life.  One of Lili’s new dorm mates Tessa pointed to a picture of Lili and Imogen and asked if that was her old girlfriend. Lili lied and said she was. Now she wants Imogen to go along with it so she won’t be embarrassed.

Imogen, we already know, is a people pleaser. She goes out of her way to make sure she never makes anyone feel uncomfortable. And the fact that her younger sister Edith came out of the closet as a toddler has made her absolutely determined to be the best ally possible. She’s certain that she’s hopelessly heterosexual, but she wants to be sure that nobody ever feels uncomfortable around her. So naturally, she has no problem even when Lili asks if she’s mad “I erased your straight identity’. The moment after she agrees to this, Imogen meets Tessa.

The two of them instantly hit it off along with the requisite teen awkwardness. In case I hadn’t made it clear, Lili lives in what is essentially an LGBTQ+ dorm. One of Lili’s roommates is a legendary Tik-Tok nonbinary celebrity, Kayla is their best friend and Lili has just decided that she is pansexual.  Lili makes it very clear that Imogen is bi and Tessa is as well. They go through the usual teenage antics, it’s very clear there are sparks but Tesse is hiding them because she doesn’t want to make time with a friend’s ex and Imogen is afraid of doing anything to be offensive. At one point she reveals that her first Halloween costume was Else from Frozen and feels guilty because she has acclimated her sister’s costume.

The weekend ends and Imogen goes home – and she and Tessa can’t stop texting each other. Imogen finds herself waiting for Tessa’s next text and begins to think: “Do I have a crush on her?” This is hard for Imogen to except because to this point in her life, she’s never been attracted to anybody of either gender. She wonders if it’s a fluke. She then proceeds to try and find an online quiz to determine her sexual orientations which she can not figure out. She starts to miss that she was straight.

“I mean, I miss people thinking I’m straight. And by that I mean I miss people knowing I’m straight.

Because I am. Straight.

One girl can’t topple your entire sexuality, right?”

Understandably this is all very funny particularly as Imogen spends much of the next week trying to list point by point those same reasons. But what makes Imogen, Actually rise above the usual high standard of Albertalli’s fare is that there is a far darker subtext below the surface.

Those of you who have read much of my political and censorship criticism are very aware of my feelings that the larger problem with our society in our inability to see outside of our own identity. It is why we see so many women arguing that at their core all men are misogynist, so many African-Americans say all white people are racist and so many in the LGBTQ+ community see all cisgender as phobic. This will often lead to a kind of cross bigotry where everyone has chosen that their individual experience makes it impossible for anyone else to truly appreciate what all people go through.

Imogen’s other queer best friend is Gretchen and almost from the start of the book, it is clear to the reader (and basically everyone but Imogen) the kind of toxic personality she has. She constantly goes out of her way to make sure Imogen sees that her perspective on the world is the true queer perspective.  Some of this can be in subtle ways: at one point when Imogen tells her that her favorite film was But I’m A Cheerleader, one of the truly groundbreaking lesbian films Gretchen convinces her that movie was made for straight people.  By the halfway point in the novel, it has become clear that Gretchen is far more bigoted even when it comes to other queer people. At a Pride Alliance meeting when a junior shows up for the first time and refuses to give labels, Gretchen says afterwards she feels unsafe because this person is clearly cishet. When Lili demands to know how, Gretchen makes it clear that her experience is the standard for anyone who makes her feel unsafe.  Lili has not yet come out of the closet and is angry but Imogen seems to take Gretchen’s side – then she learns the truth a month later when Lili chooses to come out to her.

It's been clear from Imogen’s observations that Gretchen has been ‘queer-splaining’ everything to Imogen, and that anyone who does not see things from her point of view – even a fellow queer – doesn’t get it, This becomes very clear in the middle of the film when there is a discussion of a fictional TV series called Shop Talk. Gretchen and Edith have been arguing about whether it is for straight people or gay people. Gretchen is insistent that this series which has been written by two queer women is made for straight audiences. Even when this actress announces that she’s come out of the closet, Gretchen refuses to bend on this. She refuses to change that position even when the actress who plays the lead character comes out of the closet and frames the entire subject as ‘discourse’. Edith explodes on Gretchen, pointing out the ridiculous hypocrisy, first by the LGBTQ community being angry that this queer role was played by a straight actress and now that she has come out, people on the internet are question her motivations.  Even this doesn’t change Gretchen’s mind, saying that she ‘passed for straight’ – even though she grew up in Alabama.  

