Archive for July, 2008

Faggots by Larry Kramer

ISBN: 0452263964
384 pages
published in 1978
July 25th – July 27th
You can buy this book at this link.

I hesitate to give my real opinion on this book as it will probably cause a fair amount of offense to people that have, to the best of my knowledge, designated Larry Kramer as some sort of gay messiah. I will admit that I feel as though this book has some historic and literary worth, but not in the way that I think Kramer nor his followers and fans would like for it to.

The book is basically about one late-30s gay man and his pursuit for some sort of depth and meaning in a relationship and his inability to find it because the gay community is, as portrayed, completely devoid of real emotion or stability. It is a community depicted as full of meaningless, graphic sex (it is) and brimming with people that don’t care about anyone but themselves and their own wants (it is). However, underlying all of that is his judgment of behavior such as this, and instead of coming across as a-lesson-to-be-learned, it is just preachy and annoying. Larry, I really don’t think you are in any position to tell us who or what or when we should be having a sexual relationship with.

Now, I appreciate where a statement like this could be coming from, even more eerie is the fact that this was published before the AIDS epidemic started. Surely there is much more fear of wild sexual abandon now. But, still, yes, it is quite a shame, I’m sure, that some people just can’t find True Love or really think that everyone that sticks their penis in their various orifices wants to move in with them and get a cat. But that’s life. Surely these are private issues that should be dealt with between individuals and we should feel no obligation to listen to someone else preach to us about how we should be conducting our lives in any aspect.

Also, the writing was mediocre at best. Go ahead. Shoot me.

The Testosterone Files by Max Wolf Valerio

ISBN: 1580051731
280 pages
published in 2006
July 19th – July 25th
You can buy this book at this link.

This book made me do a lot of thinking, which is usually a positive thing to say about a book. I cannot say much about how I feel about the author, who for all purposes, seems like a nice enough guy, but does give off this air of… well, conceit. Though, to be fair, I’m sure that’s hard to avoid when you are writing something entirely about yourself and your experiences. But, there were many things that he stated that just seemed totally out of line, especially when it comes to men and their urges and the things they can and cannot control.

I mean, I’m trans also, and I’ve been on testosterone for well over a year now and while I can agree with him on some matters of how testosterone effects your personality and other such things, I really do feel like he was trying to make it into some sort of excuse for the piggishness of some men. Maybe I’m just not ‘getting it’ because I’m gay – but please, let’s be honest, here, gay men are FAR, far from being immune to objectification. I mean, please. In some aspects I’d say we’re worse. But that’s not my point.

But! Anyway, it was really sort of just a basic tranny book. He didn’t bring up any spectacular points, though I suppose that anyone that hasn’t really been exposed to books about transsexuals before would find it very enlightening on a ton of issues. I did appreciate that, unlike most heterosexual transsexuals, he did touch on the aspect of homosexual transsexuals, which is a lot more prominent than most people would care to think. Though he himself does not fall under the homo category, he does seem perfectly respectful of it (even mentions giving it consideration during one point of his life).

I appreciate his input as another transsexual going through an experience like this in a relatively late point in his life, but at times he comes across as a bit too forceful and frankly a bit full of himself. I’m sure he’s a perfectly lovely person but, at least to me, he comes across as a bit of an authority on the subject of FTM transsexuality and frankly there was a whole lot of things that he stated that I disagree with entirely.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

ISBN: 0743253973
204 pages
published in 1959
July 18th – July 19th
You can buy this book at this link.

This was a surprisingly moving book. I’m not usually affected by books with themes like these. I’m not saying that it was particularly heart-wrenching for me or anything like that, but I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of it. The character development was very good and it was extremely easy to relate to the main character – or, more accurately, to his feelings and his emotions and the thinking patterns he had. That was most surprising to me I think – the fact that he would explain something that sounds completely absurd but I knew exactly the train of thought he was coming from and found it entirely reasonable.

It takes place during World War II. Gene and Phineas are good friends at a boarding school. Gene is more academic while Phineas is more athletic. Gene, briefly, suspects that Phineas is attempting to sabotage his scholarly success in a fit of jealousy. He, without even a bit of thought, causes Phineas to fall off a tree they were climbing into and his leg breaks. After this, he is unable to take part in any of the things that he enjoys so much and Phineas feels a huge amount of guilt. Phineas doesn’t seem to realise that it’s Gene that caused his injury until first Gene himself brings it up and then, later, a bunch of their friends.

