There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Hello girls,
how are you?
I’ve missed all of you,
feels like I haven’t,
written in weeks,
of course,
that’s not true,
but,
it’s about perception,
and,
reception,
isn’t it?
I’ve been,
thinking about,
something,
I read,
in a salon.com,
article,
that a friend sent,
about how,
romance novels,
are for women,
what porn is for men,
an interesting argument,
to be sure,
but,
one thing,
I always find,
troubling,
in these,
sorts of discussions,
where does,
the GLBTQ,
community,
fit in,
to all this,
using heterosexual,
“normalcy” parameters,
is weird enough,
for heterosexuals,
who are by no means,
a simple, monolithic,
construct,
but,
if you add,
the rest of us,
Say, a bookish butch who loves dyke romance novels:-)
it really,
gets complicated,
so all this,
to say,
that article,
confused me,
and got me thinking,
so,
I couldn’t really write,
about it,
but,
now,
I sort of ,
have I guess:-)
so, being tired,
and confused,
and perhaps,
I admit,
slightly,
incoherent,
but,
in a pretty,
good mood,
I have taken,
the advice of,
Dr Schweitzer,
and,
am spending,
the day,
in the company,
of,
The Dude,
and some,
music,
because,
beasts and music,
really do,
soothe the savage beast,
🙂
Later girls,
BB
PS I’m reading Drag King Dreams, I’ll write about it, soon.
I’m eagerly anticipating your take on Drag King Dreams, I must say… Because it’s pretty much one of the greatest disappointments I’ve ever had. Is that over-stretching it a little? Maybe… But I really, really, had a lot of problems with that book, which did not combine well with my love of Stone Butch Blues. No pressure or anything: I swear I’ll still like you even if you think it’s the greatest novel ever, promise!
I’ve just started, and like you, I have much love for Stone Butch Blues, one of my top ten books of
all time, of course, I don’t expect as much, how could I and the lovely lady who lent it to me said
“not a bad read, a bit sad” so, I’ll see.
Okay BB: Tell me true: does a reader read a genre, or does a reader read for the writer or the story or a combination?
Well, with me, mostly for writer and story and most importantly character, I like character driven fiction.
Romance, that’s something else, I have my favourites, but, I’m looking for sexy, sort of believable:-)
characters that aren’t TOO stereotypical, and nothing too odd, all this is very subjective, isn’t??
BB: Thank you. It is subjective 🙂 but that’s what makes it interesting. Nothing too odd? Hmmm .. define odd s’il vous plait? And character driven non-fiction..? As in Stone Butch? So, not too stereotypical, but enough to be identifiable…? Connectable?
Now, again odd, is personal, a question of taste, sensibility- many things really- my odd, would probably not be
yours:-) Yeah, identifiable, connectable, I want a character, to be clear we are talking romance here
who could be let’s say, me, but, better looking, in better shape and with a better job:-)
Although, Stone Butch is a Truestory , I see it as autobiographical fiction, does that make sense??
BB: It makes sense…. so: if it’s NOT romance, do you still want character-driven storytelling, fiction or truestory?
To me it’s all about characters. In life, it’s about people and human behavior and interaction,
of course, I’m interested in other creatures and things, but, people that is the great fascination
with me. Still make sense??:-)
BB: Makes sense, totally. See, I’m wondering whether or not to write more. not so much for my blogs, but perhaps to venture out into stories, likely truefiction, but not so much about me. As I wonder about that, I am asking people who read a lot what keeps them reading. What they look for. I have not decided if I will wade into the lesbian writer pool and write to a lesbian reader audience, or dive more deeply into the writer pool to any reader. So, just wondering about all of this stuff, and asking. Thank you 🙂
You should you’re a good writer, and you should write what you want to write, in whatever pool:-)
BB: Thank you the publishing world demands a genre, demands a category, and I…resist such antiquated notions of categorizing people, creating taxonomies of expression. Such is life in the big city. By the way, I am SO hoping the the Canucks get their act together!
You would think that book people would be less narrow, huh? Art, shouldn’t be narrow or about commerce.
I know that’s kind of naive, but hey, so be it, follow your bliss, said Joseph Campbell and those are amongst
the truest words I have ever read. I even have a fridge magnet that says that, it’s next to the BOOKS NOT BOMBS:-)
and yeah-Go Canucks Go!!!
BB: Perhaps not book people, but the marketing people who segment us into a demographic, which is perhaps true, because our interests at 45 are somewhat and sometimes different than our interests at 25, or if not different, they are wider and richer and deeper — the stuff of experience. Unless one refuses to grow and that’s a whole other demographic. Can you imagine? “THE BOOK/STORY THAT REFUSES A CATEGORY! The Book/story that refuses to go on the shelf with other books! What would the Dewey Decimal System do with it?? (Huge dramatique sigh).
I happened to have adored Joseph Campbell’s work, and took great pleasure in it. We could, if time and life and space permitted have a whole discussion on the notion of follow your bliss, find your passion that takes us through Campbell, Jung, journey of the hero, masks, Timothy Leary, Andrew Weil, Protestanism…. the 7 Habits and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Commenting is probably not the place and not the space :-). But thank you for that. Food for many thoughts, BB.
I enjoy your comments, feel free, anytime, thank you:-)