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Beauty & the Bitch

~ podcast for all things fandom | for bitches everywhere

Beauty & the Bitch

Tag Archives: TFW

Top 5 Books: Required Reading for Hufflepuff House

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by bandbcast in TFW

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amelia bedelia, anne of green gables, cedric diggory, child, dr seuss, Harry Potter, hobbit, horton hears a who, hufflepuff, is everyone hanging out without me?, kaling, mastering the art of french cooking, Montgomery, parish, rowling, T5W, TFW, tolkien, Top 5 Wednesday

Hufflepuff

You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil

Hufflepuffs are, how do you say….the butt of many jokes. We poke fun at those who are easy to harass, and then we slouch back to our corners and dwell on life and what we’re doing with it. Whereas, Hufflepuffs shuffle off and help a person in need and do 100 sit ups and eat a vegan dinner. Yes, in many ways, the Hufflepuffs are the best people among us. As in, they are truly good. Goodness lives within. They real good. Also, surprisingly, I just read that most of the HP fans in Great Britain identify with Hufflepuffs. The Huffington Post reported that 54% of the population there identifies with the Hufflepuff traits of hard work, patience, justice, and loyalty.

Now: Will that stop me from poking fun at them? Will I quit calling them Hufflefucks? Will I ever get over how sexy Cedric Diggory is? We may never know the answers to these questions.  Alas, I digress.

We are here to discuss required reading for Hufflepuffs.  This was a truly difficult task as a Gryffindor; what should our HP brethern make sure to read?  WWJKRD (What Would JK Rowling Do)? Jo herself said that Hufflepuff (in some ways) is her favorite house, so we must take this choice in stride! Without further ado, I present to you my “Top 5 Required Readings for Hufflepuffs.” Continue reading →

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Top 5 Books: Required Reading for Ravenclaw House

21 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by bandbcast in TFW

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barthell, genius, gods and goddesses, harold bloom, Harry Potter, JK Rowling, joseph campbell, Magic, manly p hall, mythology, ravenclaw, religion and the decline of magic, T5W, TFW, the power of myth, the secret teachings of all ages, thomas, Top 5 Wednesday

“Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you’ve a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind.”

Though I am admittedly a Slytherin, Ravenclaw has always been my favorite house. The colors are blue and bronze, their common room is at the top of a tall spiral staircase and, well, they’re smart! Not just smart. Also witty, wise, motivated and eccentric.

Hm. I’m not sure what the difference is between being ambitious (a Slytherin trait) and being motivated. And the line between witty and cunning is pretty thin too. Furthermore, how does one become wise without exhibiting bravery or loyalty? I know I’m splitting hairs. But I’m just saying: these house distinctions leave something to be desired. But, ya know, I guess that’s why so many people could belong in multiple houses (Harry chose Gryffindor over Slytherin, the Sorting Hat agonized over Hermoine’s placement).

Anyway, with no further ado: 5 books every Ravenclaw should read (or at least add to her already massive TBR list). Plus an Honorable Mention from Morgan at the bottom! Continue reading →

Top 5 Books: Required Reading for Gryffindor House

14 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by bandbcast in TFW

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Adventure, Bravery, Chronicles of Narnia, Gryffindor, Harry Potter, literature, Narnia, Pride and Prejudice, Recommended Reading, Stubborn, TFW, The Alchemist, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Odyssey, The Princess Bride, Top 5, Top 5 Wednesday

gryffindor_lion_by_xalleirax

“You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart.”

Those of us who identify as Gryffindor might be accused of being a bit narcissistic, what with our heritage lying in the hands of such heroes as Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Hermione Granger, and Mr. Harry Potter himself- but we’re actually quire humble.

OKAY NO WE’RE NOT.  However,  in our defense, this must be how fans of sports teams feel- like they are the absolute greatest, and all other teams pale in comparison.  Right?  Whatever.  I’m done making excuses for who we are.  Instead I will tell you that we Gryffindors not only identify with bravery and adventure, but we are especially apt to loyalty and friendship.  When we add you to our Tribe, you stay there for life.  We’re ‘lifers’, we Gryffindors; Ride or Die.  If you are so inclined, we welcome you into our Group- we open our arms and our hearts and our minds, and we learn from you, and live by you, and bleed Gold and Scarlet, screaming until the end.  We do, also, however, get ourselves into trouble from time to time.  Our inclination to lead with our hearts can get our mouths into trouble; This is why (thankfully) another strength we have is balance.  We have a way of finding those who balance us: the Yin to our Yang.  In the spirit of Balance, and Bravery, and Seeking more, my required reading lists for all Gryffindors is as follows: Continue reading →

Top 5 Books: Required Reading for Slytherin House

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by bandbcast in TFW

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and influence people, cs lewis, dale carnegie, draco malfoy, gillian flynn, gone girl, Harry Potter, how to win friends, JK Rowling, jungle, maggie nelson, richard adams, salazar slytherin, slytherin, T5W, TFW, the art of cruelty, the silver chair, Top 5 Wednesday, upton sinclair, watership down

thomas-hafeneth-224733

“Or perhaps in Slytherin,
You’ll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means,
To achieve their ends.”

