I know what I’m reading (smile). What are you reading at the moment?
Sam
Lately I’m reading across a spectrum of genre and concern, and that’s about to become even more wacky: I’m making a research list for my new novel, which will include the geology and biology of Midwestern or Northwestern lakes; the art of Norman Rockwell; left- and right-brain neural functionality; cognitive development in adolescence; and who knows what else?
But until those start rolling in from the library, I’ve been enjoying From A Buick 8 by Stephen King. He’s so audacious and damn stubborn in his determination to put pure-D horror and subtle emotional metaphor in the same room and make them get along. I admire him immensely for this. When it works, the result is wacky, thrilling, thoughtful and grown-up, all at the same time. Even the moments that (IMO) miss this high-water mark still resonate for me.
I just read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (me and about a million other people). It’s a good book, lovely writing and some amazing moments. I think it wobbles at the end and loses some focus, but that’s a matter of taste, and is also a relative criticism, sort of like saying that someone hung the Matisse a few inches off center.
I am also reading a bunch of non-fiction about American Sign Language and Deaf culture, because I’ve been studying ASL. I’m about to get more serious about it — in January I’ll enter a 4-year program to study ASL and interpreting. It’s a beautiful and eloquent language, and its linguistics fascinate me.
When I visit friends, I usually ask if I can look at their bookshelves. I’m curious that way. I like to know what people are reading, and how do they arrange their books. Alphabetically or by themes or, like myself, by who would hang out with who for coffee/ tea/ beer/ wine. Kelley, what are you reading now, August 2008?
The reader here is reading Ascendancies by Bruce Sterling, No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July, and L’angelo nero by Antonio Tabucchi (this one really slowly because my Italian is not that great). All short story collections. Oh, and before bed I listen to 30 minutes or so of Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease by Sharon Moalem and Jonathan Prince.
I am reading trashy vampire romance. It’s just the ticket! And screenwriting magazines.
By who? Stephenie Meyer? L.J. Smith? Vicki Pettersson? Kim Harrison? Marjorie Liu? Tanya Huff? Esmeralda is reading The Vampire Diaries right now. We like our blood-sucking monsters.
Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, my biggest guilty pleasure in the world of fiction. Someday I want to do a post about these books — why I enjoy them but not her Merry Gentry series, and why I think they are brave in a particular way. But I have to figure out how to say that I enjoy reading the sex in these books without actually wanting to have most of it myself, and without seeming to disrespect those who do. And then there’s the whole feminist/anti-feminist conversation. And then there’s the heteronormativity. And so on….
And I don’t care today (grin). Just happy to sit in the sun and read vampire sex and women kicking ass.
I’ll keep an eye out for that post on guilty pleasures, sex and heteronormativity in fiction. This week, Esmeralda was looking for something to read and she picked up Altered Carbon, which my brother really liked and had me read. I thought it was okay and could see how the fighting scenes and loads of action would get someone like my bro and Esmeralda (who used to practice Kendo et. al. obsessively when we met) going. Well, she dropped it halfway through. Said there was just too much straight sex and the constant mention of engorged penises grossed her out. LOL. She’s done the same for some (yes) vampire books I did like.
Sex in fiction doesn’t usually disturb me. I’m okay with being aroused when I read sex that I wouldn’t engage in in Real Life (whatever that means these days). Esmeralda’s reaction to heteronormativity gets me thinking about such stuff often, though. Take Transformers for example. She came out of the theater all mad because she said the whole movie was cheering for the straight teen with a hard-on for girls and cars. *sigh*
I wonder if the average straight person feels just as repelled by queer sexuality in fiction. I once workshopped one of my short stories in a class where everyone else was straight (50% male, 50% female) and the unanimous comment was, “It made me happy and horny, knocked my socks off and I want to read more. Can you make it longer?” So that group was particularly open-minded and/or lesbian sex has gone mainstream and/or people in general are more accepting of expressions in fiction that fall outside the norm. (I’m starting to make myself sick with all the labels, but how else do you talk about this?) Maybe if I’d had more sexually transgressive characters, then the comments would have been a little more, “Hm, I’m not sure how I like this.”
Yes, we definitely need you to write that post. Even if the abundance of labels you’ll be dealing with also makes you sick. Keep strong Tea by the keyboard just in case.