corvus

True, smoking is more dangerous health-wise. But the image of drinking that's been planted deep into the American cultural subconsciousness is quite negative. You get drunken husbands beating wives, reckless teenagers, etc. Needless to say, nothing of that sort is associated with smoking, although that's certainly changed in the last decade or so. The negative perception of drinking is probably a cause of and reason behind the temperance movement in the early 20th century, which resulted, among other things, the rise of gangs in Chicago -- if you couldn't get booze lawfully, you'd just have to go the unlawful routes. Ouch about the defenestration... wait, that's out a window. Eh. Horrible anyway. But yes, getting drunk -- or highly tipsy -- in the right company is great.

Kevin, I think you're the only one hiccuping! It's particularly interesting to compare drinking to smoking. It seems that there's more smokers than drinkers here, at least. I wonder if it's cultural? i.e. the perception towards drinking is that it's more dangerous socially than smoking. At least smokers don't lose mental function during chainsmoking. I guess alcohol and cigarettes serve different functions in the satisfaction of our "vices." I'm not a great drunk, I think. I said I-love-you to someone I didn't, and loudly talked shite about my ex-lover in front of my roommates. I'm not too sure about either, because I don't really remember, but I'm pretty sure I need to find someone like Kevin to get drunk with... i.e. pleasant, and fun. Haha!

If he matches you so well, then you're very, very lucky, even if he just stays a friend. I might suggest not trying to pressure him or rush him and risk spoiling things. I haven't read all the posts in this thread, so maybe you're already being extremely mature about it. Good luck anyhow!

So, my favorite music videos on YouTube. Bjork's The Bachelorette. It's brilliant. People who liked "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" must watch this -- it's directed by the same guy. Bjork's All Is Full of Love. Only she can pull off milky lesbian robot sex, harhar... Madonna's original American Life. The version she replaced it with was totally lame. This one is actually quite interesting, and you do believe her when she says she wants to provoke people to think, reflect, etc. on contemporary culture. Beware, it's quite violent. Enya's Caribbean Blue. Every so often, I need something totally sweet and innocent... I just realized I took everything off the Taiwanese youtube site. Ah, wells.

What does everyone think about Madonna's newest music video? (!?) It's here, unless youtube decides it's still a copyright violation and makes it mysteriously vanish. Personally, I think the movie is okay at best. Madonna has certainly done better. I'm unfamiliar with Timberlake, so I've nothing to say about him. Addendum: she looks like she's wearing a shopping bag! Weird...

Haha, finally answering my own poll. My alcohol habits are still forming, but I've gotten drunk a few times. The hangover was pretty awful, but the part before the headaches and retching was rather fun. Still, having done it, I don't think I'll make it a regular thing. Getting tipsy is more enjoyable than getting drunk.

I figured it would be interesting to run this thread in tandem with the smoking one, as both drinking and smoking "vices." Of course, smoking is now more frowned upon socially, and I think it's more harmful. Let's not forget, though, that alcohol is a poison; it's used to kill germs. I guess this poll is working! Cool. PS I considered adding "Duh, I'm a European," but, well, you could be a beer-guzzling German, or a wine-ing Frenchman, and... I figured this would work best for everyone.

You lit major. There's a very blurry line between style and substance. You're right that stories are often successful because of how the story is told. What I dislike reading is stories that are contorted to fit a style. That's artistic egotism. I don't care if every letter in a chapter begins with 'A'. Etc. Seinfeld is what I'm going to hold up to your Mrs. Dalloway. Nothing happens on that show (it is a show about nothing), but it's so good anyway. It still don't agree that form is what makes a story. Actually, I disagree that that's the approach towards a story. If an author thinks: "the girl I see passing my street every day has completely captured my imagination, and the way I can successfully tell her story is by fitting it into a constrained 'diary' form", then I'm definitely willing to give it a shot. But if an author thinks, "That form looks cool. I want to write a wacky-formed story" and then lacks something to actually put that form to, I'd stay away. In other words, if I'm reading a story, and feeling I'm getting is that the author is screaming "look at my cool form!" I'd vomit. But if it comes naturally from the story -- like the triptych of voices in Beloved, the meandering sentences of Saramago, etc. -- then it'd enhance the experience. Would you say that the new-boy-at-school formula is an example of form or substance?

