Books: "The Charioteer" and "Return to Night"
I've just read two Mary Renault novels in quick succession: Return to Night and The Charioteer. Short version: I liked 'em. They were sufficiently gripping for me to keep reading in fascination, even though not a lot was happening in the book, by my standards. Sometimes she can certainly overdo the introspection, to the point where I howl, "Who
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But briefly: "queer" is the word I use for myself (because none of the other categories quite fit me); "queer" is the word I prefer to use for people-like-me, because "GLBTQPPIAAOMFG" is a very long acronym, and "QUILTBAG," though well-meant and kind of brilliant, is silly. Any word can be an insult if used by someone who means it that way (I recently heard about people getting in trouble for saying "homosexual," and indeed, "the homosexual agenda" makes us out to be pretty terrible). As a straight person, you want to make it clear from context that you're not meaning it as an insult, maybe clearer than a queer person would have to, because it still carries enough of its history that a listener could doubt your intentions if the context is very ambiguous. But I would say you're free to use the word. I mean, we have "queer studies" departments in academia; that, to me, gives everyone blanket permission to consider the word a real, non-insulting word available for use.
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OK, that makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks for talking about it; this helps with a long-standing ambivalence. On one hand, what a useful word, but on the other hand I only tended to hear it used as an insult.
Pride & Joy, the local gay and lesbian bookstore and tchotchke shop, used to carry those paper notepads with a To Do list and a magnet on the back for sticking to the fridge door, and the stationery said across the top THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA. I expect they still have those for sale. I always kinda liked that.
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