Autobiography Of Red

"Who am I?" (57), Geryon asks himself, as he stands in Herakles' mother's dark, empty bedroom. As a red, winged monster in a world of humans, or so it seems, Geryon struggles to discover and accept who he is. Geryon is gay and struggles with the repercussions of his childhood sexual abuse when he enters a sexual relationship with an older boy, Herakles, who seems less emotionally invested and more physicallyinvested in the relationship than Geryon. The autobiography Geryon begins following his abuse acts as a mode of self-making and self-preservation, in that Geryon only includes "inside things" (29), or his own thoughts and feelings. His autobiography seems to be less concerned with word-based language and fact than with abstract modes of expression, like the sculpture he makes by "gluing a cigarette to a tomato" (34).

Part of Geryon's identity formation has to do with fact and skepticism of fact. During the professor's lecture on skepticism over white and black, Geryon wonders if he can "get some new information about red" (92). Though he obsesses over pieces of fact, like word definition, encyclopedia entries, and time, Geryon seems to be increasingly okay with occupying liminal spaces.