A Little Life struck me strangely. For the first hundred pages I was enchanted, then I figured out where it was going, and going, and going. Eventually each new
porn plot twist had me howling. Truly. The great camp classic of the new millennium. Now Mommy Dearest can rest in her grave.
this!! is so good! When I was younger, I invested a lot of energy (for some reason) in decrying the way that queer people were depicted in media. But as I've gotten older, I just don't have the angry energy for attacking other queer people for the types of stories they want to write. I'll still make fun of the occasional big media schlock-fest, but otherwise, none of us will get out of our ambivalence about marginalization through yelling at people on Twitter. Should being gay be normalized, legal, mainstream, and safe? Or should it be cool and edgy and involve lots of drugs and orgies? I don't know, and I don't really want to tell other people what to think. I'll just write my little things in the corner.
YES. I'm glad it's not just me noticing this. Nothing makes me feel like an aging (aged already maybe) queer like these fights. I sound like a 2nd gen feminist muttering "just be glad there's so much TO critique and go enjoy life good grief" to myself.
This rules. Some gays need to read sad things to process life and history and others are allergic to same. It's very individual, and thank Judy gay fiction has grown eclectic enough that there is something for everyone.
Mr. Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo was one of the so-called ‘gay novels’ that really brought in a fresh perspective. It was about two ageing gay men but told with so much humour and delight! Definitely a treat. Honestly, I question the whole branding of novel as a gay novel because it really confines and reduces the novel’s intrinsic capacity to bring in several other questions than just ‘gay’ questions. For instance, Shuggie Bain was marketed as this queer novel bla bla, but there was so much more the author was trying to do in that book. Really enjoyed reading this article. Thanks for sharing it.
WHEW!! "Don’t we all feel that way as we watch people do what it is that we want to do in a way that feels slightly too close to the way in which we want to do it? Particularly when our sense of ourselves is not robust and not strong, when we are full of doubt and anxiety. The first we way know to secure the ego against death is to kill. To rend and make the God over in our own image." Thank you thank you for this!!
So much to love about this post, but my favorite point is: if we want to talk about A Little Life, can a have more interesting conversations about it than don’t just lump it in and accuse it of bringing the gay house down? Like you’re saying here — let’s talk about its decisions around race! Or, what I like to think about (and you mention this too): what genre conventions is it trying to engage with — melodrama? Soap opera? Certainly not realism, which is itself interesting in the grand scheme of gay fiction.
A Little Life struck me strangely. For the first hundred pages I was enchanted, then I figured out where it was going, and going, and going. Eventually each new
porn plot twist had me howling. Truly. The great camp classic of the new millennium. Now Mommy Dearest can rest in her grave.
say THAT lmaoooo
this!! is so good! When I was younger, I invested a lot of energy (for some reason) in decrying the way that queer people were depicted in media. But as I've gotten older, I just don't have the angry energy for attacking other queer people for the types of stories they want to write. I'll still make fun of the occasional big media schlock-fest, but otherwise, none of us will get out of our ambivalence about marginalization through yelling at people on Twitter. Should being gay be normalized, legal, mainstream, and safe? Or should it be cool and edgy and involve lots of drugs and orgies? I don't know, and I don't really want to tell other people what to think. I'll just write my little things in the corner.
my favorite quote now & forever: “I had a sad life! I’m sorry!”
You dare tell writers to actually write? To write the books they want to read, no less? Quickly, go and find me a fainting couch, for I must faint.
Yep, a lot of it is jealousy masquerading as critique.
YES. I'm glad it's not just me noticing this. Nothing makes me feel like an aging (aged already maybe) queer like these fights. I sound like a 2nd gen feminist muttering "just be glad there's so much TO critique and go enjoy life good grief" to myself.
This rules. Some gays need to read sad things to process life and history and others are allergic to same. It's very individual, and thank Judy gay fiction has grown eclectic enough that there is something for everyone.
I feel called out - but I think I've been waiting for it/needing it/deserving it(?). Cathartic energy all round. Excellent essay.
Mr. Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo was one of the so-called ‘gay novels’ that really brought in a fresh perspective. It was about two ageing gay men but told with so much humour and delight! Definitely a treat. Honestly, I question the whole branding of novel as a gay novel because it really confines and reduces the novel’s intrinsic capacity to bring in several other questions than just ‘gay’ questions. For instance, Shuggie Bain was marketed as this queer novel bla bla, but there was so much more the author was trying to do in that book. Really enjoyed reading this article. Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you.
Yes!
WHEW!! "Don’t we all feel that way as we watch people do what it is that we want to do in a way that feels slightly too close to the way in which we want to do it? Particularly when our sense of ourselves is not robust and not strong, when we are full of doubt and anxiety. The first we way know to secure the ego against death is to kill. To rend and make the God over in our own image." Thank you thank you for this!!
This was such a gorgeous essay and so needed.
Reading this--and I am still working through--the best conversation I have had about books and feelings and being in a LONG time. thank you. xd
Fantastic.
So much to love about this post, but my favorite point is: if we want to talk about A Little Life, can a have more interesting conversations about it than don’t just lump it in and accuse it of bringing the gay house down? Like you’re saying here — let’s talk about its decisions around race! Or, what I like to think about (and you mention this too): what genre conventions is it trying to engage with — melodrama? Soap opera? Certainly not realism, which is itself interesting in the grand scheme of gay fiction.