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In Theory, Darling: Searching for José Esteban Muñoz and the Queer Imagination
A love letter to queer of color theory and how it has helped the author to discover himself, reclaim identities, celebrate queer joy, and work towards liberation
Marcos Gonsalez found his greatest source of joy when he encountered queer theory in college. As they put it, "queers and college go together like peanut butter and jelly," and for them, this was especially true. Seeing himself reflected in the work José Esteban Muñoz was Muñoz's theory of disidentification empowered Gonsalez to reclaim their Latinx and queer identities--and inspired him to push back against the largely-white monolith of queer theory.
In the sophisticated yet intimately disarming prose of In Theory, Darling, Gonsalez takes his copy of Disidentifications to the gay bar, to the classroom, to their childhome and beyond, inviting us to go along with him as he limns the queerness of reality TV, mourns the victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre, searches for their uncle in Paris Is Burning, looks for Muñoz's legacy in the streets of New York, and situates themself in the lineage of the queer elders who have come before him.
Conversational yet deeply analytical, intimate yet wide-ranging, youthful yet sophisticated, Gonsalez's essays crackle with intellectual energy--and remind us just how life-giving theory can be.
Marcos Gonsalez found his greatest source of joy when he encountered queer theory in college. As they put it, "queers and college go together like peanut butter and jelly," and for them, this was especially true. Seeing himself reflected in the work José Esteban Muñoz was Muñoz's theory of disidentification empowered Gonsalez to reclaim their Latinx and queer identities--and inspired him to push back against the largely-white monolith of queer theory.
In the sophisticated yet intimately disarming prose of In Theory, Darling, Gonsalez takes his copy of Disidentifications to the gay bar, to the classroom, to their childhome and beyond, inviting us to go along with him as he limns the queerness of reality TV, mourns the victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre, searches for their uncle in Paris Is Burning, looks for Muñoz's legacy in the streets of New York, and situates themself in the lineage of the queer elders who have come before him.
Conversational yet deeply analytical, intimate yet wide-ranging, youthful yet sophisticated, Gonsalez's essays crackle with intellectual energy--and remind us just how life-giving theory can be.
188 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 20, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 28, 2026
3.5
I can deeply appreciate how Gonsalez offers analysis & love all tied up into one. It’s clear there is a deep reverence for Muñoz and for literary (queer) theory in general, and as someone who went through an English grad program…hell yeah I feel that love and adoration in my bones. This said, I often had the feeling of wishing I was simply reading the theorists’ work that Gonsalez was citing (rather than his musings and self-reflection in relation to it).
I think this book is an excellent bridge into a more theoretical/analytical world that otherwise may feel inaccessible to most readers. It still offers analysis of important (and sometimes difficult) theories and definitions made by notable theorists like Sedgwick, Barthes, Berlant, Muñoz, etc., without being an entire work of new theory itself.
Ultimately, though, at a certain point, I found myself almost tired of some of these cyclical musings regarding Gonsalez’s identity in relation to Muñoz, if he’s entitled to feeling how he feels about him, etc. I think it’s a powerful line of thought, but fall on the same question too many times and still a rephrasing can’t save the repetition.
Still, enjoyable and insightful and (hopefully) encouraging for more people outside of these specialized fields to engage with theory and criticism.
I can deeply appreciate how Gonsalez offers analysis & love all tied up into one. It’s clear there is a deep reverence for Muñoz and for literary (queer) theory in general, and as someone who went through an English grad program…hell yeah I feel that love and adoration in my bones. This said, I often had the feeling of wishing I was simply reading the theorists’ work that Gonsalez was citing (rather than his musings and self-reflection in relation to it).
I think this book is an excellent bridge into a more theoretical/analytical world that otherwise may feel inaccessible to most readers. It still offers analysis of important (and sometimes difficult) theories and definitions made by notable theorists like Sedgwick, Barthes, Berlant, Muñoz, etc., without being an entire work of new theory itself.
Ultimately, though, at a certain point, I found myself almost tired of some of these cyclical musings regarding Gonsalez’s identity in relation to Muñoz, if he’s entitled to feeling how he feels about him, etc. I think it’s a powerful line of thought, but fall on the same question too many times and still a rephrasing can’t save the repetition.
Still, enjoyable and insightful and (hopefully) encouraging for more people outside of these specialized fields to engage with theory and criticism.