The more I read this, the more I feel I have a bone to pick with people who think there's nothing left to read. What kind of lousy attitude is that? It's what I expect from anal Confucian scholars who long for the "good old days," or Nazi boneheads who want another Reich, or your generic stick-in-the-behind granddad who complains about toilets because he grew up using the outhouse. I very much agree with Krista: I love DomLuka, and I've reread his stories as many times as I've reread my physics book before my midterm (i.e. a lot), but repeat after me: there are other authors in the world! Don't get stuck in a fishbowl when there's an ocean available. Bad pun, I know, but it illustrates the point. Also, Krista's completely right about story-line vs. variations. Some people say that all the stories that can be told have already been told. Hamlet, which most people agree is one hell of a play, was probably based on "A Spanish Tragedy," a play some other bloke had written; Romeo and Juliet was not the first, and definitely not the last, star-crossed lovers story. The small variations that Krista mentions bring to life fundamental archetypes that we can connect to. They reflect changing times, attitudes, new philosophies, new ways of interpretation. Each successful retelling is a cultural update. True. The Western genre has fallen out of fashion. Incidentally, last year's best picture winner, "No Country for Old Men," is very much a Western. Predictably, few people have seen it. Ever heard of a Mary Sue or a Gary Stu? Those are characters in the story that are the author's self inserts, living the author's fantasy life. Stories with Mary Sue and Gary Stus are almost universally bad. It's not limited to gay online fiction. Paradoxically, one of the reasons why I read (online) gay fiction is because the life that straight characters lead, I don't recognize it. I can't comfortably have any sort of romantic impulse; I do have anxiety over my identity; I can't not hide in some way or fashion. These things arise best in the best of gay fiction. I won't read your story if it's badly written. If it's well written, I would be engrossed. I agree with you, jamessavick, in that a lot of gay fiction contains characters, situations, plotlines, etc., that are almost insultingly unrealistic. They are tolerate and they proliferate because they become trappings of a genre, the expected rules of a game. These are the things that die out. This criticism, moreover, applies to fiction in general. At this point, I want to double back and address the whole "can't connect to unrealistic things" argument. A story that is sufficiently well written can transcend this sort of obstacle. Take this plot for example: boy falls in love with girl, gets traumatized on beach, lusts after girl forevermore (i.e. becomes a paedophile), falls in love with a girl, marries the girl's mother to be with the girl, seduces/gets seduced by the girl, etc. Who'd want to read that absurd filth? That's Lolita, and it's a masterpiece. A truly gifted author will convince the reader of his framework; the reader, in turn, needs to have the basic courtesy and respect to be open to this persuasion. lesfeuxdemoncoeur wrote a long post which I won't quote... because it's such a long post... But I like his point about what gay fiction must be. I'm less fond of his point about different ways to tell a story. The felicities of form I can savor in a poem (i.e. small doses), but I want fiction to move me, not perplex me. That isn't to say that highly original forms can't be very successful. But that should be subsidiary, a result of the story, rather than the other way around. To conclude, the reason why I'm taking the time to respond to this topic is because I want people to read my stories! And nobody is going to read them if everyone believes that the genre has gone stale and new authors have nothing new or worthwhile to offer. It's a poisonous attitude. Shake it off. :2hands:

In eFiction, if you click "more info", you can see if the story is completed or not, given that the author has decided to mark that option.

The genre of gay fiction certainly has not gone stale for several reasons. Firstly, gay fiction isn't a subset of romantic fiction. I admit there is an inherent romantic overtone b/c homosexuality is defined in part by romantic attachment, but gay fiction can be about gay identity, coming of age, etc. Actually, it need not be about any of those and just have gay people in it. So whatever constraints apply to romance need not apply to gay fiction. Secondly, even if gay fiction were a subset of romantic fiction, there's no reason that gay fiction is running out of steam. I mean, people have been writing boy meets girl stories for thousands of years and still coming up with new things. I imagine the same should go for boy meets boy stories. Thirdly, I'm writing gay fiction that's showing up online, so obviously the genre hasn't been exhausted.

Wow, what a reality TV show situation. It does depend on the circumstances. But I'm pretty sure I would be sad, and I won't be able to pretend that it wouldn't affect the relationship significantly. Although how much also depends on how the whole thing is carried out. If, say, the person I was in love with was clearly conflicted over his/her gender and decided ultimately to change it, I would definitely be more supportive than if it came out of the blue. The case in Iran is quite unique, and I hope never to be in that situation. That's probably the surest thing I can say on this topic: may I never fall in love with a person with an oscillatory gender complex... :wacko:

That sounds brilliant. Very original -- you rarely read about gay people over the age of 40. Scratch that, 30.

