Literary Lesbians

APRIL: The Red Thread by Nicholas Jose

2009-05-16T13:21:00.002+10:00

Book group this month was a pretty quiet affair. Sam, Ange, Sonya, Marg and Jude had dinner at The Tenth Muse in Fitzroy. We tried to talk about the book, but conversation soon turned to more interesting topics!

First important discovery was that not all editions of the book had the extracts from the ancient text in red print. Some of the book group members’ copies were all black print, which made it quite confusing to distinguish between the ancient text and the modern story.

Sonya thought the lesbian content was negligible and not very good. She was hoping for some sex scenes, but although the book gave quite detailed descriptions of the heterosexual sex scenes, the lesbian sex was brushed over.

Ange was picturing Han as a gorgeous Lucy Liu type character. Sonya thought that she was an unlikable character. She thought that she could have been developed more like Estella in Great Expectations, who was beautiful and mean but still attractive. Han was cold, hard, and out for herself, messed up, a tease. Sonya was not convinced by her transition at the end.

Sonya didn’t like the moral of the story: that they had to fall in love for the purpose of parting. Ange agreed, “I got all the way through the book, for this?!” Marg admitted to not even finishing the book, although she did like the fact that it was a bit different to usual.

We didn’t agree that the book read like a thriller (as it said on the cover).

Sam wondered whether Boy Meets Girl (an earlier book group book) would have been improved by writing the story in the style of this book.

We hoped that future books were going to be a bit better.

Conversation drifted off to AfterEllen, Biggest Loser, MadMen, dogs, etc. etc.

MARCH: The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff

2009-04-13T13:52:00.005+10:00

Sam, Sonya, Lisa, Kat, Marg, Nicole, Ange and Bridget came along to this month’s reading group dinner.

The book was “The Danish Girl” by David Ebershoff. The book is going to be made into a film next year and apparently Nicole Kidman will play Einar/Lili and Charleze Theron will play Greta. (Kat pictured Greta more as Christina Ricci.)

Lisa and Marg hated the book. The others liked it, particularly because it was a bit different from all the trashy lesbian romances that we read last year.

Marg had a problem with the book’s politics, particularly how it represented femaleness and femininity. She thought that Einar’s transition from man to woman was not just a physical change – he was also lobotomised! Marg described this as “no phallus, no brain” and noted that when Einar became Lili it was like he became retarded. He gave up work and became completely dependent. Nicole thought that he didn’t actually give up his creative work, but he transferred it from painting on canvas to creating Lili – the make up was his paint.

Marg was also disappointed with the book’s subtext about fertility being the pinnacle of femininity (represented by Lili’s fixation with being able to bear children). Sonya noted that the title of the book was appropriate in that Einar never actually became a woman, he became a little girl. Greta emphasizes this when she says “You’re a grown woman Lili”!

Marg also thought that that the characters were all ‘empty vessels’ and that it was difficult to connect with any of them as they had no internal life. We agreed that this was a pity, as it would have been much more interesting if we had some insight into how Einar felt as a man, and how Lili felt in the process of becoming a woman. For example, how did Einar feel when he was having sex with his wife after he had decided that he wanted to become a woman? Nicole pointed out that it wouldn’t have mattered if Einar had been portrayed as an empty vessel if he had then developed an inner life upon becoming Lili. Marg thought that all new writers’ first characters tend to be empty vessels.

It would have been good to know more about Greta’s inner life as well, although Nicole points out that it was part of Greta’s personality not to be expressive. She doesn’t overtly ask for help. She writes to her brother ‘about’ Lili, but doesn’t actually engage with her feelings. Sam was relieved when Greta finally stood up for herself and drew the line. Marg agreed that Einar was completely self-centred and that Greta was a rescuer. Greta was more like his parent than his wife. Lisa thought it was convenient (Marg said unnecessary) that Teddy died. Lisa thought that this was just to show the kind of man that Greta was interested in. Ange thought that Greta killed off Einar for her own career.

