#Classic literature gone gay

[sweetlittlestarbursts]

I'm under the strong impression that Henry Clerval was the type of kid who would just randomly walk up and kiss Victor on the lips and then giggle his way out of trouble.

"henry, what are you doi-" smooch "where are you goin-" kiss "can i come?" mwah "what do you want to be when you grow u-" SMOOOCH "i found you this flowe-" kisses ensue

(note: sleepovers must've been fun.)

I am also under the impression that Henry Clerval's advances would pale as they grew up. Innocent kisses and joyous giggles would become guilty glances and sorrowful laughter. they wouldn't kiss anymore, and when they'd touch hands, accidentally, and just for a second, they'd both blush and turn away, acting as if it had never happened.

I AM ALSO UNDER THE IMPRESSION that Victor and Henry probably had that "what do you want to do when you grow up?" conversation, and that Henry's answer was "i want to love somebody…"

and Victor probably said "oh…who?"

and then Henry woul blush and hide his face beneath the covers of their shared bed (its a sleepover, duh) and they'd just be quiet for awhile, before falling asleep in each other's warmth.

i aLsO bELiEvE - according to hours of studious work, blood, sweat, and tears - that every. last. one. of Henry's poems over the years were about Victor, but Victor never knew, because he wasn't allowed to read them… and secretly that "favorite poem" Victor mentions Henry reciting for him in the book was actually written by Henry, for Victor, but Victor wasn't aware of who it was written by, he'd just heard Henry recite it before, and he liked it so much that he asked Henry to recite it again and again…unaware that the words were about him.

AHAJGFlksdjhgklsdjhkGXfkahDGSJDHKSGL-

(i'm losing my sanity over these two. send help.)

(@spooky-something)

#frankenstein #victor frankenstein #clervalstein #henry clerval #gothic lit #dark academia #dare i tag #crackpot theory #my theories #henry clerval x victor frankenstein #i love them your honor #theyre stupid #but i love them #mary shelley #gothic literature #im cryin #the modern prometheus #classic literature gone gay #Regency era gaydom #classic literature #i'm converting to gothic literaturism #im serious #this is so stupid #kicking my legs

[atheocracy]

if i’ve learned anything this year, it’s that the true weakness of super-passionate dead poets society type literature teachers are not the apathetic kids that don’t care about literature, but the kids that bastardize literature, because those kids ARE very passionate about literature, but for none of the right reasons (in terms of being constructive to the class’ understanding of the material). there is no impassioned rant of memorized poetry that can possibly combat the honest to god bitchslap that is “rodion raskolnikov is the bisexual 1800s russian au version of scott pilgrim” or “vladimir and estragon are gay married but perpetually on the brink of divorce”

#literature #crime and punishment #waiting for godot #i’m also into literature for more boring reasons i just have had so much fun in class this year #while i usually would never bring this directly up in class myself i am always thrilled to join the discussion when it starts #shoutout to the girl in ap lit who has interpreted every piece we have covered exclusively as a gay love story and nothing else #my teacher is great and you can tell he’s very passionate and knowledgeable about what he teaches #but he’s just so bamboozled by the way things have gone it cracks me up #you know there’s something to be said about how even though it’s actually getting people into reading #the fandomification of classic literature can actually detract from understanding the thematic depth of the book and hurts critical thinkin #but on the flip side #these takes can be good and should be considered/discused seriously as long as they don’t overtake the core meaning of the material #esp when they can (and often do!) add to the thematic elements of the piece

[straightplayshowdown]

Angels in America: In the first part, we meet Louis and Prior and Harper and Joe, two couples whose relationships are on the rocks: the former because of Prior’s AIDS diagnosis and Louis’s inability to cope with illness, the latter because of Joe’s closeted homosexuality and Harper’s incessant fears and hallucinations, as well as her addiction to pain-killers. The second part focuses on the story of Prior Walter, a gay man living with AIDS who has recently been left by his partner, Louis, after he could not cope with the physical and personal impact of the disease.

The Importance of Being Earnest: Two bachelors, John ‘Jack’ Worthing and Algernon ‘Algy’ Moncrieff, create alter egos named Ernest to escape their tiresome lives. They attempt to win the hearts of two women who, conveniently, claim to only love men called Ernest. The pair struggle to keep up with their own stories and become tangled in a tale of deception, disguise and misadventure.

Propaganda under the cut!

Angels in America:

painful funny surreal and down to earth all at the same time somehow, even without being a landmark piece for me personally w/ regard to queer literature

The Great American Play. The definitive exploration of how AIDS affected an entire generation of queer Americans in the '80s, and what it left behind in its wake. Those more eloquent than I am will be better at doing this play justice, but my sincerest hope is that the sheer significance of this work is clear enough to carry it all the way through to the highest end of this showdown.

honestly the peak of modern theater 2 me. everything i write and create is in the hopes that i might someday make something that lives up to the bar that angels set. it treats every one of its characters with such depth and compassion and the world it creates is so vivid and fantastic. and the context in which it was created will always be beyond important to me like i don't know how to describe how important it is that a play widely considered an american classic is about the aids crisis. she's the blueprint she's perfect she's everything

genuinely changed my life when i first read it. andrew garfield played prior walter in the 2018 national theatre version and he fucking kills it. it's 6 whole hours of joy and heartbreak and, most of all, hope. stan harper pitt!!!

This epic stageplay has become more accessible since its HBO miniseries adaptation in 2003. It is epic, intersectional, commemorative of a collective trauma that had been silenced for too long at the time of writing. (also Harper deserves to be as much a Tumblr Sad Girl icon as Lana del Rey or Sylvia Plath.) 

The Importance of Being Earnest: 

Queercoded love interest and Victorian dandies, what’s not to love? 

Quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever read.

It's very funny.

there is a HANDBAG and it is a MAJOR PLOT POINT. jack pretends to be ernest because he's been doing it for ages and why not am i right? algernon pretends to be ernest to get a girl and also so screw stuff up. as one does. gwendolen and cecily have a REALLY passive aggressive tea party. this play slaps. it is so good. go read it and/or see it

“Nothing will induce me to part with Bunbury, and if you ever get married, which seems to me extremely problematic, you will be very glad to know Bunbury. A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it.” 

Lady Bracknell: “I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.”

Lady Bracknell: “My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality.”

Jack: “On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”

#angels in america #the importance of being earnest #round 3 #polls #the straight play showdown

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

i know this is a movie based blog but do the mods have favourite horror books/authors? :)

Mod L: David Demchuk, Gemma Files, John Langan, Elizabeth Hand, Paul Tremblay, Anne Rice (unfortunately formative). There was a point when I would have included Caitlin Kiernan on this list, but they've unfortunately gone off the alt-right deep end, so . . . get their books from the library, if you get them at all.

Mod Z: *panics in learning disability* So, I guess I gotta tell u what my fave horror books are. I don’t really read much, embarrassingly so, but now the occasional horror classic is my one exception. I got started with a push from my dad back in 2022 to dive into Stephen King's work, and now I'm totally hooked! "Carrie" and "Christine" are total classics, and lately, I’ve started reading "Different Seasons" and "Two Dead Girls." Also, "Vampires Never Get Old", a vampire story compilation, is iconic, especially Schwab's "First Kill" – it's gay as fuck! "Squad" by Maggie Tokuda-Hall is a great graphic novel by Maggie Tokuda-Hall with similar vibes to Jennifer's Body, and just as gay. My taste is really all over the place, but if you’re like me, these reads are a must!

Mod Sus: *guilty look at all Stephen King books they've read* I could answer this so much easier if I had a better memory and/or access to my old library records. I tried to think of more books than Stephen King's and Rats by James Herbert, but I can't remember what everything I've read even though I used to read so much as a teen. Being chronically online has rotten my brain and ability to read adult literature. I should start from small and basics again to get back in touch with reading. R. L. Stine's Goosebumps works if you are having hard time getting into reading long texts and books, it a good warm-up.

#not a poll #ask #ask the mods #recommendations

[dmitrigirl]

hello, could you elaborate on "smerdyakov's vague feelings towards ivan" in relation to queerness in TBK? I don't understand this. are you suggesting smerdyakov was attracted to ivan or that ivan abandoned him because of homophobia?

hi sorry it took me so long to reply.

i wrote that post about smerdyakov being gay a while back and it wasn't super well constructed lol. i don't have stark evidence from academic papers or translators interpreting smerdyakov's feelings towards ivan karamazov as romantic, i've seen some readers take his actions and behavior as psuedo-romantic/incestuous. i don't personally believe that's how we're meant to take smerdyakov.

i do, however, find it interesting how smerdyakov sort of acts like a siren, an alluring yet revolting and effeminate man who "draws" ivan in; even if ivan finds him quite disgusting, he still is attracted to smerdyakov's mystery and evasiveness. he admits to being fascinated with smerdyakov, and even when he begins to feel sickened by smerdyakov's "revolting familiarity which [he] began to show more and more markedly", he still needs him, in a weird way, to satisfy his intellectual leanings: "...suddenly realizing, with disgust, that he was feeling intense curiosity and would not, on any account, have gone away without satisfying it". it is safe to say that ivan has a dependency on smerdyakov, which he himself despises. in this way, smerdyakov takes on a sort of "feminine", gatekeeper (not using that word as slang) role. we see a similar trope in arthurian and medieval literature, where women use prevaricate, captivating words/actions to keep men guessing, yearning, and reaching for a goal (doesn't have to be romantic) without being able to fully grasp what they truly desire. they are the keyholders.

but in male characters these expressions are horrifying and indicative of devilry, if not outright evilness. it is somewhat common for male characters who are supposed to be indirectly (or directly) marked as homosexual to be written in this sort of way. they are disgusting, nauseating, vain, sickly characters with zero moral compass, which is why their homosexuality is often put on as a cherry on top. another example i can think of is Willem Van Bergen from The Alienist, a homosexual man of high society who is also a sadist, mentally unwell, spoiled, and narcissistic. a lesser example is Luis Carruthers, who, even though he's not a villain nor amoral, still has similar qualities of how homosexuality in male characters present in classic literature.

i think with smerdyakov, he's not "in love" with ivan. i personally haven't seen good evidence for that. in reality, i think his siren-esque behavior and ways of manipulation, as well as his femininity and gatekeeping of information, swinging imaginary keys in front of ivan only to put them back in his pocket, is a common pattern in homosexual characters in classic literature. and that's pretty interesting to me!

#carrotluvr speaks #anon #ask #answered #pavel smerdyakov #the brothers karamazov

[crazy-fangirl2524]

What I think Andrew and Neil’s personality/life/relationship will be like without ALL the trauma and so the “real” them without all the baggage

(Obviously just my opinion and interpretation)

Andrew:

He would still be a super protective person especially as those he views as family (nicky, Aaron, his parents (??), friends he knows he can trust)

Would still have gone through a goth/grunge phrase

His sweet tooth is still atrocious

The type of guy to stop people from physically bullying others (verbally he does not care if the person can’t take it its a them problem)

Tons of piercings everywhere

Doesn’t try in school because he doesn’t have to with his eidetic memory yet he is only second right behind Aaron

No one is shocked that he is gay

I can see him studying things like philosophy literature classics history or just any of the intellectual degrees (he will do double major)

Definitely got scholarships for any universities he applied to (same as Aaron)

Chooses to go to the university that Aaron chooses (“Andrew ucla’s criminology is the best in the whole world why are you choosing John Hopkins” “John Hopkins’s literature and classics is the best in the world” “Andrew-“)

Doesn’t have a lot of people he considers as friends but he does have a select fews and he is not really in a friend group more like some scattered friends but he hoard like gold

Most likely to become a university professor ? Or a baker or whatever he wants and he will be so successful in it because he will put his heart and soul into it

Had a few flings here and there (maybe one or two relationships but no one can ever be on par with him) until he meets Neil (because in every universe they are still meant to be)

Neil:

Still skeptical and doesn’t trust easily

Those he considers as friends he holds on so tight he will literally die and kill for them

Still got a smart mouth that gets him in trouble

Troublemaker in school and people either love or hate him theres no in between

Math nerd

Would have been valedictorian but he doesn’t pay attention in class and skip classes if his friends ask him to

He will be in a friend group that everyone will ride and die for each other and is the friend group that everyone is envious of because they know it is for life even if they all separate in university

Obviously he will get a maths degree

Becomes mathematician or whatever it is smart people becomes in the future

Obviously he will be successful as well

Even in university he will somehow find a friend group and once again its the best people in the world for him and now he got THREE families (or however many because everywhere he goes this attractive troublemaker just attracts and makes his own found family without meaning to)

Throughout highschool or university or work (until he meets Andrew) he would have never dated because he genuinely does not get the point and no one ever interests him that way (until he meets Andrew)

Andreil:

No matter how they meet whether its highschool or in university or meet cute or meet ugly or whatever its always Andrew that falls first and finds the troublemaker attractive and neil is just the oblivious guy

But Neil is always the one that falls harder

Its always slowburn and kills their families and friends and makes everyone wants to just kill them

Their communication skills are what every couple wishes they have

Andrew still gives neil so much nicknames

Their personality will always complement each other and Neil’s fire will always spark’s Andrew’s interest and Andrew’s steady presence will always hold up whatever Neil has

The soul deep understanding will always be there

In any universe they will still inevitably end up together because their souls are made for each other

#feels more like a hs au but like its not like I can imagine this as in uni or cafe or work or whatever #the reason andreil has so many fanfic and au is they just fundementally work so well together and will always be tgt #idk I just ask myself what if they are normal and have normal childhood and shit what will they become #and I think fundamentally these are all their traits and what they will always have and be in every universe and fanfic #this is like what everyone will include in whatever hc they imagine them to be in yk #or its just my opinion #anyways I miss andreil and think about them every single day #aftg headcanon #aftg #all for the game #tfc #the foxhole court #andrew minyard #aftg series #neil josten #aftg fandom #andrew joseph minyard #aftg hc #tfc hc #tfc headcanon #aftg fanfiction #aftg fanfic #aftg fic #tfc fanfiction #tfc fanfic #tfc fic #andreil #aftg andreil #aftg trilogy #aftg andrew

[eraserheadadult]

if i hadnt become a lesbian i wwould have gone down such a different path in life because realizing women existed basically killed all my brain cells. age 12 i was into classic literature and clarinet music age 14 i forgot how to read and if there wasnt gay sex in it i was no longer interested

#woof

[mademoiselle-red]

Reading the Renault fandom dissertation, part 4: the online TC fandom analysis begins…

An academic decided to write about us, online fans of Mary Renault’s works, for her phd dissertation in 2018, and as the subject of her research, I will be covering & commenting on what she wrote over a series of posts ✍️📑 (Here is part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5, and part 6)

For part 4, we begin to delve into Chou’s analysis of the online TC fandom, which she calls the “millennial fandom” because it sprung up in the new millennium (the mid-2000s).

“While Renault’s works have mostly lost their relevance for readers of historical fiction and gay literature, Renault has found a new fandom in internet communities. On LiveJournal.com, the social networking website that has been a platform for many fandom communities since 1999, there are two major communities devoted to Renault and her works: maryrenaultfics (since 2004) and maryrenault (2005). While these communities have become less active due to decreasing popularity of LiveJournal itself, Renault fandom is still active on more recent fandom platforms such as Tumblr and Archive of Our Own”

So far this checks out. These are all the places we have congregated in.

“Renault’s new fans are not the “older gay men” who have gone digital, nor are they the “serious-minded teenagers” interested in classical times, or the academics who are finally paying the author her long-overdue attention. The cult popularity that Renault’s works achieved in the community of online fan “prosumers,” especially for those who are interested in “slash”—fantasy about male homoeroticism largely produced for and by women—demands a renewed examination of how Renault’s works could be reread and re-evaluated.”

I’m pretty sure there are middle aged men, academics, and serious minded history-obsessed teens among us. But cis women (and bisexual folks) do comprise half of the fandom (according to an informal poll I ran a while back).

“According to Fanlore Wiki, one of the largest Wikipedia websites about English- speaking fan activities, one of Renault’s LiveJournal community has been in existence since 2004, aptly named “Mary’s Handmaidens.” On the Fanlore page about “Mary’s Handmaidens,” a passage describes the gender and sexual constituent of the online community: “The community includes members of both sexes, with (by comparison with many other fandoms) a notable contingent of men, though the majority of writers of fan fiction are women. Various sexual orientations are represented among the membership.” The statement about a “notable contingent of men” is a curious one compared to the “handmaidens” in the title of the community. Despite its consciously inclusive taglines (“the community includes members of both sexes”, “various sexual orientations are represented”), the community adopts a female persona as its identity.”

This is a fair point! The handmaidens group name really wasn’t inclusive. And cis women did and still do comprise the largest group in Renault fandoms (and slash fandoms in general).

“Another example of Renault’s Internet fandom is The Theban Band’s fan arts based on Renault’s novels (see fig. 4). Among fan artworks on Renault’s works by The Theban Band, one piece based on The Charioteer illustrates serial lines of flights from the fans to Renault, from Renault to her characters, and then from her characters to antiquity (see fig. 5). The artwork demonstrates the fantastical disposition of the simultaneous disidentification and cross- identification with otherness, which in the scene depicted is embodied in a leap to another time and place. This artwork captures the moment in which Ralph and Laurie’s flirtatious book-exchange takes place in The Charioteer.”

What about this above image demonstrates disidentification and cross-identification with its subject matter? It appears to be a just a faithful visual rendition of the scene from the novel.

“If Ralph is attempting to initiate Laurie to homosexuality, it is interesting that the knowledge of homosexuality that he passes on (instead of homosexuality itself) is explained as a fantasy. In this scene of erotic initiation of a young boy, the only physical contact between the two characters is through a book that is “just a nice idea.” In the same scene, the two are depicted as dangerously close to a kiss In the passage, Ralph merely makes an “outward movement” and then steps back. What takes place in between, the “[h]alf-remembered images” of “the tents of Troy, the columns of Athens, David waiting in an olive grove for the sound of Jonathan’s bow” preoccupy Laurie’s mind strangely more so than the immediate presence of Ralph.”

I guess she is on the no-kiss team for chapter 2. 😚

“Together with the Phaedrus that Laurie physically receives, the fantasy of a homoerotic past mediates the modern, homosexual relationship between Laurie and Ralph throughout the entire story. In this sense, Phaedrus functions for the two characters much like how Renault’s books function for her readers. The Charioteer is an adoring look to the past clothed as a story about the inner struggles of a modern homosexual, or, more precisely, about how the struggles must be negotiated through a fantasy of the past. Renault’s books were for her mid-century gay readers “a badge of homosexuality” in much the same way Plato’s Phaedrus is for Ralph and Laurie: a communication about desire in the present through a collective fantasy of a past that contains the ideal form of that desire. […] Laurie looks back into a mythical past in order to contextualize his homosexuality, and Renault herself turns to the idea of Greek Love to write about male homoeroticism. In a similar way, the 21st-century fans locate in Renault’s works a kind of male homoeroticism that seems unavailable in the here and now of post-gay sexual politics.”

What are post-gay sexual politics? In what way precisely is the kind of male homoeroticism in Renault’s works, and in TC in particular (since this passage focuses on TC) no longer available in the here and now? While things have improved a lot for queer people, especially here in the west, homophobia has not gone away! Do all LGBTQ people in the Americas and Europe (where Renault’s books are published) no longer face familial and social ostracism after coming out? Readers both in the old livejournal and here on tumblr have mentioned how they could relate to TC because they come from homophobic families and communities. Through TC and the Greek novels, people can read about characters experiencing similar emotions and situations, across time, space and sometimes gender, and feel comforted, knowing that they are not alone, that this love exists, it is real, and it will find a way.

“The three-fold leap in time for Renault’s millennial fans constitutes a fantasy that is thrice removed from the “reality” of sexual desire. If Ralph and Laurie could be said to negotiate their own identity through an ancient Greek philosopher, and if as critics have argued, Renault masks her own lesbian identity by male homoeroticism located both temporally and cultural distant from her own, it is much more difficult to argue that there is a sexual truth being filtered through Plato, Renault’s characters, and finally Renault herself for the millennial fans.”

While Laurie & Ralph and the mid-century gay readers use The Phaedrus / The Charioteer to communicate their sexuality through “a collective fantasy of a past that contains the ideal form of that desire”, the “millennial fans”, according to Chou, are too far removed from the “reality” of sexual desire to receive “a sexual truth.” This assumes that the millennial fans do not use The Charioteer to explore and understand their own sexuality and cannot relate their own sexual realities to the same-sex desires depicted in the novel. This, as I said in the paragraph above, is not true, since many readers in these online communities do identify as LGBTQ+ and can relate to LGBTQ+ experiences. It is true that many of the millennial fans are not specifically gay men using these gay books to reveal their sexualities to each other. And there are indeed straight women among us, but in my experience, we are definitely NOT a majority straight-women group. Most of us are queer people who, like Ralph/Laurie and the mid-century gay readers, have found each other through this book (as friends and as lovers ❤️)

My commentary on Chou’s online TC fandom analysis continues in part 5, and a tumblr username familiar to many of us here makes a surprising appearance in the dissertation 👀👀👀

#the charioteer #fandom writes back #mary renault

[janeaustenluvr13]

Book recommendations for autumn

Although the temperature outside is shockingly high, I have already stepped into my autumnal state of mind. I can't think of a better fall activity than writing a Tumblr post with a list of books one can read while drinking a pumpkin spice-flavoured coffee while snacking on biscuits and listening to the rain.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (or any other criminal novel, preferably read by night while covering yourself in your favourite blanket.)

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (a brilliant parody of gothic novels and delusional teenage girls, perfect spooky vibes)

Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum (gay teenagers study poetry under the most magnificent teacher in entire literature)

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (It's even more cringy than you remember it from your middle school years)

The Secret History by Donna Tartt (Obnoxious terrible characters study antiquity while losing themselves in the process)

If We Were Villains by M.L.Rio (The same as the Secret History but make it Shakespeare-obsessed theater kids).

Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone by Remus Lupin (A classic, as long as you don't live under a rock you've probably read it already, nonetheless it wouldn't be an autumn book list without this novel, although it's a love-the-franchise hate-the-author situation)

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (This book will make you regret not being a posh kid who can afford to go to YALE, it makes the idea of joining a secret society extremely appealing).

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (A broke law student kills a usurer, which is the beginning of an avalanche of disaster. Spoiler, The book ends with him becoming a catholic while dating an ex prostitute).

Little Women by L.M. Alcott (Watch Greta Gerwig's adaptation for an extra fall vibe, the book is wonderful as well. Makes me regret not having sisters).

Jane Eyre by the one and only Charlotte Bronte (Aka why romanticizing Victorian England is an indicator of idiocy).

Persuasion by Jane Austen (A novel that will gaslight you into believing that if you're twenty-seven your bloom is gone, you might as well never leave the house again if you're not married).

Frankenstein (This book freaks me out so much, it's gorgeously written.)

Macbeth (The moral of this drama is to never trust three witches you meet when strolling over Highlands).

Wuthering heights (I could write an entire essay about how superior Mr. Darcy is to Mr. Rochester, but Wuthering Heights still is one of the best novels I've ever read. The spooky vibes are immaculate, it made me want to travel to Haworth during fall).

The picture of Dorian's gray (Dorian Gray would've hated the "aged" TikTok filter.)

The invisible life of Addie Larue (The first line of this book is a summarization of its plot, for the entire novel "A girl is running for her life.", However, we grow to love her in the process).

That would be it. Autumn is one of my favourite seasons, and I can't wait to get the most out of it. I'm sorry in advance for the person I'll become after drinking Pumpkin Spice Latte for the first time this year. May the Christian Autumn Girls rise and sweaty, sun-burned summer preferring children fall.

#fall #romanticizing school #romanticizing autumn #fall books #bookish thoughts #booktok #books and reading #classics #classicalliterature #harrypotter #janeausten #dark academia #academia #aesthetic

[bnwthinking]

I want to get more into classic literature. Any recommendations? Your taste is awesome. (I'm mainly interested in romantic literature. Major bonus points if it's gay. But I'm up for any kind of classic literature.)

omg thanks for this question!! i love giving recs on this shit lol

ancient queer stuff

'collected works of sappho' is always good place to start, i would recommend anne carson's translation. it is not the most literal in translation but it is the best version in my opinion for understanding the gay emotions that sappho was trying to to convey.

on that note, i would also recommend reading enheduanna's 'poems for the goddess inanna'. think of her as sappho's elder, she was a sumerian poet and the first person we know to have ever created a collection of poems and signed her name to it. she was also very queer.

'the iliad' is also very very gay!! i dont have a favourite translation, my fave greek translator hasn't covered it yet but deffo check homer out.

classic (or modern classic) queer stuff

'orlando' by virginia woolf - a book about a man that wakes up as a woman one day and also immortal. the book is a bisexual in everyway love letter to vita sackville-west, the arguable love of virginia woolf's life. also would recommend reading 'mrs dalloway' or 'a room of one's own' by woolf and literally anything written by vita who was an established writer, too.

'giovanni's room' by james baldwin - this book was really important in my coming out process when i was a teenager. its about letting yourself be loved when you've been raised in shame. james baldwin's writing is a gift. check out his poetry if you're into poetry fs. i also really like baldwin's 'tell me how long the train's been gone'

'the well of loneliness' by radclyffe hall - not a personal fave of mine but definitely an important piece of lesbian literature.

'maurice' by e.m forster - forster hid this book from the world until his death. its about gay happiness and he knew if publishers got their hands on it they would make it about gay sadness. it was publish how forster wanted in the 1970's even though he wrote it in like 1917 or something lol

'the price of salt' by patricia highsmith - the novel that the movie carol is based off of

'the city and the pillar' by gore vidal

'better angel' by forman brown

the dark bisexual quartet that is : mary shelley's 'frankenstein', bram stoker's 'dracula', oscar wilde's 'the picture of dorian gray' and joseph le fanu's 'carmilla'

'rebecca' by daphne du maurier - i love 'rebecca' because it so bisexual and nasty but anything by daphne is a big rec from me!! she was openly bi and it's very evident in her work lol.

'the bell jar' by sylvia plath - the original manic pixie bisexual. i try to read 'the bell jar' once every couple of years.

'the charioteer' by mary renault - mary renault was one of the first people to write gay fiction in the uk in a positive light and her work was frequently banned!!

'Q.E.D' by gertrude stein

'yellow rose' by yoshiya nobuko - she wrote a lot of lesbian lit but 'yellow rose' is one of her only stories translated into english

'tales of a mask' by yukio mishima

'patience and sarah' by isabelle miller

'the color purple' by alice walker - gay but depressing as all fuck however literary wise, the writing is incredible. taught me a lot about voice and perspective.

'the great gatsby' by f. scott fitzgerald - easy to read, so damn short and the most subtext to ever subtext. fitz was a shit but whatever.

non specifically queer classic stuff

'tess of the d'urbervilles' or 'jude the obscure' by thomas hardy - hardy owned my arse when i was a teenager lol, i would consider these two of my fave books ever.

'wuthering heights' by emily bronte - divisive as always. its a book people either love or hate. its also a confusing read and i would recommend looking up a character map if you do attempt it. however, i'm one of the people that thinks 'wuthering heights' lives up the hype and the first time i read it it broke me.

'pride and prejudice' by jane austen - like wuthering heights but fun!

'the mill on the floss' by george eliot - 'silar marner' is good, too but i like mill better. i wrote my entrance essay for uni on it and my ma used to read it to me when i was little.

'metamorphosis' by franz kafka - anything by kafka is good tbh

'the second sex' by simone de beauvoir - important read that helped me understand a lot about early 20th century feminism, the good and the bad. the book i consider the foundation for a lot of what has come since.

'the lord of the rings' by jrr tolkien - idk if you're looking for fantasy (if you are let me know i'll make another list lol) but if you haven't read lotr, i promise it is better than you can ever imagine. tolkien also lives up to the hype.

lovecraft. start with the cthulhu mythos and branch out from there. 'the call of cthulhu' or 'the dunwich horror' or 'the nameless city' are good entry points imo.

okay that seems like a lot, i have more if you need lol. hope this helps in some way!

#book recs #reading recs

[sweetlittlestarbursts]

Victor: I like your new pants! Henry: Thanks, they were 50% off! Victor: I’d like them better if they were 100% off. *winks* Henry: The store can’t just give away clothes for free. Victor: That's… not what I meant. Henry: That’s a terrible way to run a business, Victor.

#gothic lit #henry clerval #victor frankenstein #incorrect quotes #Classic literature gone gay #frankenstein quotes #frankenstein #clervalstein #The gay is here to stay #dark academia #dare i tag #funny quotes #shitpost #im sleep deprived #Reading Frankenstein

[ohwhatagloomyshow]

screaming crying throwing up BEGGING for the day I’ll finally stop being interested in young adult novels!!

I have been so excited for the remixed classics because I love a lot of classics and I LOVE spins on classics, and My Dear Henry, the Jekyll & Hyde remix by Kalynn Bayron, was very good!! Bayron understood EXACTLY how 1880s literature was written and wrote a protagonist who is loveable but COMPLETELY CLUELESS in the best way! It was tender! The gay longing was EXCELLENT!

I am still early in the Wuthering Heights one, What Souls Are Made Of by Tasha Suri, and it’s fine so far! Loving that the covert racism of the book is made overt, it works really well! Suri is dedicated to making sure Heathcliff and Cathy sound like two VERY different narrators!

But this one…the one I am on now…Self-Made Boys, a trans retelling of Gatsby….

Why didn’t I consider that fundamentally Gatsby cannot happen to teenagers LMAO. Bayron put the characters in medical school! Suri is writing about the three years Cathy and Heathcliff are separated as young adults!

Why is Anne-Marie McLemore almost beat for beat telling the same story as Great Gatsby but aged down! It is remarkably silly! Why did anyone think you COULD age down Gatsby, which is fundamentally a novel about adulthood!

I am just feeling very silly for not recognizing immediately that Gatsby cannot be recreated with teenagers, but I was LURED IN. I have really stopped reading YA on my own this past year which is great - by that I mean no conscious effort has gone into avoiding them, I just have been - but I feel like I’m never gonna break the habit, which is annoying to think about.

#sorry for angry blogging about ya lmao

[straightplayshowdown]

Angels in America: In the first part, we meet Louis and Prior and Harper and Joe, two couples whose relationships are on the rocks: the former because of Prior’s AIDS diagnosis and Louis’s inability to cope with illness, the latter because of Joe’s closeted homosexuality and Harper’s incessant fears and hallucinations, as well as her addiction to pain-killers. The second part focuses on the story of Prior Walter, a gay man living with AIDS who has recently been left by his partner, Louis, after he could not cope with the physical and personal impact of the disease.

The Ferryman: Set in Northern Ireland in 1981, Quinn has swapped his career with the IRA for a life on the farm in rural Armagh. He now lives with his sickly wife, their children, his sister-in-law and nephew. The IRA murdered Quinn’s brother, Seamus, and his body has only recently been discovered. He was one of the sixteen men and women who were killed and buried in unknown locations during the 1970s. Seamus was apparently shot dead following Quinn’s defection from the IRA in 1972, and a threateningly influential IRA member, Muldoon, now comes to pay Quinn a visit. He is keen to ensure that there are no further repercussions to the IRA’s cause, now Seamus’ murder has come to light.

Propaganda under the cut!

Angels in America:

painful funny surreal and down to earth all at the same time somehow, even without being a landmark piece for me personally w/ regard to queer literature

The Great American Play. The definitive exploration of how AIDS affected an entire generation of queer Americans in the '80s, and what it left behind in its wake. Those more eloquent than I am will be better at doing this play justice, but my sincerest hope is that the sheer significance of this work is clear enough to carry it all the way through to the highest end of this showdown.

honestly the peak of modern theater 2 me. everything i write and create is in the hopes that i might someday make something that lives up to the bar that angels set. it treats every one of its characters with such depth and compassion and the world it creates is so vivid and fantastic. and the context in which it was created will always be beyond important to me like i don't know how to describe how important it is that a play widely considered an american classic is about the aids crisis. she's the blueprint she's perfect she's everything

genuinely changed my life when i first read it. andrew garfield played prior walter in the 2018 national theatre version and he fucking kills it. it's 6 whole hours of joy and heartbreak and, most of all, hope. stan harper pitt!!!

This epic stageplay has become more accessible since its HBO miniseries adaptation in 2003. It is epic, intersectional, commemorative of a collective trauma that had been silenced for too long at the time of writing. (also Harper deserves to be as much a Tumblr Sad Girl icon as Lana del Rey or Sylvia Plath.) 

The Ferryman:

Over three hours of riveting family drama that could have gone on another three hours and I would have been delighted. The last thirty seconds of this show will take you out. 

#round 2 #polls #angels in america #the ferryman #the straight play showdown

[manicdream1895]

The Sea Wolf and The Power of The Dog

This thing has been picking at my brain for a while.

Phil Burbank from The Power of The Dog and Wolf Larsen from The Sea Wolf are extremely alike in both personality and their character arcs.

They're both physically tough and resilient to disease and ailment, or as their colleagues would say, 'God made them well'.

They’re both very intelligent and well-educated in the ways of philosophy and classical literature as a stark contrast to their working-class background and rough environment and exterior.

They both think they are admired or at least respected by their workers and colleagues when actually they are feared or disliked and no one will miss them when they’re gone.

They both think they are powerful men when the world they control is very small. Phil controls his ranch and Wolf Larsen controls his schooner. And when outside forces come into play the control they had over their environment is taken from them.

They both directly or indirectly killed someone in a bar fight.

They’re both contrasted with physically weaker and more soft-hearted male characters who at first display insecurity about their perceived weakness but then come to see by the end of the story that that idealised version of masculinity is toxic and dangerous.

Despite their tough as nails exterior they were not Ubermensch, and in the end they did not die a predictable and ‘dignified’ violent death but were brought down by disease. Wolf Larsen by a brain tumour that in the end paralysed him, and Phil Burbank by Anthrax (also because he doesn’t care about hygiene).

Phil Burbank is explicitly gay, and in my opinion Wolf Larsen can’t not be gay. I mean the novel makes no mention of any interest in women, which is a stark contrast to the forced hetero romance of Humphrey. Sure Wolf Larsen sees love as weakness and an ultimate violation of his masculinity and personality, but that’s also a well-known cover-up in men’s spaces to thwart suspicion of a homosexual orientation. And also come on he’s a sailor spending months on end on a crowded ship filled with men and not a single female around.

Also......Wolf? Dog?.....Coincidence?

Could Thomas Savage have taken a bit of inspiration from The Sea Wolf? Who knows.

#the power of the dog #the sea wolf #tpotd #wolf larsen #phil burbank #thomas savage #Mine

[coffeelovinggayidiot]

i Read classic literature and Now im calling everyone gay. Winston from 1984 is bisexual and a simp. all the conflict of twelfth night would be gone if no one cared about gender and would just kiss. the picture of dorian gray is the picture of dorian gray. Baloo and bagheera from the jungle book are queer lovers.

I mean... yeah? I think you might have the wrong blog but I don't dissagree

[anachronisticcrab]

Solangelo Headcanons

So I’ve got a lot of these cause I’m such a simp for Nico and Will (feel free to ask me about any other Headcanons on either character, cause I’ve got LOTS)

They’re both massive nerds, but neither of them really like the same kind of things

Like, Will is more of a Star Wars and Star Trek fan, he loves Harry Potter more than life itself, and reads medical textbooks and animal books for fun

But Nico is such a linguistics and mythology nerd, we all know he loves Pokémon and DND, and he’s really into classic literature and art

They both spend 90% of their dates geeking out over their interests, and even when they talk about something the other doesn’t understand, they’re super supportive and sweet cause they’re both cute geeks

As much as they aren’t interested in the same things for the most part, they do have a few interests in common (pirates, astronomy, Dreamworks and Disney animated movies, The Princess Bride, Lord of the Rings, music, marvel and DC)

They absolutely have movie marathon dates. It’s their favourite thing. Their favourite movie series’ are Pirates of the Caribbean, Night at the Museum, and The Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit

Nico loves watching Star Wars with Will because Will mumbled the lines along with the characters and does little lightsaber noises along with it and he’s so cute

Will likes watching movie adaptions of classic lit with Nico because he points out everything that’s different from the books, why the movies are bad, and insists on pausing it to go on rants about everything they got wrong. Will fucking loves it

They both have tattoos. Will’s got the sun over his chest, and a small semi colon on his left wrist next to a treble clef. Nico’s got a semicolon on his right wrist next to a bass clef

Will loves Halloween, and Nico could take it or leave it (he never did anything for it because he grew up in Italy), but Nico does couples costumes because Will looks at him with puppy dog eyes and Nico’s helpless

They’ve gone as Jed and Octavian from Night at the Museum; Buzz Lightyear and Woody; those two crazy pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean (the one with the wooden eye who dressed up in drag, and the short one who got upset over parlay); 1930’s mobsters; Adam and Barbara Maitland from Beetlejuice; Han Solo and Luke Skywalker

They actually talk to Mr. D, and that’s why they’re his favourite— they play poker with him, they talk to him, they treat him like anyone else and he lives them for it

Will loves every single one of Nico’s siblings (Rachel, Hazel, Reyna, Meg, Jason, Connor, Travis, Percy, Tyson, Estelle, Chiara, Piper, etc). They share ridiculous Nico stories and plan pranks on him— they all adore Will

Will’s siblings and friends lowkey love Nico more than Will. He brings them McDonalds, teases Will and makes Will blush, attempts archery to try to bond with them (he really tries, but he’s just really awful), he tells Will’s little siblings bedtime stories. Nico’s just really awkward, and he really tries, and they all love him. Of course, Cecil, Lou Ellen, Austin, and Kayla bug Nico a lot because he’s so awkward, but the truth is they really, really, really like him

Will is horrible at music. Like, truly horrible at anything to do with music. But he has an encyclopedic knowledge of music from over the last 200 years, and randomly quotes lyrics and talks about musical theory all day long

In contrast, Nico is amazing at playing piano and guitar, plus he enjoys playing the drums. He’s really musically talented, but knows nothing about the theory behind it or about the artists. Whenever Nico tries to learn a new song, Will nerds out over the musician/background of the song/cool lyrical devices that make it an amazing song. Nico frickin loves it

Nico loves cooking, while Will can’t cook for his life. Like someone get this boy some help, he almost burnt down his mom’s house while microwaving popcorn. They agreed that Nico would cook and Nico would clean

Nico can’t drive for shit. I mean, cars don’t exist in the city where he grew up (there’s not enough room for vehicles on the few roads in Venice), and even if there were, he’s Italian and gay (sorry about the stereotypes there, but I really can’t see Nico being a good driver). Will drives them everywhere or gets Jules-Albert to drive them, and hides Nico’s drivers license to ‘protect the public from his menace of a boyfriend’

You know how I mentioned the no vehicles in Venice thing? Yeah, no bikes are in the city either. Will taught Nico to ride a bike after the Giants War (before they started dating). Hazel took videos and pictures cause Nico was freaking out over it and yelling at Will not to let him die

Will finds animals on the street and adopts them. Nico begrudgingly helps Will to take care of the animals until they find good homes for them (mostly from people in New Rome)

Unfortunately, Will gets attached to them, and now they have 5 cats, 2 dogs, 3 snakes, 4 lizards, and a blue Jay

They’re both really grumpy in the morning. If you wake either of them up, they will probably bite your hand off

They like going on runs a lot? They’ll go on jogs once a day if possible, and they’ll chat or share earbuds while doing so

They go on dates on canoe lake a lot. They like to have races on the canoes, and to just float out away from everyone else (they totally don’t joke about being pirates or pretend to be pirates while on the lake, that’d be ridiculous and childish)

When Will’s been in the infirmary for too long, Nico walks in and throws a Kit Kat at his head, and then drags him out of the infirmary (sometimes by his ear, sometimes by his hand, depending on how long Will’s been in there for or how annoyed Nico is that day)

Nico’s teaching Will how to speak Venetian (he sucks at it, but Nico appreciates the effort)

Nico takes a long time to get used to PDA, and even after they’ve been dating for years, Nico’s really only comfortable with holding hands and hugs (plus cheek kisses or quick pecks) in public. Will’s fine with it, and he didn’t stop smiling for three days after Nico first pecked him on the cheek in public

International dates! Paris, Venice, Milan, Madrid, Banff, Athens, Cairo, Tokyo, Sydney, Ho Chi Minh, everywhere! They love travelling!

They have a lot of conversations where they tell the other how amazing they are (since they’re both pretty self-deprecating, and they think the world of the other, it ends up with them just going ‘shut up you’re beautiful, why do you put up with me’ for hours on end)

Dates on roofs! Nico and Will point out constellations at night and cloud watch during the day. They have picnics on the roof of the Big House, and the Hades and Apollo cabins all the time

They buy each other Funko Pop figures for birthdays, Christmas, and basically anytime they want to get each other a gift

#pjo #HoO #TOA #hoo #nico di angelo #og post #Will solace #Percy Jackson #jason grace #Austin lake #austin and kayla #kayla knowles #hazel levesque #frank zhang #reyna avila ramirez arellano #Leo Valdez #solangelo #solangelo headcanons #so many of them