stoned, opinions
I recently read this article shortly after I started Leavitt's Equal Affections, which is a really incredible novel (will probably spend the rest of the afternoon avoiding the heat and finishing it). I really appreciate Leavitt's thought on the de-ghettoification of gay literature, but it's hard to fully appreciate it since a lot of his impetus seems to come from the resentment of being categorized in this manner. He spends a lot of time saying, 'this book isn't shelved with gay men's fiction but mine are!' which is definitely fair. But honestly, it might have to do with the fact that if you examine a lot of gay fiction in recent years, the stuff that seems to sell well are these bollocks-y, beachy-book lit. Stuff that tries to take a risk and really break out of the formulaic paradigm probably sells really poorly. But novels about really lame, homoerotic wish-fulfilment stories are selling like hotcakes. Why? In transforming into a more demographically-oriented world, and people are given the choice between a story that gives them a ridiculous, cheap fantasy version of the lives they want or challenging, mind-expanding novels, people blatantly rush for the former.
End that rant. Sorry, everyone, I'm high and frustrated.
Check this shit out though. This is why I love Gawker to pieces.
I recently read Confederacy of Dunces, which for some reason I thought was really stupid (possibly because I started reading it four years ago, somehow remembered all the jokes and found them unfunny now). Maybe it was just my mood.
HOWEVER, I did have the good fortune to follow it up with John Cheever's Falconer, which is a fucking amazing novel. He has such a precise, direct and beautifully effective style. It's a story of a man in prison for killing his brother and being a heroin addict. Really interesting insight into the nature of the prisoner's mind, jail sexuality and contemporary ideas of morality, etc. I recommend it highly.
I don't think I can continue along these overly productive lines any longer, so instead of bitching about the jobquest, I'm just going to peace the fuck out.
posted by scott @ 7:11 AM
1 Comments:
"If this romance is a sham, then how come she’s scratching his belly? See, this love is real."
Hahaha...
I see what you're saying re: the whole trashy-gay-lit stuff. It's much like all the "chick lit" out there, where you look at it and think "Seriously? THIS gets published and makes a shitload of money?"
My mom, for reasons unbeknownst to me, has a subscription to Redbook. Also for reason unbeknownst to me, she passes along the issues she's read. And like an idiot (again for reason unbeknownst), I read them. At the end of every issue they have a "book club" selection where there is an excerpt from whatever book they are (paid for) featuring. It is always horrible. It's always "I'm [x]-age with no ceiling to my disposable income and searching for love, but all I want is this hot hot sex, and along the way I will babysit my sister's kids and everyone learns a lesson about life. The end."
The pain. The pain.
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