We felt that the author was intellectually but not emotionally interested in the topics of marriage and transgender/intersexness. Nicole was bored with all the description. Kat thought that things were overdescribed and juxtaposed. She kept wondering what different descriptions were supposed to be.

Lisa thought the book could have been so good, it was a great subject, but the author didn’t do it justice. And, the font was too small!!!

Discussion then drifted off about better books:

“The Price of Salt” (republished as “Carol”) by Patricia Highsmith
“All that False Instruction” by Kerryn Higgs
“Working Hot” by Mary Fallon
“Pages for You” by Sylvia Brownrigg
“The Hotel” by Elizabeth Bowen
“Suck my Toes” by Fiona Mc Gregor (Kat asks whether this is the sequel to “Kiss my Butt”!)
“Skin” by Kate Holden

And soon we moved on to our favourite topic: Kat’s pole dancing! Kat has progressed to intermediate 3 (and celebrated by buying special skimpy pole-dancer’s underwear and boots). Bridget asked whether, as you progress, the pole gets thicker. Kat says she needs to practice to get up to the next level, but it’s hard to find a suitable pole – she saw one at the local playground but wasn’t sure that was appropriate. Lisa pointed out that while she thought it was disgusting for straight women to do pole dancing, somehow it was ok when it was a lesbian doing it!

FEBRUARY: The Catch by Marg Vandaleur

2009-03-23T19:48:00.001+11:00

Attendees: Sally, Ange, Lynnie, Sonya, Shelley, Jude, Lisa and Marg (author of this month’s book). We welcomed Sonya and Lisa, newbies to the Literary Lesbians.

This month we reviewed The Catch, written by our very own Literary Lesbian member Marg Vandeleur! We were in for a treat to be able to have Marg there to tell us about the writing and publishing process and character development etc. We got to ask her all sorts of nitty gritty questions and thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Marg started out by telling us about “the process”. She started writing the book in about 1998. It took her about 3-4 years to complete and about 2 years to get published. It landed on the shelves in about 2005. Marg was very open and relaxed when talking about her book although she said during the writing phase she felt like she went over every sentence 100 times to get it perfect (as you do when you’re writing your first novel). She eventually got it published by Penguin by sending it via Hares and Hyenas*.

Marg had involvement in choosing the cover, the colours etc. The publisher came up with the image and they photo shopped it a bit. Marg argued with them about the by-line on the cover and she eventually had her way with “Letty is fishing for a baby, but does she have to hook a man?” Originally the publisher had suggested something like… “Letty wants a baby but first she’ll have to hook a man."

Ten years ago, donor insemination was much less mainstream than it is becoming today. Marg had a political agenda to try and “normalise” lesbian relationships by writing a comic romp through gay Melbourne. She tried to write it from a naïve person’s point of view (Letty) – an outsider’s view of the gay scene or the “innocent abroad”. Marg thought there were enough layers in this topic to write a fairly decent book (and we all agreed that she achieved that).

Marg was worried about LL reviewing her book as she knows how much we all love to read out the sex scenes at book group and even do a bit of amateur acting (you know who you are) and The Catch has no lesbian sex scenes in it. We forgave her for that minor flaw.

Sal loved the book and thought it became stronger in the tone and really took off after the first 60-70 pages. Marg admitted the first 70 pages were a bit slow but after Letty makes the decision to try to have a baby the book really gets going. Sal found the humour in the book once Letty started Weekly Weighers.

The fabulous chapter titles were from a real book called the Anglers Omnibus. Marg managed to track down the author who is now 94 years old to ask permission to use the chapter titles which really connected the fishing theme nicely.

Marg really took time to map out the characters and had planned the basis of the story line before commencing to write. Shelley commented that some people write like they are driving at night with headlights on, never knowing where they are headed.

Ange asked Marg if she had ever been at the birth of a baby before because she really felt the descriptions were very real and believable and Marg explained that she had.

So what were the main themes? Shelley pondered if it was desire? Marg simply stated that she was hoping to convey that “it’s better to act than not act”. She wanted to show that Letty did actually have some control on her destiny and that all Letty really wanted was love.

