Kate’s Comments (group member since Jul 23, 2008)

Kate’s comments from the Guilty Pleasures group.

Did anyone mention Jeanette Winterson yet? Almost all her novels have some lesbian love-relationship component.

Yes, I agree, anything by Sarah Waters.

To toot my own horn, my novel (Complementary Colors) about the love between two women is coming out this summer:

http://beingandwriting.blogspot.com/2...

I wrote it in part because I feel there aren't enough fun-to-read literary novels (that aren't genre romance, per se) where the girl gets the girl.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. --Martin Luther King, Jr.

Equality comes with struggle. Always.

I wrote a little more about that here:

http://beingandwriting.blogspot.com/2...

Harriet the Spy. I didn't think of Harriet that way, exactly, when I read it as a kid, but for some reason I loved her and was so drawn to her. She wore her father's bulky glass frames, jeans and tee-shirts. Her best friend was a boy who wore an apron to cook meals. She rode her bike like a powerful free spirit all over town.

As an adult, I discovered that the author, Louise Fitzhugh, was a lesbian. Ah ha.

ORLANDO by Virginia Woolf.

Fiction, but the original queer dry humor book.

Great discussion. I was in a writing class once with Al Young, who's now the California Poet Laureate. He was encouraging us to write from a position that was very different from our own. A white woman in the class said to Al (who's African American), "Are you saying I should try to write from a black man's point of view?"

He said: "Sure, why not!"

She said: "What if I get it wrong?"

He said: "People will let you know."

By the way, my novel (For the May Queen) that's coming out in 4 days (yay!) has a gay male character in it.

Also, I wrote short story from a gay man's point of view ... it has 3 gay men in it ... it's posted on goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...

1. What are you reading right now?

Plays by Terrence McNally because he'll be on the campus where I teach in November.


2. Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?

Finish The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz is also coming to my campus).

3. What magazines do you have in your bathroom right now?

TITLE 9 catalogues & The New Yorker

4. What’s the worst thing you were ever forced to read?

Tax codes.

5. What’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?

LOVE, DEATH & THE CHANGING OF THE SEASONS by Marilyn Hacker (Oh, and my new novel, FOR THE MAY QUEEN).

6. Admit it, the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don’t they?

No. My library is too big & impersonal for that.

7. Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all?

MOBY DICK.

8. Do you read books while you eat? While you bathe? While you watch movies or TV? While you listen to music? While you’re on the computer? While you’re having sex? While you’re driving?

Well, BEFORE & AFTER sex. Better than a cigarette.

9. When you were little, did other children tease you about your reading habits?

No. They admired me.


10. What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS.


BONUS QUESTION: Do you like reading digital versions of books?

Haven't tried it.

STUCK RUBBER BABY by Howard Cruse deals with the Civil Right Era, homosexuality & racism.

I'm curious what ya'll who've read Alison Bechdel's FUN HOME and/or Honor Moore's THE BISHOP'S DAUGHTER think about the two of them outing their fathers.

I liked both books and felt the stories were handled with intelligence, complexity and compassion--yet it's a very interesting ethical question I thought I'd throw out there...especially since I'm writing a memoir myself that deals with some similar issues.

I agree!

Not quite what you asked for, but have you read Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima? It's about a man obsessed with beauty.