academic conferences and bisexual romance novels

[rm]

Kali's conference was exhausting. Mostly for her, but also for me. I think I managed to ask intelligent questions in some of the panels I was attending. This is frought for me, because I never doubt my intelligence, and to even be in a position where I have to question my ability to use the appropriate language of discussion is unfamliar for me. I am not an academic. I do something else. Even in my fantasy self, such an occupation is fiercly restricted to the sections of my inner life that have a very different existence than my own. It can seem like it should be a little weird in my head -- it's important to me to make a good showing, even when it's just someone else's showing and I have to listen smartly. Anyway, I had a good time, and it's nice to be able to be in a room full of people where nearly all of them are at least as smart as me, and only a few of them are already known to me. One of the major advantages ot Kali's academic life is that it encourages me to take advantage of the sorts of things we all have some degree of access to in New York all the time, but most of us don't bother with. We're going to an advance showing of some Greek art from the Byzantine Empire to the Victorian Era that my alumni association is putting on in a couple of weeks. I don't know if it's something it would have occured to me to do previously (although I really do love the early side of that time period spread).

My stomach continues to improve, but I hate conducting every moment with nervousness bcause of it. Feh.

Meanwhile, I have been pointed to: http://www.annherendeen.com/index.html which is the website for a "bisexual Regency romance novel". I do not read romance novels, but I'm sorry, I simply must order this (for the fabulously awful anachronistic similies alone! although I am bemused by the gratuitous inclusion of a fellow from Yorkshire), and no doubt circulate it widely amongst friends and dancers, many of whom will no doubt hate me forever for the gesture.

Here is as good a place as anywhere now to note that it is apparently so common to be queer now that heaven help you if you are looking for actual meaningful advice on coming out to one's family. My problem is not that they are relgious, nor that I am young and unsure of myself. My problem is that both of those things would be far easier than the quagmire I've made of this thing, which on some level isn't that important, but simply must be done -- less out of my sense of relationship with them and more as relates to my needing to be true to things that are important to me, and it seems vile to love the things I love, for the reasons I love them and not just come clean about it all, no matter how inevitably annoying the repercussions. Poly complicates the problem, both in terms of information overload for them, my life and the creative thing again.

I have other things to say, but cannot recall them. So I'm going to go to sleep, as I must do laundry before work tomorrow, but I am at least rewarded with a proper date with the girl at the end of my toils.

ETA: Oh yes! The girl has also recently made me watch the pilot of Queer as Folk, and I am now hooked. Brian's an interesting character, not because he's an asshole, but because his affect is so entirely peculiar.

Comments

[ex-mijra932.livejournal.com]

On Brian from QaF: exactly! I'm glad someone else gets that, at least!

[melebeth]

And the thing that I find so impressive is that though it reads 'true' to me, it's very much intentional. I did background work on a film he was working on in NYC, and spent the entire night going "he looks familiar, why do I know him?" before I realized it was the actor who played Brian. He was so utterly and completely un-Brian like that it took 12 hours and a 6 block walk before I figured it out. Good actor.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

...oh, my God, that looks dreadful!

If you relly want a bisexual Regency, I pledge myself to write a somewhat less dreadful one.

...oh, and especially now that I've read both excerpts and the "Gay Subculture" page. (What is it with molly bars this week? That's the third reference...) While the writing caused me to wince and complain and flinch, especially the smut, it was the implication that "Lord Byron, perhaps the icon of the Romantic hero, felt compelled to live abroad for safety" because he was gay (WTF?) that really made me lose it.

Is there really a market for bisexual Regency smut? Even in self-published-direct-to-video-print ghetto form? I can do better than that. How smutty do you want? Is a man from Yorkshire really essential? Or will folks settle for a groom with a thick Yorkshire accent? I also pledge at least one instance of serious cross-dressing, which this book is sadly lacking in.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Doesn't it look awful? I have no idea if there's a real market for such a thing, but it really does look so terible that I have to plague peopel with it.

[melebeth]

Georgette Heyer (the queen of regency romance) is rolling in her grave. I'm hoping it's not going to be as awful as I expect it to be, but I hadn't noticed it was self published. Perhaps I will forgo the lack of pleasure.

[saltbox.livejournal.com]

This is frought for me, because I never doubt my intelligence, and to even be in a position where I have to question my ability to use the appropriate language of discussion is unfamliar for me.

Hunh, I never thought about the effects that a conference would have on any of my significant others. Mostly because I never invited any of them. Though I did invite D to one, and he declined, saying that the admission price too high. It's always a little jarring, though, hearing people in other fields talk.

[magnetgirl.livejournal.com]

Ahhh QaF! That's my DVD...I'm trying to find a time for Ian to see more of it. Brian is the best thing EVAR. And yes, not because he's an asshole!