Marg was asked to re-write the ending, which was initially not a happy ending. Sonya said she still found the end of the book sad in a way. The insemination hadn’t worked (the ‘normalising’ hadn’t happened) and Robert was unhappy. Sal was secretly hoping that Letty would get pregnant to Robert but stay with Hayden.

Another emerging theme was that sexuality is a very fluid thing as demonstrated by Chrissie’s character. There is a hint of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night Dream: there is a case of comedic mistaken identity (when Hayden believes Letty is a lesbian).

Other bits of inside goss from the night:
- the Leatherettes were entirely fictional
- Marg based Hayden on her first boyfriend
- Lynnie gets 60% off books through her work
- Shelley used to get 33% off vibrators through her work! (take that Lynnie!)
- Jude commented that we’d only met once in the West for book group (hint hint)
- Nicole Kidman is a hermaphrodite?
- Sally secretly loved Elle McPherson in “It’s a Girl Thing” and recommends that everyone see this movie!

The talk then moved on to the L Word, Beneath the Willow(!) and breasts, as it normally does and then we all headed home.

Thank you Marg for opening up and sharing your book with us. We are truly grateful to hear an author’s perspective and congratulations on a fine novel.

*Literary Lesbian book group members are entitled to a 10% discount at Hares and Hyenas

2009 Books

2008-11-30T10:27:00.003+11:00

FEBRUARY
The Catch by Marg Vandeleur
A book by one of our very own Literary Lesbians! Theatrical agent Letty Summers wants a baby. The catch? Her partner has dumped her. The single scene is leaving her cold. Then Robert Darling arrives. Unattached, gay, gorgeous and a knitter, he’s everything she’s looking for. Heart-warming and hilarious, The Catch takes us into an upside-down world where lesbians know the most men, comedians can’t laugh and a man with hobbies is exotic.

MARCH
The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
Follows the lives of an attractive bohemian couple and the impact on their relationship when the young husband follows his inclinations to become a woman. They stay together and from then on appear to be a lesbian couple. (Nicole Kidman to play the role of transitioning husband in film version).

APRIL
The Red Thread by Nicholas Jose
The Red Thread takes one of China’s most cherished tales and turns it into a novel of desire and destiny. Shen is a young appraiser for an auction house in glittering, turbulent present-day Shanghai. Ruth is an Australian artist he meets, it seems, by chance. And Han is a beautiful, enigmatic woman who complicates their relationship. Their lives mysteriously mirror the characters in an old book, Six Chapters of a Floating Life – a book missing its ending. Shen’s search for those lost chapters moves from curiosity to desperation as he realises that the fate of the lovers depends upon it.

MAY
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
Published in 1982, Annie On My Mind was an anomaly in children's literature. With few children's and teen books addressing homosexuality, the story of Liza and Annie, of course, encountered many opponents, due to its "alternative lifestyle" plotline. Number 48 on the ALA Most Challenged Book list, the narrative addresses two teen lesbians, as well as the social repercussions of such a relationship. The book is never gratuitous, and portrays the couple tenderly, but still comes under fire. Literally. In 1993, Kansas City witnessed a public burning of the novel. The following year, ironically, brought a public performance of the novel in another Kansas town.

JUNE
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974."So begins Jeffrey Eugenides' second novel, Middlesex, the story of Calliope Stephanides, who discovers at the age of fourteen that she is really a he. Cal traces the story of his transformation and the genetic condition that caused it back to his paternal grandparents, who happen also to be brother and sister, and the Greek village of Bithynios in Asia Minor. Middlesex is a story about what it means to occupy the complex and unnamed middle ground between male and female, Greek and American, past and present. For Cal, caught between these identities, the journey to adulthood is particularly fraught. Jeffrey Eugenides' epic portrayal of Cal's struggle is classical in its structure and scope and contemporary in its content; a tender and honest examination of a battle that is increasingly relevant to us all.

JULY
Diary of a Provincial Lesbian by VG Lee
Romance and belly laughs from a storyteller with an eye and ear for reporting the contemporary lesbian life in rural England. This terrific writer brings alive various eccentric English characters who live outside London. Queer is obviously alive and well out there, and this writer is very funny and will have you laughing and crying.