Slytherins tend to be ambitious, shrewd and cunning. We make strong, achievement-oriented leaders with highly developed senses of self-preservation. According to Albus Dumbledore, the qualities which Salazar Slytherin valued in the students he chose included cleverness, resourcefulness, determination, and “a certain disregard for the rules.”

So we’re epic rebels and will be very helpful during the zombie apocalypse. We are not, however, all evil (see: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). We are also much better-looking than the movies give us credit for. Whatever. Read my TBR list for Slytherins below (as well as Morgan’s honorable mention) and let us know what you think!

Continue reading →

Fandoms I’ve Abandoned

31 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by bandbcast in TFW

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abandoned, atlas shrugged, ayn rand, blue ranger, dagny, david yost, domonique, fandoms, fountainhead, howard roark, john galt, kelfki, left, might morphin power rangers, objectivism, pokemon, pokerap, power rangers, TFW, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Top 5 Wednesday

Before I get thigh-deep in this Top 5 Wednesday, I want to note that I still like most of these things. I just don’t love them the way I used to. I’m still a fan, I’m just not a passionate member of the fandom. Does that make sense? Well, whatever. Onward!

5. The Nightmare Before Christmas

nightmare before christmas

This movie is the whole reason I wrote the caveat at the top of this post; I still love it. Jack and Sally’s love still makes me cry. And I still think the stop-motion animation is stunning and impressive. But when I was in high school I listened to the soundtrack pretty much every day. I hummed Oogie Boogie’s song while getting ready for school or peeing at a public urinal. I owned essentially the entirety of the Nightmare Before Christmas swag sold at Hot Topic. I spent hours planning out a stage version (and hours more sketching the costumes and planning the stage magic).

But since then,  I’ve gotten a little burnt out on Tim Burton’s style. His point of view, which at one point felt so fresh and new, has had an effect on the society around it. Antiheroes, dark and creepy imagery and re-imagined twists on traditional fairy and folk tales are all super common today. But Burton’s art direction didn’t evolve after it catalyzed, which means that his work now feels stale. I mean, did you see Alice in Wonderland or Corpse Bride? Meh.

 

4. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

rocky horror picture show

My very first viewing of RHPS was interrupted only thirty minutes in: my mom came home. Horrified, she shut off the VCR. Granted, I was only ten. But that thirty minutes was enough to open my eyes to the beautiful freaks all around me and make me part of this fandom for years. RHPS has never been about sexuality, as such, for me. It is about difference, odd beauty, and weird obsession. And I love it for that. Plus, obviously, there are queer characters. And memorable performances. Well, actually…everything about this movie is perfect for me.

But I’m not in the fandom anymore because I made the mistake of attending a midnight viewing in college. The local movie theater that was putting it on did it once a month, I think, and it was a big event for a certain subset of students at my school (theater kids, gender rebels, weirdos: my people). I got in drag and took a few shots of very cheap gin with my friends, excited to finally experience the freedom and weirdness that the movie promised me exists all around me in the world.

But, even before the movie started, I started to feel uncomfortable. The men who worked the theatre (they were all men, at least that night) were handsy, beardy and douchey. They weren’t frat boy douches. They were mouth-breathing, World of Warcraft douches. They ignored me (even though I looked amazing!!?) but were gross with all my female friends. When they brought everyone up for the virgin hazing right before the move began, they had the boys “do a funny dance” that lasted two seconds, while the girls all went through a long sexualized ritual involving balloons and spanking and lipstick drawing.

I guess what I’m saying is that the midnight viewing I attended took all the queer freedom out of the fandom and replaced it with gross sexually-frustrated boy-ness. Which is all well and good, but if those guys can so easily and naturally co-opt Rocky Horror Picture Show, I’d just as soon watch it at home and pretend they’re not part of the fandom at all.

 

3. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers

power rangers

Do you know why I’m no longer in the Power Rangers fandom?

Because this:

They believed he couldn’t be a superhero because he is gay.

They called him a fag. Even more humiliating, they pulled his costars into private meetings to question them about his sexuality. After he left the show (mid-season), he attempted gay conversion therapy, which of course did not work. The failed conversion therapy led to a nervous breakdown and five weeks in a mental institution.This makes me so sad and leaves the worst of bad tastes in my mouth. I refuse to support this franchise in any way, even though I know it’s possible that the creatives have evolved since then.

I spent untold hours playing Power Rangers as a kid. I usually pretended to be the Red Ranger. I was so naive and sweet then. I didn’t realize that someone like me wouldn’t be accepted as a Power Ranger, or as a superhero, or even as an actor on the set.

 

2. Pokemon

I used to tell friends I was busy after elementary school so I could run home and watch Pokemon. Well, I guess some things never change – I’m still a misanthropic loser nerd.

But I cannot handle 802 separate Pokemon. I mean really. There was a time when I (and all my friends) could sing the Pokerap apropos of nothing. Trying to sing the equivalent today is a recipe for madness.

Also, this asshole exists now:

Y’all: I’m done.

 

1. Ayn Rand/Objectivism 

Okay. Okay. Okay. Don’t judge me. Riddle me this, first: how many of Ayn Rand’s books have you read? I’m not getting defensive. I’m just really asking. Because I’ve noticed that most the people who convulsively roll their eyes at Ayn Rand haven’t actually finished any of her books.

Not that I’ve read them all! I enjoy her fiction (Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Anthem, We the Living, in that order). But her works of philosophy are too dense for me. I will say that her biographical works and collected letters/etc., are pretty fascinating because Rand straddled Russia and America, philosopher and cult leader, future and past, free-thinker and social conservative.

Anyway, I used to really buy into Rand’s ideas. I’ve seen the weak, simply by force of numbers, destroy the strong, talented and brilliant. I know it’s possible and I believe it’s evil, so one of the main tenets of Rand’s Objectivism rings very true. Plus, Rand consistently penned productive and creative genius-heroes who shoulder almost unimaginable responsibility and battle with crystalline resolve the cumulative disapproval of society. I find each of them extremely inspiring.

Ooooh and the villains are SO villainous and icky and horrible. If you know who Ellsworth Toohey is, you know what I’m talking about. YUCK ICK.

But yeah, I always skip the long speeches and diatribes too. And no, I don’t believe that charity is evil (though, to be fair, Rand didn’t believe that either and her characters are actually hugely charitable…ask me why!). And no, I’m not socially conservative (Rand was really homophobic, which is something I just have to accept and forgive). I’ve realized since first joining her fandom that her portraits of good and evil are too neat and that her philosophy is seductive but overreaching. Sometimes her works border on propaganda. They enchant you.

So yeah: I’m not in the fandom anymore. But I still reread Ayn Rand’s books every few years. Eddie Willers, Dagny Taggart, John Galt and Howard Roark people my imagination. I wanted to be Domonique Francon when I was 19. And I’ve had a sex dream about Francisco d’Anconia. But who hasn’t!?

-Mic

By the way:
T5W (Top 5 Wednesday) is a weekly book meme created by gingerreadslainey and hosted by Sam @ThoughtsOnTomes. You find out more about T5W and the weekly topics on the Goodreads group here.

Top 5 Summer Reads

17 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by bandbcast in Uncategorized

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catcher in the rye, coupland, dragonlance, generation x, ginsberg, hickman, howl, ned rorem, salinger, summer, summer reads, TFW, the paris diary, Top 5 Wednesday, weiss

jerry-kiesewetter-192478

The Top 5 Wednesday prompt this week is to list quintessential summer reads, not what I’m actually planning on reading over the next few months. Which is good, because I’ve covered the latter list already (check it out here).

To me, a quintessential summer read must be sexy, accessible, packed with vivid detail and easily transportable. It should make me feel proud and strong, though tragic glamour is always acceptable. Bonus if it has a certain sun-baked quality.

Summer is also a poetry time for me. Some Sandburg in a warm patch of sun. Add gin, tonic and Frank O’Hara to taste. Perfect summer day.

This is a TFW! For more info, please see below.

5. Generation X

Genderation X is polarizing book. People who hate it seem to really, really hate it. I get it though: the term “Generation X” was in the 90’s what “Millennials” is today. Frankly, I would not readily pick up a book called Mellennials, even if (especially if?) it offered engaging, scabs-and-all character-driven stories with strong infusions of fantasy and drunken, sun-blasted ferocity.

I guess some people felt similarly about Generation X.

But I love it. The characters feel real to me, ravenous and textured and familiar. Pompous, sure. I don’t think they always smell fantastic or anything (after all, they’re a bunch of twenty-somethings living loose in the California desert). But I recognize the blended flavors of squandered potential, mistrust of society and over-education.

