sqbr: A happy dragon on a pile of books (bookdragon)
Sean ([personal profile] sqbr) wrote2008-03-01 06:32 pm
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The man who folded himself into the closet

So, good things I have watched/read recently (any theme being entirely coincidental :))

"The Celluloid Closet": great (if slightly fluffy) documentary about the portrayal (and lack thereof) of gay characters in Hollywood. Has some awesome scenes of surreptitious gayness gotten past the censors during the 50s. Also shows the long history of gay characters being portrayed as tragic/evil. Afterwards I and Cam were trying to think of any positive gay characters who don't die in mainstream Hollywood movies that have come out in the 12 years since the doco came out, but all I could find were articles about how Hollywood sucks for not making such characters (apart from a few roles a la "The Birdcage" or "In and Out") There is "Alexander" I guess. At least TV has gotten better!

"The Man Who Folded Himself" by David Gerrold: Quite an interesting little story of a man who has the ability to travel through time, one of the few time travel stories I can think of which truly captures the fact that in a multiple universe model of time travel you can never go back to your original history. (Though I'm still not convinced that the model allows for the time traveller to meet multiple versions of himself. But any book which inspires me to draw time space diagrams is a good book :))

"Fun Home" by Alison Blechdel (creator of "Dykes to Watch Out For"): autobiographical graphic novel of the authors relationship with her father, who was secretly gay. There's nothing like a good author with a really weird childhood to make me enjoy an autobiography (It's not a genre I usually like)

[identity profile] nico-wolfwood.livejournal.com 2008-03-02 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
I saw the "The Celluloid Closet" before I left Perth. I quite liked it, especially the interviews about Ben Hur.
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[personal profile] alias_sqbr 2008-03-04 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
I know, it's so funny to imagine Charlton Heston acting in a completely different movie to his love interest, I wonder if he's seen the documentary :)

[identity profile] vegetus.livejournal.com 2008-03-02 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
For good authors with really weird childhoods I recommend reading "Running With Scissors" as a very interesting tale of childhood. And the author is gay, to follow that other interesting theme of your post.
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[personal profile] alias_sqbr 2008-03-04 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I saw the trailer for the movie of that, it did sound interesting. Though, you know, I am willing to read books about straight people too :)

[identity profile] vegetus.livejournal.com 2008-03-04 09:09 pm (UTC)(link)
The movie was ok, but the book was much better.
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[personal profile] alias_sqbr 2008-03-16 10:00 am (UTC)(link)
Huh, ok, cool. Will keep an eye out for it.