The Queer Child, or Growing Up Sideways in the Twentieth Century by Kathryn Bond Stockton
Aaron Nielsen01.11.10
The suicide rate among queer youth is twice to four times that of their heterosexual counterparts depending on your source, and perhaps concern for that population formed the root of Kathryn Stockton’s inquiry into the depiction of queer children in literature and film. But to take on such a project is inevitably to tangle with our social construction of childhood and its very problematic relationship to sexuality. Stockton, an intellectually fearless English literature professor at the University of Utah and a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, relies on a fascinating array of texts including Georges Bataille, Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, Supreme Court cases, Virginia Woolf, William Blake and Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Aaron Nielsen, a contributor to Dennis Cooper’s Userlands anthology reviews.
Impossible Princess by Kevin Killian
Jesse Hudson12.28.09
Just in time for ‘Best Of’ lists, 2009 has been a hell of a year for writer Kevin Killian. Heck, he’s been blowing up this whole decade with some of the sharpest, wittiest, and most prodigious work of any writer in American Letters (though you still might find a lot of his words freely given in reviews on Amazon.com). As a San Franciscan for many years, it’s fitting that Killian’s latest collection of stories – Impossible Princess, one that mixes out-of-print material with new, darkly mature tales of desire and danger – is out on City Lights, the imprint that has defined the San Francisco lit scene for over half a century. Jesse Hudson reviews.
The Show That Smells by Derek McCormack
Jamie Gadette12.16.09
Derek McCormack explained himself in a special guest post on author Dennis Cooper’s blog: “The Show That Smells – this is what carnies and circus folk call an animal show. It’s also what I named my new novel." The second installment of a planned trilogy that began with The Haunted Hillbilly and the latest in Cooper’s Little House on the Bowery imprint at Akashic, McCormack’s sartorial fantasy is an appropriately seamless blend of vampires, country music and acclaimed fashion designers. McCormack has been a contributor to The Fanzine since its infancy and interested readers might also enjoy his fashion columns on the history of the sequin, Santa costumes and tragic Hollywood costume designer Vera West. Jamie Gadette, music editor of Salt Lake’s City Weekly, reviews.
Sex Dungeon for Sale! Coloring Contest
Michael Louie12.11.09
Patrick Wensink, the author of the short story collection Sex Dungeon for Sale! is having an interesting contest over on his site. It’s…
First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by Slavoj Zizek
Jesi Khadivi12.06.09
In his review of Disney’s High School Musical, Fanzine contributor Kevin Killian wrote of the film’s male lead, "Ryan’s outfits are maybe one or two sizes too small, so that he seems to bulge in unseemly places all over. I think of that as the intellectual look. You know who has it, that kind of stuffed sausage sexiness? Slavoj Zizek of course. I could eat them both with a spoon." In her review of Zizek’s approachably sized new work on the economic crisis, Jesi Khadivi, curator of Berlin’s Golden Parachutes gallery, will instead leave you with images of the Slovenian philosopher’s tendency to over-salivate.
Nabokov’s Unfinished Novel Available (as Vlad rolls in his grave)
Casey McKinney11.13.09
In the latest Bookforum there’s an article about the resurrected last novel of Vladamir Nabokov, a book he meant…
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
Daniel Hamilton11.13.09
Jonathan Lethem has been cultivating under "an umbrella"… "ideas about identity, culture, history, cities, and loss" since 1999’s Motherless Brooklyn, Daniel Hamilton writes in this review for Fanzine. Chronic city, Lethem’s latest, is "a story about storytelling", one that unloads a giant gobstopper of a plot in the author’s most postmodern novel to date.
The Girls’ Guide to Rocking
Michael Louie10.29.09
I know this is a kids book, or at least a book aimed at kids, girls specifically, but just because we’re a "literary magazine" doesn’t mean we can’t step back and check out something good for the next generation. Because we may as well admit it that we’re all getting older, and as we get older, the saying goes, the ground gets colder. For all of us. Despite the corny cover photos, The Girls’ Guide to Rocking is one of those things; for as easy as it is to be critical and cynical of how-to music books, this one by Jessica Hopper, a music journalist and long-time band member herself, is surprisingly approachable and informative without being preachy or distant.