I am grateful that, even though a third of the GA tripod has resigned (i.e. JSmith), and even though one of the people who most encouraged my writing has left this site (i.e. Gary), and even though DK is increasingly worried about the master (i.e. Dom)... ...there are two legs, Tiff, and other great authors still on GA.

Happy, happy birthday from all of us to you! We wish it was our birthday, so we could party too!

I hate it when I'm losing sleep, but I kind of like it. The flip flop kind of breaks up the routine (I'm not old enough to settle into a routine! ), and I don't wake up early enough to enjoy morning sunlight. My sleep schedule over the course of a week is kind of variable anyhow, so the losing/gaining of an hour hasn't been a terrible perturbation.

Life is beautiful. Cheers! Enjoy it (while it lasts ). And I'm sure you've collected enough good karma somewhere or another to deserve it, too.

I think Tiff took the words out of my mouth. But yeah, definitely, thanks so much to everyone who worked on the anthology. It looks very professional. Gay people are supposed to have an eye for matching colors, right? *laughs* Good thing nobody let me near the design elements... Good job to everyone who contributed, too! It's hard to sit down and polish something to anthology-level. *pats back*

Oh, that's awesome! I'll be going to Germany for the summer, which I'm highly looking forward to. Have fun!

Oh, cool -- is this the story you have on eFiction? I remember liking what I read of it. In any case, you're currently :king: , and this is in order. I'm celebrating my 200th post. Yeees, I know that compared to all you peoples with 10 times that number of posts it's nothing... but no, I take that back. It still is something.

Hmmm. Sounds really, really good.... I am grateful for: - people having read and responded to my last story (Mike and Winston)! - my current story not being stuck in my head (it's 2000 words deep now)! - my having time this week to actually write (got to love Spring Break)! - the alkaline phosphatase data for looking cool (got to love mesenchymal stem cells)! Four exclamation marks in a row, w00t.

No, not necessarily. But I have a somewhat broad idea of working to enjoy something. For example, I was first drawn to, say, Madama Butterfly by two "showstopper" arias. I like them a lot, definitely, but the rest of the opera sounded like gobbledy goop. To "get" it I had to follow through with the libretto, which is something that you have to set aside time for. Plus, I didn't really enjoy the experience the first time around -- I had to keep "touching" it to understand and appreciate what was going on. After that, I was curious about bel canto operas, which I didn't "get" -- verismo had conditioned me to expect sobs or screams, as opposed to consistently beautiful sounds. Not only did I have to follow librettos, I had to embrace a style of music that I wasn't used to. This whole process, of course, was enjoyable in and of itself. But what I mean by work is that I, as the listener and audience, have to meet the artist halfway across the bridge. This stuff isn't pop. (Although, a hundred years ago, it basically was, so... *shrug*) I'm sure people do this sort of thing all the time, ie have evolving tastes. But when there's a conscious and directed effort involved... well, then there's a conscious and directed effort. Good, good. That's one of my favorite soundtracks. Dark, brooding, but beautiful. There's also some stretches of darkness in the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, which I think is very well done, musically; but it's not *as* dark, if you catch my meaning.

Just be glad it wasn't into your lap... Sounds like a Seinfeld situation. So how does this guy decide what the Best New American Voices are? I'm reading Colm Toibin's The Master. It's very good, even if it's not as gripping as the only other thing by him that I've read. The book is about Henry James, and deals with being a writer -- the isolation, withdrawal, sacrifice, etc. It's tied into being gay as well. Very fascinating. Every so often I find myself comparing myself to James and feeling uncomfortably close to a fictional character. It gets even more fun because I can feel that comparison reverberating to Toibin himself, so it's like a three-way echo game... :wacko:

I'm not -- my roommate is. Sometimes it drives me up the wall. I mean, I'm not a slob, but I feel vaguely claustrophobic whenever he organizes the dishes around the sink and suggests that I get some tupperware. How anal are you? Do you handle anal well? I'm probably anal about other things. I know I am about operatic sopranos. But at least I don't try color coding their socks...