Intimacies Volume 2
Dara Idris
intimacieszine.bigcartel.com
Intimacies Volume 2 is a black and white ½ fold zine about Dara’s journey with physical intimacy, sex, and expectations told through a collection of short essays.
Dara starts volume two not with an essay but with a snippet about separating sex and even romance from the need to touch and be touch. While it doesn’t state these things directly, I feel like it does a fantastic job of setting up the fine distinctions that are to come.
Where I felt volume one was more about being unsure and contemplating the meaning of intimacy, I feel volume two is more what intimacy means and continues to mean after firsts are happening and growing relationships are explored. Simply put, there is a lot more kissing and sex in this one, but there are still questions to be answered as well as keenly feeling the difference in oneself after the firsts have happened.
It’s nice to read something that give such gravity towards firsts and ‘small intimacies’. Each essay shares a moment or a conversation about intimacy, touch, and or sex, and yet each is granted the same amount of thoughtfulness and gravity. Each is respected as a moment of change.
The only thing that got a little confusing was the use of ‘you’. I absolutely understand the use of second-person writing – especially to help with the identities of those involved, but the writing feels somehow less intimate with the reader despite the intimate writing because I’m not sure who you is from piece to piece. One might assume that you is one person, but it’s made clear in the first few essays that you is at least two different people.
I fully admit that it’s a nitpick, though. It’s something that my editor brain is picking up on, and I don’t think that it takes away from the writing in a significant way. After all, this zine isn’t so much about who as involved as it is about what’s happening.
Aesthetically, this is a text-heavy zine with very few illustrations. While you certainly won’t breeze right through it, it is possible to pick it up and put it down because of the shortness of the essays.
On a side note: I looked back at my review of Intimacies Volume 1 and realised I’d already mentioned the copyright note on the back. Still, I think “Don’t be a dick is a good rule, isn’t it?” is worth another mention.
I found Intimacies Volume 2 a tasteful and thoughtful collection of essays about intimacy, relationships, and sex. While I do think the volumes should be read in order, I think they can stand on their own if you can only grab one for any reason.