Pairs well with coffee and cigarettes or rum and cokes.

4. The Paris Diary and The New York Diary

I first read these two  diaries on a cruise. They were the perfect counterpoint to fancy drinks, sitting by the pool and ogling beautiful men. Ned Rorem is a charming, intelligent gay man and his scattered writings about his life are glamorous, funny and poetic. The Paris Diary  is my favorite of the two. Shock to no one, it is set in Europe and contains a smorgasbord of cosmopolitan cocktail parties, pleasure travel, shameless name-dropping and deep, searching thought about the place of the artist in society.

Rorem is a composer, among other talents. I haven’t listened to any of his music, but I understand the rhythm of his life, I think. His diaries make me feel that anything is possible and that the world is full of interesting and beautiful people. Plus, he was quite, quite handsome when he wrote these words. Beautiful men are like celebrities: you don’t have to know them to have opinions about them.

Pairs extremely well with fruity drinks, champagne and cigarillos (though I don’t recommend all three at the same time).

3. Howl and Other Poems

First published in 1956, there are now over 900,000 copies of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” in print. Probably you’ve read this (maybe in high school English). But have you ever read it ragingly drunk? Have you “bared your brains to the heavens under the El”? Have you taken the poem downtown and read it while “angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo” park their bikes and pat their dogs around you?

For a poem that is over sixty years old, “Howl” still resonates deeply. The anger and the childlike naivete still touch me. And I hope that, at least once this summer, I get drunk enough to let loose a howl of my own. Sometimes you just gotta.

Pairs well with shots of anything.

2. All the King’s Men

all the king's men

When you buy this, be sure to pick out an old, beat-up copy. Don’t bring a shiny new edition of All the King’s Men to Barton Springs unless you’re willing to endure the quiet contempt of the louche, thin, hipster boys. Oooohh quelle domage. I couldn’t live.

I first read this masterpiece while working as a summer groundskeeper at a golf course in rural Arkansas. To this day, that is the worst job I’ve ever had. I’d get up at 4:00 AM five days a week and work in the summer sun for eight hours. I was surrounded by conservative men all day long. I had to take out my piercings. I accidentally knocked down part of the fence while refueling the tractor.

However, there were some definite silver linings. I got very tan and very muscular. I slept soundly each night and learned how to do some very butch things. And, since it was so hot, I spent my lunch hour every day reading All the King’s Men instead of eating. I can’t imagine a more appropriate book to read throughout a sweaty Arkansas summer than Robert Penn Warren’s masterful tale of the rise and fall of Willie Stark, a charismatic Louisiana politician who begins his career as a genuine representative of the people and ends it as a murderous and corrupt demagogue.

I’m not normally one for books about power, politics and corruption. I read the New York Times every week, okay? I get my fill. But this book is much more than that. It’s a love letter to the rural South, to Southern families and to the waved hot-weather mirages that spring up above concrete roads. The whole book is saturated with heat and grit and Southern perspective.

Pairs beautifully with an Old-Fashioned or some spiked sweet tea.

1. The Catcher in the Rye

I’m certain I’m not the only person who finds himself returning to The Catcher in the Rye once summer rolls around. Most of the book is set in winter, of course, but there’s something about the youthful madness and honesty of Holden Caulfield that makes me want to reread this classic while lying in the grass. And you know what? Every time I reread it, I feel something new or laugh at something I’d missed before or find myself laying the book down to inspect how I feel about Holden’s (often ridiculous) opinions.

I  didn’t like the novel when I read it as a teenager. But the older I get, the more that I find it rings true. The world we live in allows, even necessitates, a certain amount of “phoniness.” We all wear masks. We all disassemble from time to time. But when you’re sunning pleasantly buzzed somewhere, you don’t have to fake anything. Especially if you’re half-naked and alone for the moment, you can luxuriate in the fantasy that you are exactly the kind of person Holden would have liked: aware, honest and willing to let other people live unmolested around you.  The real challenge, of course, is bringing that certainty off the lawn and into your adult dealings.

Pairs well with: self-reflection.

-Mic
____________________________________________________________________________________________
By the way:
T5W (Top 5 Wednesday) is a weekly book meme created by gingerreadslainey and hosted by Sam @ThoughtsOnTomes. You find out more about T5W and the weekly topics on the Goodreads group here.

Top 5 SFF Cover Art

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by bandbcast in TFW

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Animorphs, Anthony, Applegate, Bearing an Hourglass, book fair, boxed set, Chronicles of Narnia, cover art, Darker Shade of Magic, Lord of the Rings, LOTR, On a Pale Horse, Piers, Schwab, TFW, Top Five Wednesday

If I’m being honest, I have to admit that I judge books by their covers. I do. I also make split-second judgments about people and act decisively in emergencies. About 80% of the time, those gut decisions and first impressions are correct.

I think “don’t judge a book by its cover” should be “allow books to surprise you.” Same goes with people. Sometimes, it’s true, you can just tell. Maybe even usually. But works of art and people are both capable of containing surprising depth, even if on the surface they seem a shallow sea.

Anyway, this week’s TFW was easy to write (because there’s less writing involved, frankly), but my choices may be controversial. I like to think I have fantastic taste, you understand, but that taste does sometimes veer toward the spare and reserved. So, with one wonderfully tacky exception, most of my picks are somewhat conservative. What can I say? I’m a classic beauty. 😉

5. A Darker Shade of Magic

a darker shade of magic

I forgot I owned this book until a friend recently returned it to me at work. She took it out of her bag and passed it gently across the busy sales floor. It looks like something expensive that you would want to keep safe. The cover is seductive and sophisticated. It hums with danger and dark beauty and it made me immediately want to read A Darker Shade of Magic again. I especially love that the blurbs are incorporated into the style. I hate when a positive review is the main and only visual hook on a cover.

This might be an example of a book with more style than substance, though. The reason I want to reread it is because…I hardly remember my first read. A knife? A girl living in a bar? Doorways between worlds, for sure. A snooty king? Whatever. It’s beautiful.

 

4. Animorphs

Animorphs #8

Jake, Rachel, Marco, Cassie, Tobias and Ax use their amazing body morphing alien tech to transform themselves into animals and fight the disgusting, parasitic Yeerks who prepare to fully invade earth while piloting the bodies of parents, teachers and politicians.

I promise you I just recited all that from memory. Animorphs was my favorite book series in elementary school.

Do you remember, by the way, those Scholastic books fairs in the school library? I LOVED the book fair. We got out of class, first of all. Bonuses: the shiny, wheeled shelves, the light reflecting off the book covers, the dollars crumpled in my palm. The bookmark stand. The whole traveling shop had an air of newness and sparkle that made me wish I could buy books by the stack.

As an adult, I semi-annually walk into a bookstore and lose my mind. I wonder if those traveling book fairs have something to do with that? They shaped me as a consumer and as a reader.

Animorphs was my favorite series to buy there. They always had the newest books in the series (there are 54 total, with 10 companion books) and they were always under $10. I could never keep the individual titles straight (The Other, The Hidden, and The Unexpected are all real titles in the series) but I never had trouble identifying new books because the covers are so striking and distinctive. I mean, c’mon:

Animorphs #2
Animorphs #27
Animorphs #4

I was mesmerized by these as a child. Though often mildly horrifying due to obscene distortions of the human face and body, these covers are also stunning and enticing (to say nothing of the flipbook animation on the pages). Sadly, I tried to reread my collection recently and found that I’ve thoroughly aged out of the series. But I got to pass them on to my nieces!

 

3. The Lord of the Rings

This is a legitimate tie for me. My mom owned the series pictured above and I think the sere, detailed images capture the tone of Lord of the Rings perfectly. Though they’re admittedly not very colorful, the pen-work is beautiful. Plus, each title is different enough to match the contents of the book but similar enough to make sense together.

All that being said, the original editions above are stunning and modern enough to fit in and stand out (both) on a bookstore’s shelves today. I’m especially obsessed with the cover for The Two Towers. Hm. Similar color scheme to A Darker Shade of Magic, huh? I guess I have a type.

2. Incarnations of Immortality

Look, not all of the titles in this series are beautiful. In fact, near the end they’re downright ugly. But the first two in this (really fantastic) series are innovative and beautiful. They capture perfectly the tones of their respective books (the protagonist assumes the mantle of Death in the first and the mantle of Time in the second).

On a Pale Horse was my favorite book in eighth grade and the cover is burned into my brain. I probably read this book nine or ten times before loaning it out to a friend. Sadly, it was never returned and I’ve never come across it in a used bookstore (when I had money to buy it, that is). I think there’s probably a life lesson in their somewhere, but I don’t know what it is.

 

1. Chronicles of Narnia Box Set

Damn, I love a jewel tone. Give it to me wet, darling, and glistening. Deep. I’m bummed I couldn’t find a professional photo of this box set online. These lil dinky snapshots don’t really do it justice.


