sundries

[rm]

So we're headed up to Cold SPring today after I finish some work. Meanwhile, after finally being sure I wasn't going to get whatever stomach ailment Patty had, I woke up feeling very weird today. Of course, I have celiac disease and often feel very weird. I also have peculiar eating habits in general and haven't been eating enough the last few days (due to fear of Patty's stomach ailment) so whatever this is, I hope it's not that because I'd like for us to have a nice, awesome romantic weekend.

The situation with the pulled queer zombie anthology from yesterday keeps getting more convoluted. See the end of the LJ comments from his post yesterday or his follow-up today about this issue and the nice-guy defense.

Look, I get that it seems clear that the publisher has a lot going on and is stressed and no one wants to pile-on a dude who seems un-evil and is having a bad week. I also get that as a LGBTQ ally (or, for that matter, as a LGBTQ activist) one has to sometimes step back from the heat, because it's just too exhausting.

So if the guy had really gotten complaints from homophobes and pulled the book, I would have been disappointed and cranky, but moderately understanding. Pulling the book because he's stressed and has too much on his plate? disappointed, but understanding. Pulling the book because of either the potential for homophobes that have not actually appeared and/or because he was afraid it would be seen as gimmicky and not generate appropriate stories are action/reason scenarios that are homophobic - the first an indirect and convoluted version of "gays will make trouble," while the second sounds suspiciously like equating LGBTQ content with inappropriately sexualized content and/or LGBTQ authors with a sub-group of authors not producing appropriate quality.

Fun. For no one.

CNN asks whether Wolfman can destroy vampire fever? This question is infinitely more interesting in all the ways CNN doesn't mean it. Are we as a culture ready for an animalistic sexual metaphor as opposed to a remote one? And, by the way, how are we feeling about body hair this year? If I had time, I'd write more.

Moishe House. THe NYTImes describes it as "The Real World with challah."

More people support gays and lesbians serving openly in the military than homosexuals doing the same. This raises a lot of issues about euphemism, assimilation, designing more useful (if not more accurate) polls, and taking the sex out of queer identity.

Comments

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I'm following the Queer Zombie Anthology through you and Bodlon -- the fact that he pulled it due to imaginary bigotry is ridiculous. Setting aside that it's ridiculous, even if that was his reason, he shouldn't have said it aloud.

I know this is not necessarily relevant (ie, people are pissed at the reasons he pulled it, not just at the loss of the thing itself) but seriously, a short story anthology can't be that hard to assemble.

If we can find ten or twelve good Queer Zombie stories (what exactly is the criteria for that? Is it about Queer Zombies, or Queer themes in a Zombie genre, or Queer zombie fighters, or all of the above, or other?) I'll typeset 'em myself and proudly put it up on Lulu under the Extribulum imprint. The hardest part would be author contracts, and if the authors are agreeable to be a little cowboy about all this, I don't think that's insurmountable. You could base story fees on sales; say, a flat fee of up to $25 per story, payable in increments as the book sells; if it doesn't sell well everyone gets something, if it sells well everyone gets their full fee, and if it takes off, then it's bonus time! :D

I know it's not a solution or a balm because the anthology is not what it's really about, but people seemed really excited about it. If he's not willing to step back up, I will.