What is particularly stunning about this is not just Gretchen inflexibility but after the explosion takes place, she just looks at Imogen as if nothing has happened. She actually thinks that the three of them can just watch a film together as if this was a normal conversation.

This discussion and indeed the entire attitude of Gretchen is among the most revelatory things I’ve seen in any form of art, much less a YA book.  I think its also why Albertalli went out of her way to make Imogen such a people-pleaser.  At this point everyone in Imogen’s orbit knows that Gretchen is such a toxic personality that they all try to limit their time with her. (Imogen’s father even says as much at one point.) But Imogen is so afraid of upsetting somebody – and even worse of being considered either a bad ally or a bigot – that she refuses to see what’s in front of her.

This actually gets worse the more it becomes clear Imogen is attracted to Tessa. We’ve already seen that Gretchen is herself someone who is determined to hook up with people (she shows texts to Imogen of potential conquests) and the minute she sees Imogen’s picture she begins to follow her.  Imogen’s attraction to Tessa – when she begins to question her sexuality – should be a sign of a common bond. Instead Gretchen uses this an opportunity to tear her down. When Imogen goes back to college to see Tessa again Gretchen goes out of her way to actively troll the women she has called her best friend in front of her new friends, Tessa and her family.  The most reason she ever gives is that she upset that Imogen has acquired ‘her label’ and its so easy for her. Even after that Gretchen refuses to apologize. The last text conversation they have Gretchen, as has been her way throughout the novel does all of the talking, she says she angry that this is so easy for her. The fact that we have seen Imogen spend the entire novel struggle with this is something she does not say – and probably wouldn’t make a difference if it did.

Perhaps the most daring thing about Imogen, Obviously is not how the love story ends but how ambiguously the relationship between Imogen and Gretchen does. I’d actually argue that the biggest realization Imogen has in this novel is not about her sexuality but that some people will never be happy no matter what you say. This is actually a realization I think many of us in society need to get though – and I’m not talking about from the side of the conservatives, but from the liberals.

I have read more than enough posts and stories on so many websites from so many intolerant people and there are just as many of them who are not  cis white males.  They argue that America is fundamentally racist and therefore unworthy of redemption. That our society has always favored men over women so we must always believe women no matter what they say. That when a corporations makes an offer towards gay pride or inclusivity it is done for lucre, and that they deserve to be protested when they retract it – and by association, deserve to loose business when corporations boycott them. They argue that their experience doesn’t mean that they are bigoted, even though unqualified hatred for someone else is the dictionary definition of it.

I don’t know what movies or series Shop Talk is based on but I’ve seen these double standards so many times. There were parts of the queer community who were outraged when Rami Malek was cast as Freddie Mercury and Taron Egerton as Elton John, arguing only a gay actor can play a gay celebrity.  By that logic Kristin Stewart should have not been cast as the lead in Spencer but I never heard any outrage about that.  We all know that one of my more frequent bugbears has been how non-binary performers are upset that there is no category at awards shows for them and have demanded that genders in acting categories be eliminated. Last I checked Princess Diana was a cis female, but there was no outrage from the non-binary community that Emma Corrin was played her on The Crown.  There is a possibility that Albertalli may be throwing shade from her own experience – a lot of people were irked that the title character in Love, Simon was played by a straight actor – but the point is still a good one. The character of Gretchen is a representation of so many who want both to be treated as an equal but want their individual paths to count as that of the measure of equality. Imogen spends much of the book trying to square that circle while almost all of her friends have realized the math will never work.

Imogen, Obviously is as funny, swoony and wonderful as all of Albertalli’s other works. Perhaps the most daring thing about it is that she’s also giving the reader permission to stop saying that your sexual preferences doesn’t make you the be-all and end-all authority on what all of us should like. We’re all struggling the same way Imogen is in some way in the world we live in.  I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with Imogen wanting to never make people unhappy. What Albertalli makes clear is that there are just some people you can never please and the best thing you can do for your own wellbeing is be happy with the ones who like you just as you are, even if you’re still figuring that out.