But anyway, this is the set I own. When I was little, my aunt had one and, even before I could read I would stare entranced at the bold designs and vivid colors on the box and covers. I remember wanting to learn to read so that I could discover all the secrets the pictures seemed to hint at.

Why is that woman snatching that girl’s wig?
Why is that man attacking his furniture?
What is that lion doing in the sky?

Now I’m thirty years old and can answer all of these questions. Somebody throw me a party.

-Mic

____________________________________________

By the way:

T5W (Top 5 Wednesday) is a weekly book meme created by gingerreadslainey and hosted by Sam @ThoughtsOnTomes. You find out more about T5W and the weekly topics on the Goodreads group here.

Top 5 Favorite Queer Reads

19 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by bandbcast in TFW

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A Boy's Own Story, Acito, Angels in America, gay, Hollinghurst, How I Paid for College, Kushner, Lackey, literature, Magic's Pawn, queer, Swimming Pool Library, TFW, Top 5, Top 5 Wednesday, Valdemar, White

You might think that this list, like the one I published last week on books that would make good video games, would be easy to write. After all, I’m deeply gay myself (SURPRISE!) and hungrily consume queer literature at every opportunity. But this, actually, was quite difficult for me.

I’ve decided to limit this Top 5 to works that feature an explicitly queer protagonist. This decision cuts out many books and plays that read as queer to me when I was a teenager (including Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, two of my favorite plays). One of the great joys of being queer is the ability to find a pearl of the gay experience in otherwise heteronormative works. Seeing ourselves in a fabulous heiress, bickering same-sex roommates or the agonized narrative of the shunned outsider is a superpower that many queer people possess. But I don’t know if that necessarily makes the work queer. That just makes us queer, I think! 😀

I’ve also agonized quite a bit over the fact that all of the works I’ve chosen are by and mostly about queer white men. Look, I know I’m supposed to love James Baldwin’s work, but I just can’t get into Giovanni’s Room. I’ve read it twice but I wouldn’t call it a favorite. I’m also very aware that there are no queer lady narratives here. Rubyfruit Jungle is on my TBR list, as is Stone Butch Blues. To my shame, I keep buying trashy fantasy instead of these two queer classics. 

Well, enough excuses! As a gay white man, I guess it’s not shocking that I primarily search for narratives that speak to my personal experience. And let me be clear: as a gay boy growing up in Arkansas, reads that affirmed my existence were extremely difficult to find. Each was a lifeline to me and I’m proud to list them. Perhaps consider all of the above works Honorable Mentions. This, by the way, is a TFW – see bottom of the post for more information!

5. How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater

Marc Acito is my Facebook friend and, when I was a freshman in college, he responded very sweetly to a fangirling message that I sent him. It meant a lot to me – it was the first time that I had corresponded with a gay author.

First of all, this book is funny. Deeply, truly hilarious. It’s like David Sedaris plus Catcher in the Rye set in New Jersey in the mid-80’s. The protagonist, Edward Zanni, is a fabulous and talented seventeen-year-old with penchants for mischief and belting into song. He’s talented and good-looking, but his father, early in the book, remarries and decides that he won’t pay for Edward to go to Julliard and study theatre. What follows is a string of attempts throughout his senior year to finagle his way into the college of his dreams.

Edward’s best friend, Paula, is fabulous and catty, and his crush, horse-hung former athlete Doug (who has decided we wants to be a Play Person, aka a theatre kid) is drawn realistically enough to inflame all the passions I had for a similar boy in my high school. Edward’s sexuality is mercurial and evolves throughout the narrative (you could make an argument that he’s bisexual, but he’s definitely queer). The rest of his friends (gorgeous Kelly, cosmopolitan Ziba, nerdy Natie) initially seem like simple stereotypes, but by the end of the book they are textured and complicated people.

This novel means a lot to me because I saw so very much of myself and my friends in it. It is a slice of queer life seen through the eyes of a very funny, deeply complicated narrator.

4. Magic’s Pawn

Anyone who reads fantasy knows that queer characters are, sadly, pretty rare in this genre. There are none in Lord of the Rings. None in Harry Potter (except Dumbledore, off the page). None in…well, the vast majority of fantasy books written in the last fifty years. Mercedes Lackey published this book (the first of a trilogy called Valdemar: The Last Herald-Mage) in 1989 and I can’t give her enough credit for sensitively portraying a kind of character that many fantasy authors, even today, shy away from.

Not only are there gay characters in this series, but the protagonist is one of them. And the story of his tragic, aching romance (tragic because of magic, not because of his queerness) is one that stuck with me for years. I mean really, who doesn’t want to read a book about gay boys, teen angst and stunning blue-eyed telepathic horses? It’s a queer teen’s dream come true.

