Gearoid

Loved this. Read it straight thru from Ch 5 this morning. Very emotional ending and it really captured me but then I have always been a victim of "happiness binding" when it comes to fiction. Hate to be effusive but this was a beautiful story. Of course I had political disagreements with you at various stages, but then I am an Old Leftist. But the sheer humanity of the piece shone thru and it was good to get such an insight to an aspect of Jewish culture. Would that the world was that way. Thank you. regards G.

At the same time, I think everyone here is a little bit unnerved by the Owen/Aiden situation. I mean, they're going through their problems, but at the same time...you gotta love how clingy we all are to these characters, as if we knew them in real life. By us whining (and I don't mean that as a bad thing, you guys. I whine about this story all the time, it's hilarious lol) and feeling emotions over these fictional characters, it really does just go to show how badass Dom is. And now...really... WHY CAN'T OWEN AND AIDEN JUST BE HAPPY TOGETHER?! /cry Hahaha. I had to say it! It's killing me to see them like this!! lol What has surprised myself is the amount of emotional energy I have been putting into the affairs of two totally fictional gay couples. I so want Dennis to redeem Travis thru unconditional love. I also want Aiden to stop being so damn difficult and to get back with Owen. Like I am majorly upset about all their break up. So there you are, for the year of Dom's silence I wss like the knight in Keats' La Belle Dame Sans Merci - alone and palely loitering. I am still totally in thrall and under the spell once again of a master story teller. G.

Well I hope he is well of course whatever he is doing. But this is all so sad. I really miss Dom's writing. He is without a doubt the greatest of the online authors. I haven't logged on for a year, though I faithfully check in the hope that something, anything by Dom has appeared. regards Gearoid

Dom asks: If there was a pill you could take that would make you not-gay, would you take it? My reply: Well an honest question and I think the honest answer is absolutely never as in not ever. I have always thought of the old Tom Robinson number "sing if you're glad to be gay" and he always looked so damned miserable when he did it. It hasn't all be "gladness" but I think of it as karma and not a bad one either. :2hands: regards G.

I have always counted myself a big fan of Dom's but have been away from the forum for a long time. Truth is that I am still grieving over With Trust. Sigh - don't go there. ITFB is however very good, and I am enjoying the drama around Travis. The key to his character lies in the abuse chronicled in the Prologue. How that will be worked thru, and how Travis will transcend it or be redeemed I have no idea. But I think that is the central drama. Gearoid

Glad you had a good day. As for 2007, who knows? I don't believe that it will be what we make it. That is so American!! Will you people never learn about structural determination? Still we have agency and we can endure and as Dr Johnson said, 'cheerfulness keeps breaking out.' So no talk of quitting. As for the bible, well first what can one say when one's mother does that? Best to maintain a silence. As for the bible itself, I was reared in the Catholic tradition and thankfully we never went in for that literal bs, but there is poetry in the bible and people have gotten comfort from it. My own favorite bit is Corinthians 1 V 13. Few Christians that I know act on these lines but they have a remarkable beauty nevertheless. Apart from Corinthians I recommend the original Q gospel as interpreted by the members of the Jesus seminar. They construct Jesus as a radical philospher in the Greek cynic tradition rather than as a traditional Jewish rabbi. Serious biblical scholars are a good source of one way to counter the fundamentalists who would have to be about the stupidiest people on this planet. My own favorite is John Dominic Crossan. His books are so wickedly subversive. I highly recommend them. ae Gearoid

All my sympathy but these things just have their own momentum. I always think to myself of the line "A fool in the service of others can be wise" if I am ever tempted to smugness when I contemplate the wreck of the lives of my friends. Contemplating my own life is not so easy. Re TOSOM I am pleased to hear it might be finished soon. Am afraid to mention that I would love to see WT kick started again. But there I have done it. BTW Rick I am loving your story. regards Gearoid

Of course you must take a break if you feel you need to. However let me say that yours is a great talent and it will call you again of that I am sure. You have given so much pleasure to us. It is true that we are also greedy and needy but we are your 'adoring public' and the cliche for once is totally true. Best wishes Gearoid

This was a beautifully written blog. So skillful. The subject matter though was quite painful. Been there of course. Yet that you were able to weave this experience so well into the cool web of language might show that you are on your way to being over it. He is almost certainly unaware of the damage he has done. So sad... Gearoid

[quote name='Ibuprofen' date='July I am loving this story, its great so far and it can only get better. I have to agree with everyone else, I think Oliver and David are the same person too. Of course I am delighted a new story is up. But this is sooo dark. I didn't think of the multiple personality thing at all, but it is very plausible. I feel I have to say though that the mentally ill have all my sympathy. In fiction they become a metaphor for the fears and desires of the author and the audience. That of course is legitimate, but always one thinks of the emprically real mentally people outside the metaphor of the fiction, and they suffer because of their representation. They are even more scorned than we gays. Gearoid

Well I'm feeling sad too. But it is a good kind of sadness for this was such a cathartic piece. I am really loving this story though it does take us through the roller coaster of emotions. What struck me most about this chapter is that it is really about all the dimensions of love and the hurt that rejection can cause. There was such wisdom here. The best I have read about love remains Corinthians 1: 13 especially 'But now faith, hope, and love remain-these three. The greatest of these is love'. That could well stand for a comment on this story. As for the funeral of Mikey itself it took be back to a funeral I attended a few years ago of a young man who died of an overdose. There were oldies at the service, the devastated family and the young man's close friends who wept unconsolably as they carried the coffin. What struck me most that day was that we oldies had nothing to say that could comfort the young. A pastor spoke but it was not that what he said was inappropriate so much as irrelevant. So the fictional service in this story struck me very forcibly with the depth of its humanity and its beauty. What I especially like about the writers at Gay authors is that as Time Out said about Stephen Coote's Anthology of Homosexual Verse -their work makes 'an irrefutable staement of the humanity of the homosexual'. And Out of the Blue is right up there with the best of them regards Gearoid

In many ways he was the most attractive,as in seductive, character in the story. Certainly for me his fall to earth or punishment was very harsh. I so wanted him redeemed. Yet at the same time I could feel his lure from the dark side. Kind of like one of those entanglements that you know you should run from, but which draw you on and on. For me Aaron was sort of the male equivalent of the Sirens I suppose. It was interesting too how Seth faded as a character and I was initally so taken by him. Still as a book it had wonderful or as I prefer to say 'magical' moments. Gearoid

Ah for the intellectual - always the temptation of anti-intellectualism Gearoid

I think this is a wonderful analysis. As to whether the Great Dom would have thought of it or not, who knows? My own take on him is that he is a wonderfully intuitive artist who resonates around the topics of desire, emotion, love - given and denied, commitment and identity. If you want a contrast take a look at dkstories's work. Dan is what I would call an author of ideas. In a certain sense I find Dan's work easier because I can engage the ideas - the Nietzscheanism with its elitism and contempt for compassion which is in conflict with Dan's expression of a deep and very moving desire to play the role of Benjamin's Angel of History. If I had to compare them I would say that Dom is the poet of love while Dan is the Bard of ideas. If I get time I will put up that long promised essay on Dan and match it with something on love & Luka. Gearoid