July 29, 2026
Where to even begin? What a beautiful piece of both academic writing and artistry. Reading this entirely revitalized my love of theory that’s been slowly sinking into apathy toward academia and the ivory tower as a whole. I decided to study sociology for the same reasons that Gonsalez decided to pursue queer studies — theory helps you make sense of not only the world, but your personal experiences and how you fit into the environment around you. I so deeply related to his discussions about using theory as a means of self-actualization and processing. Theory is exactly how I came to cope with a lot of my own experiences (that, and a lot of therapy!)
I’ve always been adamantly opposed to the notion that academic theory needs to be completely devoid of emotion in order to be “truly scientific.” I think emotion is the precise thing that *drives* theorists to formulate and study the things that they do, and that idea is articulated so damn beautifully here. The writing is accessible, it’s emotional *and* extremely informative, it’s just….really, really outstanding. It’s so sociological, without ever once saying the word “sociology.”
On a somewhat more light-hearted note: how interesting that the weekend I develop a weird hyper-fixation on researching the War on Terror *and* watched Paris Is Burning for the first time, is also the same weekend I pick up a book that discusses both of these things in depth. Personally, very timely read!
Edit (8/10/26): upon some reflection and an excellent book-club discussion, this is knocked down to a 4(ish) for me. I stand by my thoughts about his musings on theory in general, but I also think there were a lot of missed opportunities here that I didn’t initially consider!
I’ve always been adamantly opposed to the notion that academic theory needs to be completely devoid of emotion in order to be “truly scientific.” I think emotion is the precise thing that *drives* theorists to formulate and study the things that they do, and that idea is articulated so damn beautifully here. The writing is accessible, it’s emotional *and* extremely informative, it’s just….really, really outstanding. It’s so sociological, without ever once saying the word “sociology.”
On a somewhat more light-hearted note: how interesting that the weekend I develop a weird hyper-fixation on researching the War on Terror *and* watched Paris Is Burning for the first time, is also the same weekend I pick up a book that discusses both of these things in depth. Personally, very timely read!
Edit (8/10/26): upon some reflection and an excellent book-club discussion, this is knocked down to a 4(ish) for me. I stand by my thoughts about his musings on theory in general, but I also think there were a lot of missed opportunities here that I didn’t initially consider!
June 14, 2025
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: A love letter to queer of color theory and how it has helped the author to discover himself, reclaim identities, celebrate queer joy, and work towards liberation
Marcos Gonsalez found his greatest source of joy when he encountered queer theory in college. As they put it, "queers and college go together like peanut butter and jelly," and for them, this was especially true. Seeing himself reflected in the work José Esteban Muñoz was Muñoz's theory of disidentification empowered Gonsalez to reclaim their Latinx and queer identities—and inspired him to push back against the largely-white monolith of queer theory.
In the sophisticated yet intimately disarming prose of In Theory, Darling, Gonsalez takes his copy of Disidentifications to the gay bar, to the classroom, to their childhome and beyond, inviting us to go along with him as he limns the queerness of reality TV, mourns the victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre, searches for their uncle in Paris Is Burning, looks for Muñoz's legacy in the streets of New York, and situates themself in the lineage of the queer elders who have come before him.
Conversational yet deeply analytical, intimate yet wide-ranging, youthful yet sophisticated, Gonsalez's essays crackle with intellectual energy—and remind us just how life-giving theory can be.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Meditations on a mentor lost to death before his time. A love letter to the queerness of New York. A lament about the dehumanizing obscenity of capitalism.
A man coming to terms with his understanding of the world, no matter where he's sited, is going to sound much the same: by turns pensive and self-regarding; both thoughtful...what has all thistaught me?...and selfish...I had to skip meals/live with crowds/be abused by The System to get what you got. Because it's all true and it all needs reckoning with.
Muñoz, his mentor, was developing a queer theory that decenters the white experience. Gonsalez is pursuing this monumental project as well. It is a story that needs to be told. I hope to live long enough to experience its flowering. When I was about Gonsalez's age, Martin Bernal did a similar decentering-of-whiteness in Black Athena . It was savaged. The criticisms were intensely personal. The professional-standards ones were couched in personal terms. I hope Gonsalez has learned from and will prepare for the same to happen as he pursues his process of decentering whiteness. It is, though, the fate of the revolutionary thinker to need rigor where evidence does not always exist yet to support it...that missing fifth star thus explained.
I'm ready to follow along behind him because he can say this: "No true utopia can blossom on stolen land whose keepers refuse to return it—who refuse, even, to admit that a violence has taken place, refuse to atone materially or structurally for all the enslaved and exploited who were forced to build a society, brick by brick."
That, I think, came from someone willing to question the entire enterprise of being alive in the 21st century's end-stage capitalism. Courage, Author Gonsalez. Stay on your true course, your course to find, report on, and exact the truth, from a world that's all about lies.
The Publisher Says: A love letter to queer of color theory and how it has helped the author to discover himself, reclaim identities, celebrate queer joy, and work towards liberation
Marcos Gonsalez found his greatest source of joy when he encountered queer theory in college. As they put it, "queers and college go together like peanut butter and jelly," and for them, this was especially true. Seeing himself reflected in the work José Esteban Muñoz was Muñoz's theory of disidentification empowered Gonsalez to reclaim their Latinx and queer identities—and inspired him to push back against the largely-white monolith of queer theory.
In the sophisticated yet intimately disarming prose of In Theory, Darling, Gonsalez takes his copy of Disidentifications to the gay bar, to the classroom, to their childhome and beyond, inviting us to go along with him as he limns the queerness of reality TV, mourns the victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre, searches for their uncle in Paris Is Burning, looks for Muñoz's legacy in the streets of New York, and situates themself in the lineage of the queer elders who have come before him.
Conversational yet deeply analytical, intimate yet wide-ranging, youthful yet sophisticated, Gonsalez's essays crackle with intellectual energy—and remind us just how life-giving theory can be.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Meditations on a mentor lost to death before his time. A love letter to the queerness of New York. A lament about the dehumanizing obscenity of capitalism.
A man coming to terms with his understanding of the world, no matter where he's sited, is going to sound much the same: by turns pensive and self-regarding; both thoughtful...what has all thistaught me?...and selfish...I had to skip meals/live with crowds/be abused by The System to get what you got. Because it's all true and it all needs reckoning with.
Muñoz, his mentor, was developing a queer theory that decenters the white experience. Gonsalez is pursuing this monumental project as well. It is a story that needs to be told. I hope to live long enough to experience its flowering. When I was about Gonsalez's age, Martin Bernal did a similar decentering-of-whiteness in Black Athena . It was savaged. The criticisms were intensely personal. The professional-standards ones were couched in personal terms. I hope Gonsalez has learned from and will prepare for the same to happen as he pursues his process of decentering whiteness. It is, though, the fate of the revolutionary thinker to need rigor where evidence does not always exist yet to support it...that missing fifth star thus explained.
I'm ready to follow along behind him because he can say this: "No true utopia can blossom on stolen land whose keepers refuse to return it—who refuse, even, to admit that a violence has taken place, refuse to atone materially or structurally for all the enslaved and exploited who were forced to build a society, brick by brick."
That, I think, came from someone willing to question the entire enterprise of being alive in the 21st century's end-stage capitalism. Courage, Author Gonsalez. Stay on your true course, your course to find, report on, and exact the truth, from a world that's all about lies.
September 30, 2025
This book had so many good quotes. Coming to terms with the world around you. A man who points out the good, the bad, and the ugly. Telling the truth is a world filled with lies. This book felt very thoughtful, there were sited links throughout the ebook. The different experiences of being queer past the white experience. Telling about the role capitalism plays into it all, all the while never helping the communities it greedily takes from.
Read For
✓ Memoir
✓ Non-Fiction
✓ Culture Studies
✓ Impactful Read
✓ Queer Perspectives
⚠️ Content Warning
Moderate: Ableism, Biphobia, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, Gaslighting, Classism
𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊
Pace: 9/10
Enjoyability: 7/10
Writing Style: 7/10
Would I Recommend? Maybe
Favorite Quote: ❝ The many, many corporations there to salute our queer-ness, to twir and prance with us in their branded rainbow shirts and lanyards, while behind closed doors they funded anti-LGBTQ politicians and policies. They wanted our dollars but couldn't care less about how the world treats us. These corporations want us to feel represented while shaking our ass on one of their sponsored floats, or while passing by their rainbow-decaled storefronts in June, but when things get tough, when we actually need them to show up for us, they don't. Rainbow capitalism at its finest. ❞
Pages: 192
Format: ebook
Language: English
Release Date: 20, May 2025
Rep/Extras: BIPOC, LGBTQIA+
August 23, 2025
Un apapacho al legado de José Esteban Muñoz, no muy distante al amor que siento por el trabajo de mis teóricxs favoritxs, como Lu Ciccia, o Siobhan Guerrero.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews