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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Let’s celebrate LGBT history month

1/2/2016

6 Comments

 
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Although we can find difference disconcerting, there is evidence that diversity is good for the brain. It seems marvellous to me that, in the course of my admittedly long lifetime, sex between men has progressed from a shameful secret, sometimes leading to arrest, to something that can be celebrated through marriage. Not far behind, we’re learning to accept diversity in gender identity, with those estranged from their birth gender able to scratch it from their birth certificate and/or declare themselves #TransandProud. While we might be a long way from eradicating trans- and homophobia, LGBT history month is a cause for celebration for us all.
LGBT characters are becoming mainstream in TV, film and fiction. Although I don’t particularly target the LGBT genre in my reading, it’s interesting that three such novels made my favourites list last year. Wolf, Wolf, my top novel in translation, contrasts changing and stagnating attitudes in South Africa where, in parallel with the shaky demise of white dictatorship, a young man is free to express his sexuality outside, but not within, the home. A Place Called Winter, my overall favourite of the year, takes us back to the early years of the twentieth century, when, fearful of his own desires, a respectable young man would marry a woman, then flee to the other side of the world to escape the disgrace of pursuing his true nature.

This novel also introduced me to
the two-spirit identity in Cree culture, whereby a person embraces both their masculine and feminine sides. With dual-gender celebrities, like Conchita Wurst, perhaps Europeans are finally ready to accept rather such modes of self-expression. Something that might have suited Diana, the narrator of my debut novel, Sugar and Snails, who discovers as a teenager in the early 1970s how pathological this was considered to be (p235):

I envisioned a super-race ruling through logic, physical strength and love. But the book made it clear this vision was romantic tomfoolery. Hermaphroditism was a personal and social disaster. Without medical treatment, such people were trapped in a psychological no man’s land, unable to take part in society, driven mad by being neither one thing nor the other. No one could live a satisfying life with ambiguous genitals. As with the separate stairways at my first school, you could follow only one route.

In a world in which we are bombarded with bad news, LGBT history month is an opportunity for us all, regardless of our personal sexual and gender identity, to celebrate how far we’ve progressed as a society in our tolerance of difference and ambiguity. I’m proud to have the opportunity to mark it with
a bookshop talk and reading. What will you do?

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
6 Comments
Kirtida Gautam link
2/2/2016 07:46:56 am

It's an informative and interesting post Anne. As a psychologist, I believe that homosexuality should not just be accepted but encouraged in humans for them to understand their true nature and be more authentic irrespective of the biological gender they are born with.

Reply
Annecdotist
4/2/2016 12:19:08 pm

Thanks, Kirtida. Yes, we often need that extra bit of support to express our true selves.

Reply
Charli Mills
3/2/2016 09:16:13 pm

I'm reading an interesting new book of historical fiction called "I Was a Revolutionary" by Andrew Malan Milward, trying to stay up with what is currently cutting edge in my genre. It's an interesting compilation of short stories loosely connected to the history of Kansas. I enjoyed the first chapter which was a series of different scenes to show different perspectives of Quantrill's infamous raid on Lawrence, KS during the Civil War. Each story read as if it were a historical essay, yet each was fiction. One story was about a young printing apprentice who had met up with his male mentor and lover at the press in the pre-dawn for a trist. As the heat of their forbidden love rose, so did the building burn. They realized the fire and chose to die in one another's embrace rather than be found out. I thought as I read it, what transitions have occurred in literature that marginalized and silent voices can not be heard in history. This fuels my thinking as I write stories about women history ignored. As to celebrate, I'm thinking an ambiguous prompt might be in order this month at Carrot Ranch. Next month, I'm setting up a BinderCon live viewing in Missoula, Montana and I may be getting help from Queer Women Who Write the West.

I love that passage from your book. I remember a prompt we did on schoolhouses and you were exploring that idea of the double staircase and your own incident. The way you left it as the last idea brings home what you are saying about the woes of ambiguity -- how can one move forward when forced to choose?

Reply
Annecdotist
4/2/2016 12:23:29 pm

Fascinating, Charli, although I hate the thought of the lovers dying in the blaze. But there is great scope for reviving those forgotten and suppressed histories in this hopefully more tolerant time. An ambiguous prompt would be fun and I hope you have fun with the QWWWW. Neat that you remembered the staircase – working on that flash, after the novel was written but not published, helped me cut out a few words.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
6/2/2016 06:50:15 am

I remember the staircase flash too, Anne, and the passage from your book. I agree with you about the opportunity to "celebrate how far we’ve progressed as a society in our tolerance of difference and ambiguity", and a reminder of how far there is yet to go. At least we're heading in the right direction.

Reply
Annecdotistif
7/2/2016 11:49:25 am

Thanks, Norah, a bit out of character for me perhaps to want to celebrate when there's still a long way to go!

Reply

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