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There are no stars at all for some of us
Hey! Internet! I've just been talking about how much it sucks when a novel kills off its queer characters. Especially when there's, like, one of them and they're the one who doesn't make it. Can someone point me toward a list of books where that doesn't happen? Spoilers, whatever.
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The other one is The Silver Metal Lover, in which Gay Best Friend is kind of one-dimensionally campy but does make it to the end of the book alive and well after having had a sex life and all.
Oh, wait--Francesca Lia Block's books have a lot of gay/bi characters who have a very good track record of surviving to the end of the book and getting on with their lives. There are one or two minor characters who are tragic and victimized and melodramatic, but the mainstays are Dirk and Duck from the Weetzie Bat series, and the title characters from Violet and Claire, and most of the characters in the short stories in Girl Goddess #9.
I recognize that a lot of people find Block insufferable, but I have a deep and old love for her work in general, and I can still remember particularly how weird it felt when I read Witch Baby as a kid and there was a same-sex couple who were reasonably well-adjusted people and had a good relationship and didn't die.
Tom and Carl from the Wizards books by Diane Duane--well, I know they're secondary mentor characters, but it would have been easy for Duane to kill one or both of them and send the protagonists out for revenge. Instead of which, they're still standing while many other secondary characters have bitten the dust.
I would have used the word "queer" for convenience in the above comments, except that I'm uncomfortable using reclaimed slurs. Mind you, I'm not saying this to shut you or anyone else down. But I feel weird about it when it comes to me using the term. On one hand, it's such a handy blanket term when "gay" would be too specific. On the other hand I don't want to sound like I'm using an insult/a slur/speech that I'm not entitled to; also, I've spent too much time around people who used it as a slur. So I'm conflicted. Do you ever feel this conflict?
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(not that I've forgiven Door Into Shadow for using [trigger warning trauma] as a character motivator. But it features some of the best dragons ever so that makes me keep it around.)
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I need to re-read those. I haven't since I was in . . . middle school? The first three Young Wizards and The Book of Night with Moon moved here with me, but the rest of the Duanes were my mother's and remained in Lexington. Good call!
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I think of them as being of a piece with Tanya Huff's Quarters books (except the last one, which is racefaily to the max), which also feature happy non-dead queer and poly folk.
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I remember your review of that. It sounded dire.
I've read the others—see reply to
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The Mask of Apollo is my favorite novel by Mary Renault. I have a talismanic copy—it's not the one from the used book store in Provincetown, because I gave that one to Dr. Fiveash, but it's a library discard I've had since high school. I keep vaguely wanting to write a poem about Axiothea, but I'd need to differentiate her from Renault's version. There's very little known about her historically.
The other one is The Silver Metal Lover, in which Gay Best Friend is kind of one-dimensionally campy but does make it to the end of the book alive and well after having had a sex life and all.
Clovis! I forgive him a lot for being seventeen and nowhere near as world-weary as he tries to sound. He's getting much better at friendship by the end of the book.
but the mainstays are Dirk and Duck from the Weetzie Bat series, and the title characters from Violet and Claire, and most of the characters in the short stories in Girl Goddess #9.
Okay, that's cool. I've read much less Francesca Lia Block than most people in my age/reading bracket, so thanks for the recommendations!
Tom and Carl from the Wizards books by Diane Duane--well, I know they're secondary mentor characters, but it would have been easy for Duane to kill one or both of them and send the protagonists out for revenge. Instead of which, they're still standing while many other secondary characters have bitten the dust.
Tom and Carl rock. And since I haven't read any of the novels past A Wizard Abroad, I'm glad to know they're still around!
So I'm conflicted. Do you ever feel this conflict?
I describe myself as queer; it's accurate. I also answer to bisexual. I am interested in people and that includes genderqueer people, but bi erasure is a thing and let's not have any more of it, thanks.
[edited for runaway italics]
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I'd figured that was the case. I think I didn't word my question very well. What I was trying to ask was, "Does it bother you that 'queer' used to be a slur/still is a slur in the mouths of some people?" I'm trying to figure out if it's OK for me to refer to people/characters as queer, or if I'm going to sound clueless or like a bigot if I do that.
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I can't answer that question categorically. I can tell you that I won't assume you have suddenly transmuted into the Christian right if you use the word around me. There's always "quiltbag."
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Generally I only worry about this when referring to specific people, though if your audience doesn't know you well enough to know you're using it as an umbrella term for convenience, it's nice to put in a little caveat. But I'll use it to talk about the LGBT(etc.) community because it's more inclusive or when referring to a non-specific member who has an unspecified queer identity, and I'll use the more specific gay or trans or gender queer or bisexual if that's more relevant. I do like the term QUILTBAG but I don't use it because I've discovered that too many people don't know what I mean, so it's not helpful for being concise because I have to explain why QUILTBAG.
For individuals, I might say [name] is member of the queer community, but I wouldn't say [name] is queer unless I know [name] specifically identifies that way.
But other people do feel differently, so it can be tricky to navigate what's appropriate.