Dov Zeller's Blog

This morning I was checking out a friend's twitter feed and saw a whole scrolling conversation about Ariel Schrag's book Adam. I haven't read it so I can't contribute to the conversation, but a lot of people are really upset by it and angry that she wrote such a book.

Reading people's angry posts about Adam (I think it is particularly distressing when there are so few books out there with trans protagonists that a book like this by a pretty well known queer author comes out) reminded me of my terror and horror at reading the beginning of Trenton Makes by Tadzio Koelb and then reading reviews of it, and an interview with Koelb in which he says he was inspired to write it after reading about Billy Tipton.

Billy Tipton was not a "male impersonator"!!!

Billy Tipton didn't kill his husband and then start "impersonating" him!

Billy Tipton was a man!!!

Billy Tipton was a trans man in a time when there wasn't the broader public acknowledgment of the complexity and diversity of gender identities that there is now!

I can't seem to find anyone writing critically about this recent novel---Trenton Makes--in which there is an afab character who "lives as a man" and is either trans or "impersonating a man" (???!!!) which in itself is really worrisome. But it gets much worse. (Not sure how much detail to go into here. Here is a review that addresses some of the issues https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... )

This is a book that was published by a major publishing company. (Doubleday).

Why can't I find more criticism about the content of this book? I don't know. Which is why I'm putting it out there. I want to hear people's thoughts on it. I want there to be more dialogue about it on social media. I want to hear what other queer and gnb and trans folx have to say about it.

I understand that the stories writers tell, or are drawn to, are often problematic. Because "drama" is something writers are often drawn to, and some kinds of drama that are better left untouched, or left to those who are closer to the lived experience to write about, can be attractive/easy to exploit, even if one means well. Because crises of identity and encounters in which there is conflict around identity are often what drives drama... I'm sure I am guilty of this and perhaps most writers are.

And, in a way, every story that includes certain narratives necessarily excludes others. It can be challenging to do justice in fiction to people whose narratives and voices are not adequately explored and valued and represented and given the attention they deserve. No matter who we are as writers, our books are limited in terms of whose stories they represent, and how they represent those stories. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't interrogate our choices as we write, and question our motivations and the effects our writing might have, particularly on underrepresented people and communities--books in which the way people are represented might be particularly influential.

I think it is possible to value a book, or value things a book does do well, and acknowledge its shortcomings, and still care about that book.

And sometimes a book's shortcomings can even "open up space" for other writers--a more diverse group of writers--and their stories.

But sometimes a book is egregious enough in its address of certain subject matter that the fact of its existence is profoundly unsettling. This is, I gather, how a lot of people feel about Adam and it is how I feel about Trenton Makes. But I was not willing to finish the book, so I don't feel that I have adequate knowledge of it to really write critically about it.

Meanwhile, I want to remind folks that there lots of wonderful books out there by and about trans and gnb people. Here are some articles and lists.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

https://bookriot.com/2017/03/13/8-mem...

https://www.bustle.com/articles/15631...

https://www.buzzfeed.com/erikaturner/...

http://gomag.com/article/10-books-res...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

Where to begin...?

It's almost spring. But still pretty chilly out there. (Sixteen degrees Fahrenheit when I woke up this morning.) And maybe another nor'easter this week? It's up in the air of course, as weather tends to be. (Well, and also down on the ground, and everywhere else.)

Soon the crocuses and daffodils will stubborn their way up out of the ground to show off their tenacity and frills. Flowers are tough and pragmatic. Sometimes they're charming assassins. They're social beings, and brilliant tactical artists. To be honest, I find them a bit terrifying, but I adore them, too and look forward to all the greenery that will soon be struggling up through the thawing ground.

Meanwhile, I'll keep taking photos of sunrises, sunsets, snow, and house sparrows.









What else?

I've been reading some wonderful books and articles lately and I'm really grateful.

My roommate lent me a novel, The Original Face, written by a friend of his, Guillaume Morissette, and it was a wonderfully funny though bleak exploration of relationships and work in contemporary times. And, the narrator is an artist (and talks a lot about glitch art). Before reading this I'd not heard of glitch art, which I am now really intrigued by. (See images at bottom of post!)

And, because of a quote from the book:

“The entire plot of Harry Potter would have been prevented by getting Voldemort a Pomeranian."

Well, it inspired. me to make some images of Voldemort with a Pomeranian. (My next project is to turn it--or something--into glitch art...)



Meanwhile, several exciting books are out recently by transmasculine writers. Genderbound by Calvin Payne-Taylor, Avi Cantor Has Six Months to Live by Sacha Lamb, Paul Takes the form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor.

Here is an article about some more transmasculine writers. https://www.pride.com/transgender/201...

And there are lots of comics coming out by trans/queer/non-binary folks. Here is a Buzzfeed article that profiles some artists. https://www.buzzfeed.com/willvarner/2...

My book The Right Thing to Do at the Time was officially released this week and a Jewcy review came out the same day. http://jewcy.com/category/jewish-arts...

And Eunoia Review published a piece I wrote about illness, spoonie communities, and Jen Brea's documentary "Unrest". https://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/20...

So, lots happening.

Thanks for checking out my post! I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

Below is a sampling of glitch art, but there is lots more out there!

Best & bwap (be as well as possible),
Dov





Giacomo Carmagnola

https://www.floatedmag.com/single-pos...



Soleil Zumbrunn



Sara Goodman

http://saranaomigoodman.squarespace.c...



Kevin Eslinger



https://baukeeverskracht.wordpress.co...
(not sure who the artist is)


https://www.artpeoplegallery.com/heit...

Heitor Magno



Elena Kulikova

This is my first GR blog post! Hope you enjoy and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

In my first published novel The Right Thing to Do at the Time , I write about a violinist who is inspired by niggunim --Jewish melodies that are hummed, often during times of prayer, and to which verses of psalms or other liturgical poems are often sung.

I love niggunim as well as the violin and I love the way violin music that comes out of Jewish traditions sometimes takes themes from niggunim (sometimes upbeat, sometimes melancholy, rich, and soulful, sometimes all of the above) and converse with them and explore and expand on their themes.

For a little while, in my early thirties, I tried to play the violin. (For my thirtieth birthday I gave up riding motorcycles and bought myself a violin.) I even had a lesson with one of my favorite klezmer violinists! It was not the best lesson, but fun to meet someone whose music I appreciate so much.

Well, lately I've been enjoying exploring the paintings of Soutine and when I found his violin portrait (still life? if anything by Soutine can be considered 'still'
) I found I kept going back to it and looking at it again, trying to understand the strange mood of it and the violin's placement between a baguette and a fish. Perhaps music is sustenance. And the fact of an instrument not being played a kind of sadness? I wonder if this was painted at a time when Soutine was impoverished and scrounging for meals and material for still life paintings--and painting what he would eat before he ate it.Not that I am saying he ate the violin...(It almost looks like it's made of taffy, or that it's under water and the water is rippling as Soutine paints it.)

In any case, I decided to go in a search of other paintings with violins. I found some really intriguing images and wanted to share them. If there are images you'd like to share please post them in comments!

Thanks and best and hope you are all managing as well as possible.


Soutine






Chagall






Suzanne Valadon




Matisse




Renee Druet




Béla Czóbel




Braque



Oscar Penalber




Pavel Kotlarevsky



Raoul Dufy




Art at top of page by Gary Bodnar