An Eros Encyclopedia

Rachel James

To want to reveal; to want to reveal enough; to desire; to desire in the right way, the right amount: in her debut book, Rachel James narrates the desiring subject’s nuanced and entangled intimacies with histories of power. How, in other words, under patriarchy, against misogyny, within capitalist strictures, is knowledge shaped, contained, and transferred? Tracing traditions of theater, pedagogy, and faith, An Eros Encyclopedia offers up desire and the attunement to its many objects as the atmosphere of a life—a method to navigate, perceive, and relate against the illusion of separation.

'One of the most extraordinary books; I was instantly addicted, “restless nemesis / how can I / now that you / revolved / around the sun.” Encyclopedic cash of desire, these pages will have you considering where to lay your spirit and from whose hands to wrest back your power. Rachel James is a writer who can change our lives.' – CAConrad