AUGUST
Jane Bond: Kiss the Girls and Make them Spy by Mabel Maney
Mabel Maney's giddy and outrageous spoof of the Bond books ousts the main character himself. As her story opens, James has been locked away in a Swiss sanitarium, having at last "lost his nerve." The British Secret Service plots to recruit his bookish, unambitious lesbian twin sister, Jane, hoping that in disguise, she will be a convincing stand-in for the world-famous agent. Although thrilled by the tailored suit the government provides, Jane is a reluctant spy. What she doesn't know is that her new girlfriend, Bridget, ostensibly a cosmetic sales girl, is in fact a feminist counterspy struggling to foil a fascist scheme to put the aging Duke and Duchess of Windsor on the throne. Will Bridget misplace her top-secret cipher panties in a moment of passion? Can Jane avoid being killed for England? Can she keep the suit? With her usual flair for period detail, Maney paints a vivid, irreverent picture of the Bond era and spoofs Fleming's lingering romance with Empire.

SEPTEMBER
Strange Museums: A Journey Through Poland by Fiona McGregor
Strange Museums is McGregor’s idiosyncratic account of her journey, offering reflections on politics, culture, history and sexuality. With a novelist’s eye for detail, McGregor reveals the geographic and historical centre of Europe in all its contemporary contradiction. This is a candid and unusual take on travel writing.

OCTOBER
In Search of the Missing Eyelash by Karen McLeod
Cracker of an opening line in Karen McLeod's debut: "I woke up in a foreign armpit." That pretty much sums up the dry, deadpan, intriguing style of this novel, which manages to combine sitcom-style farce with movingly understated heartache. The waker-upper in question is Lizzie, a south London woman in her 20s. The armpit belongs to a girl she winked at in the club the night before, and although Lizzie can't remember quite why she winked in the first place, she feels triumphant: "Out of all the girls in the club, the stranger had picked me." You begin to understand how much it means to her when her story comes out. Lizzie is a serial abandonee: her brother Simon has disappeared, her mother's house is inexplicably empty and her ex-girlfriend, Sally - the recent recipient of all Lizzie's frustrated affection - has left her for a fat-necked man. There is also another betrayal, deeper in the past, so painful that Lizzie can only hint at its nature.

NOVEMBER
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
One of the interesting pieces of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" is the lack of gender in the alien society of Winter. Le Guin holds a thought experiment, to see what happens when society does not have male or a female, where its inhabitants are only interested in sex for a small part of the year. In the far future a new Utopian society has risen up. With the federation of Eukemen came peace for all the planets that joined them. The only problem is that not all planets have joined or even know of the Eukemen. Genly Ai, an agent for the Eukemen, is sent to Winter, one of the non-federated planets, to see if he can persuade the inhabitants to join. However he soon finds that the rulers of Winter do not like the idea of being part of a federation, because it might cost them some of their own personal power. Genly Ai is forced to become a fugitive until, by using shifrethgor, the honor system of the Eukemen, he is able to trick the king of one of Winter's nations into accepting the federation.

DECEMBER
Dish it Up Baby by Kristie Helms
"Dish It Up, Baby" is Kristie Helms' first novel which serves up some varied slices of life, tracing her twenty-something heroine through childhood in rural Kentucky to her first job in Manhattan, and finally to Boston as she searches for true love, a cubicle near the window and the perfect shade of lipstick. A cross between "Bastard Out of Carolina" and "Bridget Jones' Diary," the novel explodes stereotypes about Appalachia and offers a hilarious look at the work-a-day world of the Northeast through the eyes of its plucky heroine.

2010
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Sumire, the 22 year old sexually confused, putative writer is being tempted by the lure of a different life. She is developing new sensual feelings for an older woman of 38, Miu. A simple tale told well. Haruki Murakami is master of creating sexually enigmatic and frustrated characters who seek happiness...but only with people who cannot reciprocate. His world is full of people going through the motions of a life, deeply passionate about music, literature or art, yet somehow never able to feel the same way about fellow humans.

