From: hoosiers@carson.u.washington.edu (Mary Loveless)
Subject: Re: good novels about gay lifestyle
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 20:30:57 GMT

In article <1992Nov19.174843.21867@PacBell.COM> rjwill6@PacBell.COM (Rod Williams) writes:
>> alison@wsrcc.com (Alison Chaiken) writes:
>>I'd like to read one or two good books about the gay lifestyle in
>>order to try to understand it.  In particular I am NOT curious about
>>gay sexual practices (not a prude; just not interested).  I undertake
>>this project in the same spirit as when a few years ago I decided to
>>read several books about Islam: I want to "see how the other half
>>lives."  Recommendations for serious adult fiction are appreciated.
>
>It might help to realize that there are as many "gay
>lifestyle[s]" as there are straight ones.  Are you interested
>in rural, childless lesbians who repair farm machinery, make
>jams and jellies and like target shooting?  Or urban, skinhead,
>piereced and tattooed queers who write mash letters to black,
>female jazz singers?  Or Catholic priests who spend their days
>off bedecked in fuschia chiffon in a drag bar?  Or those nice
>boys from the flower shop?  Or that tired looking single mother
>who wishes she could afford a babysitter so that she could get
>out and seek similar?
>
>People like that, and many more, write serious adult fiction
>on the side...
>
>-- 
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>rod williams -=- pacific bell -=- san ramon, ca -=- rjwill6@pacbell.com
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
**I TRIED TO SEND THIS BEFORE AND IT DIDN'T GO SO I'M TRYING AGAIN**
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: good novels about gay lifestyle
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Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
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In article <1992Nov19.174843.21867@PacBell.COM> rjwill6@PacBell.COM (Rod Williams) writes:
>> alison@wsrcc.com (Alison Chaiken) writes:
> I want to "see how the other half
>>lives."  Recommendations for serious adult fiction are appreciated.
>
>It might help to realize that there are as many "gay
>lifestyle[s]" as there are straight ones.  Are you interested
>in rural, childless lesbians who repair farm machinery, make
>jams and jellies and like target shooting?  Or urban, skinhead,
>piereced and tattooed queers who write mash letters to black,
>female jazz singers?  Or Catholic priests who spend their days
>off bedecked in fuschia chiffon in a drag bar?  Or those nice
>boys from the flower shop?  Or that tired looking single mother
>who wishes she could afford a babysitter so that she could get
>out and seek similar?
>
>People like that, and many more, write serious adult fiction
>on the side...
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>rod williams -=- pacific bell -=- san ramon, ca -=- rjwill6@pacbell.com
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
To add to the list of gay and Lesbian populations:
-  Upper class white males with conservative politics, in fundamentalist
   churches, in high ranking government positions or maybe CEO of major
   corporation.
-  High ranking military officers, both male and female
-  Men and women devoted to their heterosexual spouse and to their children,
   wondering how to solve a desperate dilemma
-  Teachers, lawyers, scholars, poets, painters, musicians, longshoremen,
   farmers, philosophers, doctors, nurses, chefs, rodeo cowboys, country and
   western stars (at least one), and on ad finitum

For contemporary adult fiction, try books by Rita Mae Brown.  I suspect
there are many other writers, but she is one with whom I am familiar.  A
classic:  wildly inaccurate about Lesbian life and hopes and dreams, but
the first book many Lesbians find in their search for some commonality, is
Radclyffe Hall's _Well of Loneliness_.  Reading this book can give you the
flavor of a young woman's first inkling that she is not alone.  _The Color
Purple_ and subsequent books by Alice Walker chronicle the lives of a pair
of delightful lovers.  If you are in a large city, the likelihood is that
there is more than one organization for gays and/or Lesbians, who offer
resources, such as bibliographies, etc, to the community at large.  In
Seattle, try the newspaper, the Seattle Gay News, or go to the Lesbian
Resource Center.  There's a fundamentalist gay church here.  In addition
to reading, listen to music:  the jazz group Alive, now defunct, but
recordings still in print (check out the Ladyslipper Catalog).  The a
capella gay men's group, the Flirtations has at least one recording. 
Almost every major city has a gay and/or Lesbian choir (Seattle Men's
Chorus; Seattle Women's Ensemble, for example).  Many songwriters, both
pop and folk, have written great songs, most notably Si Kahn, Fred Small,
the duo Charlie Murphey and Jamie Sieber (also with the rock group, Rumors
of the Big Wave), Judy Small, The Righteous Mothers (a Seattle area
group, with growing stature nation-wide)

I hope this is of assistance to you.

Mary Loveless
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My opinions are self-righteously all my own and belong to no other.

"I like violence because they smell so good."  Bullwinkle Moose
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