On the downside, the melodrama in this book is pronounced (and sometimes trying) and the writing is not some of the absolute best that Lackey has produced. But as a young gay man, it meant more to me than I can say to read a trilogy that doesn’t ignore that fact that boys like me (effeminate, bad at sports, awkward, bitchy) exist. If I ever have a queer nephew or niece, I will definitely be gifting this series to them.

3. A Boy’s Own Story

Look, Edmund White is a national treasure. I mean it. His books are classics in gay literature and if homophobia wasn’t so alive and well, even in literary circles, these books would be classics, period. A Boy’s Own Story is the first of a three-part autobiographical trilogy that White wrote over fifteen years. All three are brilliant, searching narratives that blend engrossing detail and delicate poetry.

But this one, the first, is my favorite. White’s depiction of his father, a man he both loves and fears, is heartbreaking and honest. And the story of the protagonist’s flight from his cruel peers into the worlds of literature and art is one that rings true to most queer people (well, most outcasts, in general). What I love best, though, is White’s examination of shame and guilt in its many nefarious contexts. Most (all?) queer people deal with deep societal shame on a daily basis. It’s a hard thing to explain to someone who isn’t queer. But if they don’t get it after reading this book, they never will.

2. The Swimming Pool Library

My god, I love this book. I think a fell a little in love with Alan Hollinghurst while reading it. The Swimming Pool Library, published in 1988, tells the story of an unlikely friendship between two gay men. One is 25 and the other is over 80. They meet in a public lavatory in 1983 while both are looking for sex. When William saves Lord Nantwich’s life after the octogenarian collapses from cardiac arrest, an unlikely friendship develops.

This book is important to me because it tells stories about gay life before the HIV epidemic. Please don’t get me wrong. Those stories are important. They are powerful. In fact, my next pick is partially about them. But reading about queer men and women before AIDS ravaged our community is akin to returning to childhood innocence. This book is a banquet of beauty, sex and sophistication. I return to it anytime I’m feeling down and I recommend it to anyone who needs a mega-dose of chic underground gay fabulousness.

  1. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

This pick might be a little bit of a cheat. But the topic is “Top 5 Reads…” and you can read a play. 🙂 I first read Tony Kushner’s masterpiece over the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. I was blown away by the sophisticated blend of diverse characters, including a gay Mormon and his (ex-)wife, a brilliant black drag queen and an estranged gay couple, one of which has HIV. Plus, you know, a series of angels. And, um, the notorious gay homophobe Roy Cohn. Obviously.

I could talk more about the sophisticated pacing of the dialogue or Kushner’s ability to bounce readers between tears of laughter and tears of grief or the brilliant inclusion of magic and religion, but I think it’s probably just best to let one of Kushner’s characters do the work for me. Belize is the black drag queen I mentioned earlier. He also happens to be a nurse, a wonderful friend, a radical and my favorite character. Louis is, well, a neurotic asshole who abandoned his boyfriend once he realized that his partner had AIDS.

Belize:

‘Real love isn’t ambivalent.’ I’d swear that’s a line from my favorite bestselling paperback novel, In Love with the Night Mysterious, except I don’t think you ever read it.

Pause.

Louis:

I never read it, no.

Belize:

You ought to. Instead of spending the rest of your life trying to get through Democracy in America. It’s about this white woman whose Daddy owns a plantation in the Deep South in the years before the Civil War–the American one–and her name is Margaret, and she’s in love with her Daddy’s number-one slave, and his name is Thaddeus, and she’s married but her white slave-owner husband had AIDS: Antebellum Insufficiently Developed Sexorgans. And there’s a lot of hot stuff going down when Margaret and Thaddeus can catch a spare torrid ten under the cotton-picking moon, and then of course the Yankees come, and they set the slaves free, and the slaves string up old Daddy, and so on. Historical fiction. Somewhere in there I recall Margaret and Thaddeus find the time to discuss the nature of love; her face is reflecting the flames of the burning plantation–you know, the way white people do–and his black face is dark in the night and she says to him, ‘Thaddeus, real love isn’t ever ambivalent.’

This bit is just the very tip of the iceberg, but I think it captures some  of the beauty and wit that infuses every second of Kushner’s play. If, perhaps, you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by your TBR list, you might check out the HBO miniseries, instead. It’s brilliantly performed (by the likes of Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson, no less) and captures the magic of the original incarnation.

-Mic

By the way:
T5W (Top 5 Wednesday) is a weekly book meme created by gingerreadslainey and hosted by Sam @ThoughtsOnTomes. You find out more about T5W and the weekly topics on the Goodreads group here.

