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As polyamory has grown as a relationship model, it has developed its own vocabulary. Folks in poly relationships will talk about "compersion," a feeling of joy at the happiness of a partner in a new relationship, and "new relationship
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“Another term emerged in 1862, in the work of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. ‘Uranian’ or ‘urning’ was derived from Plato’s description of same-sex love in the Symposium as ‘ouranios’ or ‘heavenly’. (‘Ouranos’ literally means ‘the pisser’, opening up a further line of enquiry.) Whatever its celestial origins, the term did not quite catch on. Who would want to be called an ‘urning’? It sounds like some sort of gnome. An ‘urnind’ was a queer female, while ‘uranodionings’ were bisexual.”
― Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day
― Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day
“At the height of his fame, he would reassure his audience: “You’re not alone—give me your hands” [61], and then stretch out his own emaciated arms toward them, coyly allowing the tips of his fingers to graze theirs for an instant, before he withdrew, keeping their tantalizing dream of contact alive while remaining ultimately aloof and alone.”
― The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s
― The Man Who Sold the World: David Bowie and the 1970s
“The beauty and magnitude of a diva's voice resides, so the iconography suggests, in her deformity. Her voice is beautiful because she herself is not-and her ugliness is interpreted as a sign of moral and social deviance. Reading biographies of divas, I can't ignore the repeated references to physical flaws-for example, Benedetta Pisaroni's "features horribly disfigured by small-pox," prompting spectators to shut their eyes "so as to hear without being condemned to see." Audiences speculated that Maria Malibran was not anatomically a woman, but an androgyne or hermaphrodite-an aberrant physique to match her voice's magic power.”
― Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality And The Mystery Of Desire
― Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality And The Mystery Of Desire
Bill’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Bill’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
61 books
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39 friends
4,490 books
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194 friends
2,282 books
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462 friends
989 books
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125 friends
2,593 books
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736 friends
618 books
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151 friends
67,933 books
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3,230 friends
1,497 books
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253 friends
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