Spoilerish riff ahead, for Jeannelle M. Ferreira's The Covert Captain: or, The Marriage of EqualsFirst off I want to talk about what I enjoyed. When this author sinks into a scene and follows its emotional arc, the writing is so vivid. The war snippets resonated with the many period memoirs and letters I’ve read, and I thought the emotional damage ( Read more... )

. . . is the subject of today's riff at BVC, the focus being that such things go farther back than many assume.

In the Times there is an article about Emma Edmonds, who fought for two years as a soldier in the Civil War, dressed as a man.

As it happens, today is also the launch of P.G. Nagle's A Call to Arms, a novel based on Emma's experiences. I started reading it, and found myself seriously sucked in. Nagle not only nails the period, she convincingly ( Read more... )

I know, I posted this riff that Rachel Manija Brown and I wrote a few months ago, but that was when my brain exploded. I don't feel like I got to get into it.

So, anyone who wants to revisit the subject, let's discuss--and if it's old news, pass right along the ever-running stream.

Via supergee, a rant about fictionalizing life, about "creative journalism," about transgender, about when writers ought to be examining their own motivations and agenda, from Maria Davana Headley.

Via supergee, a gentle and thoughtful riff on why we need more than three genders.

Found this via "la_marquise_de", --first-hand experience in the past couple years has made this cause important to me.

Anyone who wants to talk about gender boundaries and self-identity, feel free, but anything I feel is hurtful is going to be deleted summarily. There are plenty of other places to express those feelings.

Though authors, in interviews, are totally justified in beginning every sentence with "In MY books . . ." and making claims of artistic significance, astonishing innovation, character subtlety, profundity and surprise, I am justified in being uninterested, unconvinced, and passing on ( Read more... )

A fellow I know made what I thought was a reasonable post, but it's locked, so I can't link it. To which I replied to the effect of: I think the outrage and then die-down that we keep seeing is just skimming the surface, that behind every one of these outed guys is years of cultural programming, through media, behaviors of parents and elders, peers ( Read more... )

jimhines's latest post plus the arrival of a guest through the holidays got me to thinking ( Read more... )