Skip to main content

Featured

We've Always Been Queer

The podcast is Books That Burn because the original idea was "books that burn you", discussing fictional depictions of trauma. It's also an intentional reminder of the pile of burning books, you know the photo I mean, the one from WWII. It's a pile of books about queerness, gender, and sexuality. Just in case you don't know, the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science) was headed by Magnus Hirschfeld.  It was a resource for gay, intersex, and transgender people, both of knowledge and medical help. It also helped the community with addiction treatment and contraception. It wasn't perfect and some of the ideas they had seem out of date now, the ones we know about anyway. But they were trying to make queer people's lives better, and they were a community resource at a time when people really needed it. Which is all the time, we always need these accesses. And the Nazis burned the whole library. It took days, they had to drag the books ou
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels

Clear Your Shit: The Journey Begins (Shortest Book)

Okay so I've barely begun this quest thing (thanks, wizard) and I get ransacked on my first night. Luckily my Magical Belt Pouch of Hiding Books for Later That I'll Definitely Get To Sometime had a copy of Strawberry Milkshake by Cate Wurtz in it. I sat down on a rock (definitely not named Carl) to read it and was very impressed and shaken by its portrayal of gaslighting and distorted reality. I was about to stand up when I realized that my Magical Belt Pouch had two more books in it, one of which I'd been "getting to later" for about eight months, and another which I keep reading one story at a time when I ought to be able to just breeze through it. I sighed and picked up No Man of Woman Born by Ana Mardoll, feeling guilty that it's taking me so long to read this really cool book of awesome stories where prophecies are fulfilled through subverting gender-related expectations. Wondering how I took so long, I finished the last three stories, stretched my back after sitting, then paused as I felt two more volumes tucked into the back of my belt. Slightly puzzled, I discovered I was practically sitting on my copies of Strangers in Court by Seanan McGuire and The Awakened Kingdom by N. K. Jemisin, both of which are novellas providing one more story in a longer series (October Daye and The Inheritance Trilogy, respectively). 

After reading all four books (why, who knows, I just couldn't leave until I read them all) I started walking into town. I'm still walking, so it might be a while before I know what happens next. I just know I'll probably need supplies since when I was ransacked I lost the little I was carrying (other than the books).

Go here to read the whole story.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts