A revolutionary in search of allies, absolutely! Now, decency and normalcy tend to be the property of the hypocritical “center,” so I would say that perhaps the narrator is in search of an end to the violence of the status quo, and, of course, intimacy and glamour and inspiration and I love what you say about people who are not "enslaved to culture" — that's a great way of putting it!
Yes, the “center” does tend to be hypocritical sometimes, because there is a lot of denial going on. I love your swipes at gentrification, by the way. As a straight person who knows a few gay homeowners but who didn’t really understand the ramifications of gay wealth and poverty issues it was very enlightening. I live in a town that is also undergoing gentrification so I totally understood why your character had issues with gay folks who don’t love their neighbors as themselves.
Well, in most places it's the wealthy property owners and real estate speculators, mostly straight white people, who benefit the most from gentrification, but there's also this horrifying history of gay gentrification that is especially magnified in destination cities like San Francisco, where So Many Ways to Sleep Badly takes place — and here you have this frightening history where white gay people came to neighborhoods like the famed Castro district in the 1960s and ‘70s, renovated houses, created a neighborhood for themselves and now they police the borders to make sure that no one dangerous like — people who can't afford to shop at diesel or the Pottery Barn, or — gasp — homeless people — or queer youth who get in the way of happy hour — don't get in the way of property values. Eventually they'll be gentrified out by wealthy straight people, like has happened in many other gay destination neighborhoods like Dupont Circle in Washington, DC or the West Village in New York. Cultural erasure is their ultimate success!
I think one thing a few folks in minority communities grow to understand is that even in minority communities some folks suffer more than others. I mean those who have understood rejection from the larger society should — “should” being the spiritually enlightened word—learn not to identify with the oppressor and should always remain part of the flock of the underdogs, at least within their hearts.
Absolutely — I think you're entirely right — it's always shocking to me to see queer people who grow up in a world that mostly wants us to die or disappear, growing up to want to be part of that same violent heteronormative, racist, classist, misogynist world without changing it!
Article comments