Anyway, the outward turmoil in the world (the war) and the things going on with Gene (who narrates the story) are sort of in sync with each other. It really sort of gave me the first real feeling of what it must have felt like to live in a period of time like that were the threat of going to war was almost impossible to evade. The effects it had on not only Gene, but his friends who were in the same generation, were all too reflective of the reality of what it must have been. That alone is a bit shocking, but to have it told in the confines of a story that is so straight-forward and effective is probably what had the effect on me. I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a quick read, and an easy one, but it didn’t lack any depth at all because of it. I can see why this is considered mandatory reading. It’s a very good book.

The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger

ISBN: 0316769177
214 pages
published in 1951
July 14th – July 17th
You can buy this book at this link.

I wasn’t really sure what this book was about. Eep. I am really clueless to a lot of these books which are considered ‘classics’ and I’m sort of ashamed. But, I am working on it now – so it’s alright. Anyway, the plot of this book would lead one to think this would be INCREDIBLY boring – and actually, in a lot of regards, some of this book was difficult to get through in places because so little happens in such a long narration. The thing that keeps it going, though, is the narrative and the inner dialogue Holden haves with himself.

Holden Caulfield, apparently, has been kicked out of a number of schools, and, from the point in which he begins to narrate, he is kicked out of a boys’ boarding school that he attended for a while. He then decides to go off to spend some time in New York before he has to go home and break the news to his family. From this point you get to listen into his conversations and experiences with a few old acquaintances that he decides to meet up with and his relationships with some new people that he meets along the way (ex-girlfriends, drunken girls, nuns…). He is totally jaded and unimpressed with the world and his attitude is what makes this book really entertaining.

I told my friend that the ‘voice’ of this book gave me a vaguely ‘Clockwork Orange’ feeling from it. He noted that it’s probably because of the similar approach to ‘youth culture’. I think it’s also because of the sort of careless, irresponsible nature of Holden. I mean, in reality, the two books are utterly nothing alike – I often have weird feelings about these things. But I thought it was worth mentioning. Maybe someone else will understand where I’m coming from when I say these things.

Anyway, I can see WHY this is a classic. I suppose I enjoyed it enough. It was entertaining and interesting, but it’s not one of my favourite books. I struggled through some bits because it got a bit boring, and the ending was a bit dry in my opinion, but there were some parts of the book where I couldn’t put it down.

The Stranger by Albert Camus

ASIN: B000BQ4M52 (no ISBN)
154 pages
published in 1942
July 13th – July 14
You can buy this book at this link.
My copy is available for free. Please contact me.

This book is also on the suggested reading list by the English department of Clarion University for English majors. I had no idea this book existed until I saw it on there, after which I spoke to a few of my friends about it. Some expressed to me that they liked it, some said that it was horrible, some actually admitted to having been depressed by it. I have to agree with the latter, which isn’t something I was expecting from such a short little book, but it has had the strangest effect on me. I guess I’m just not one for existentialist fiction or something. I think I just wasn’t so savvy on the fact that everything about this book was so bleak (as is to be expected, I suppose) or that I would be able to identify with that strongly enough that it would actually bother me, but I guess it did.

The book starts out with the main character thinking about his mother’s death and funeral, which he has to attend and has taken off of work to do so. The narration is very droning and matter-of-fact and something about that is very alarming, even right away. Throughout his mother’s funeral he is very emotionless and blunt and this is something that is touched on later in the novel, but something you are really not quite sure how to react to when you first read about it. On one hand, he seems to be perfectly logically and there doesn’t seem to be a thing about him that is to be disliked, other than his apparent lack of emotion, which is really difficult to be angry at someone for. Though while reading that entire part of the book I do have to admit that I wished he’d show SOME sort of feeling towards the fact that his mother died, though that may just be a product of how society has influenced me and now I’m getting way too involved in this and I’m stopping. Now.

Anyway, it follows some of his relationships with various people, all of which are really neither here-nor-there to him, and eventually he gets mixed up with some he probably should not have and winds up killing a man. This all sounds rather sensational when it’s explained but the actual event within the book is handled in the same blunt, emotionless tone and therefore you find it near impossible to react to it in the same way that you would in probably any other circumstance. It moves through his trial, in which this man’s character (and the aspects of it that I’ve touched upon) are spoken about. I think the strange thing to me was the fact that you are seeing everyone else in the book through this man’s narration, and are tempted to believe everyone else in the world is as blunt and uncaring as he is. Apparently, though, this is not true because of the disgust others seem to show in his lack of emotion – some are more tolerant of it than others and even attempt to explain this away for him even while he makes no attempt to do so himself.

I’m not sure if I’d recommend this book to anyone but a specific sort of person. It’s made me feel a bit down. It’s very interesting though and I’m tempted to recommend it simply because it does make you think, which is important, of course – but, in any case, it’s pretty good in my opinion, though I can’t see myself ever re-reading it in the future unless I absolutely have to.

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