Top 5 Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books I Want to Read

05 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by bandbcast in TFW

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

A Discovery of Witches, Acceptance, Annihilation, Authority, Dhalgren, Fantasy, Jeff Vandermeer, Salman rushdie, TFW, Top 5 Wednesday

I have a confession to make: I have been spending all my time watching video game playthroughs and now I have multiple stacks of books to read. By multiple I mean like five or six. Large stacks. But I made an ambitious reading list for the next few months, so hopefully I’ll go from poser to a genius in that time. Here are five fantasy or science fiction books that I can’t wait to dive into. This is a T5W – more information at the bottom of the post!

dhalgren

5. Dhalgren
I started this book about two years ago but was interrupted halfway through by a move. Honestly, I wasn’t disappointed to take a break. I’ve heard it called the best science fiction book every written, but Dhalgren is also a weird, Joycean ride through a hellish cityscape on the back of a schizophrenic wanderer. It is very violent and very dark. Also often confusing. But there are gay characters (the protagonist himself is bisexual) and the darkly poetic language, though unsettling, is also hypnotic. Samuel R Delany successfully creates a strange magical world in which anything seems possible. I’m excited to finish this up ASAP.

 

Two years...

4. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

I bought this book a few months ago as my introduction to Salman Rushdie’s work. I know his name, of course, but haven’t read Midnight’s Children or The Satanic Verses. Maybe I should have just started with those but Two Years… is described as a blend of “history, mythology and a timeless love story” on the front leaf. Funny, that’s often how I describe myself.

Two Years… is about the various descendants of Dunia, a princess of the jinn (genies, which live in a world that coexists with our own) and her mortal lover. Strikes me as Heroes plus Fable (one of the characters is a graphic novelist) and it’s less than 300 pages long. Hopefully I’ll enjoy it and have a new favorite author soon!

 

A discovery of witches

3. A Discovery of Witches

Okay. I have to admit to you that I was initially interested in this book because the author shares a last name with Agatha Harkness, my favorite Fantastic Four hero (she’s a witch who tutored Franklin Richards and The Scarlet Witch). I mean, check out those eyebrows. How could I not love her?

Agatha Harkness

And A Discovery of Witches is, in fact, about a witch (just not Agatha). This is the first book in the All Souls Trilogy, but all of them are out already. This is important because what I’ve read of the first book makes me think this is a very bingeable series. It follows the story of Diana Bishop, an alchemical history professor and talented witch who accidentally calls for a very powerful book from the library stacks at Oxford. I haven’t gotten to the part that explains why only she could call this magical tome, but I assume that will be addressed at some point.

The world that Harkness has created is interesting because it is heavily peopled with witches, vampires and daemons (think genius-level, slightly mad creatives). And I do mean heavily. Diana feels pins and needles when other magical creatures look at her and at one point she practically has a panic attack in the library because there are so many magical creatures staring at her. That seems to be a little out of the ordinary in this world  (it all has something to do with the book she called, I think), but I’m intrigued by the idea of a world that is both the one we live in and a deeply magical one. Mythical beings would have to be very, very good at keeping secrets for that to be true, though. Anyway, this is another good summer read. I just hope it doesn’t get too Twilight-y.

 

authority     acceptance

2. Authority

and

1. Acceptance

These are the second and third books in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy. I bought the first book, Annihilation, on a whim in BookPeople and was astonished by its creativity, eeriness and deft plotting. It was a hurtlingly quick read, often horrible and scary but blooming with unexpected moments of stark beauty.

This series feels like a blend of Cthulhu mythos, Brave New World and House of Leaves. In Annihilation, a team of four women (a biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist and a surveyor) from the not-too-distant future journey into Area X, a dangerous and abandoned parcel of land that has been reclaimed by nature. Almost immediately they find an “underground tower” that’s not on the map and their team, which has been carefully constructed by the government, begins to implode. The story is told through the biologist’s field journal, but she an extremely unreliable narrator. As the story progresses, the chaos increases. We’re left wondering if this is a journal chronicling supernatural forces or one charting a descent into madness. Seriously good writing. Lots of poetry and genuine chills. I’ll be buying these two for the beach this summer.

What do you think? Have you read any of these? Please comment below or on Facebook and let me know about your upcoming fantasy and science fiction reads!

-Mic

__________________

By the way:
T5W (Top 5 Wednesday) is a weekly book meme created by gingerreadslainey and hosted by Sam @ThoughtsOnTomes. You find out more about T5W and the weekly topics on the Goodreads group here

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