NOVEMBER: Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith

2008-11-30T10:11:00.004+11:00

This month’s dinner was attended by Ange, Sam, Kat, Marj, Julie, Jude, Nicole, Marg, Anna, and Bridge and Magda made a late appearance.

Kat started the discussion by saying that the wacky bits at the start and end of the book nearly did her head in, and “maybe I needed to be stoned” to get it.

Ange really liked the running narrative, but Marg thought that the switch of narrator throughout the book was confusing. Nicole liked the way the author characterised each chapter by “us”, “me”, “them”, etc.

Julie was annoyed that the sister in the book had so much voice and felt that it was like we needed a hetero perspective to validate the lesbian relationship. The main character, Anthea, was not as distinctively a character as her sister. We were allowed into the sister’s head, and not Anthea’s. The sister also changed throughout the book, and so essentially we felt that it was her story. We discussed whether or not it mattered that effectively the sister was the main character. Marj and Julie thought it did matter as they thought it was supposed to be a lesbian story from a lesbian perspective, and not a story that primarily mirrored a heterosexual perspective of a lesbian relationship. There was some discussion about whether this focus was because the author wanted it to sell to a primarily hetero audience. If so, we were disappointed in the lack of integrity, particularly as we assumed that Ali Smith was lesbian (or bisexual). We wondered whether the sister thought she was gay as well. She seemed to be obsessed with Anthea’s lesbian relationship, especially the scene where Robin puts her leg between Anthea’s.

At least, Kat noted, the author played down the hetero sex scene compared with the lesbian one.
Julie thought that the author was just trying to impersonate Jeanette Winterson (who, by the way, had a quote on the front cover of the book). Others were not sure they agreed.

Marg thought the book was really thin and lazy, and the author’s style really irritated her. She also thought that it was clunky the way the author introduced the myth. But then she admitted that she skipped over all the pages about the myth! She pointed out that the author described the myth, and then said it all over again. Everyone agreed that she could have done a parallel myth in a better way. (Sam thought that perhaps the lesbian relationship wasn’t meant to be the re-telling of the myth, and that in fact the girl-who-became-a-boy was Anthea’s grandfather. Sam thought that a better retelling of the myth could have been a story about a transgender character). We tried to think of other authors who have re-written myths (Jeanette Winterson, Margaret Attwood).

Marg though the water stuff was also clunky, but that the book was good for young people. There was some discussion about whether this was a ‘young adult’ book or not. Most people didn’t think so, although we all agreed that the characters were a bit ‘cardboard-cartoon-like’.

We did like her plain style though, and the currency of some of the popular culture references – especially the quote from the sister on page 56:

“My little sister is going to grow up into a dissatisfied older predatory totally dried-up abnormal woman like Judi Dench in that film Notes on a Scandal.”

Kat also liked the scene on page 140 where the sister is thinking about her new lover Paul in the shower:

“I like the idea of Paul in my shower. The shower, for some reason, has been where I’ve done my thinking and my asking since I was teenage. I’ve been standing those few minutes in the shower every day for God knows how long now, talking to nothing like we used to do when we were small, Anthea and I, and knelt by the sides of our beds.”

Kat likes the fact that the shower is an intimate space for her, and relates to this. For Kat, how long she spends in the shower is indicative of how much is going on in her life.

Overall, despite our criticisms, we agreed that it was nice to read something a bit different, and that it was a fun, easy read, and overall we all enjoyed it.

The remainder of the evening was spent discussing Kat’s new dance style: Bollypole. This is a mix of bollywood and pole dancing, and Kat is about to take the Indian lesbian scene by storm.
We also spent quite a bit of time comparing the length of our fingers to see if we were really lesbians or not, although nobody could quite remember what the proportions were meant to be to say that you were or you weren’t!

OCTOBER: Turn Back Time by Radclyffe

2008-11-22T10:07:00.006+11:00

It's been quite some time since our last meeting, so my memory is probably a little rusty and these notes will be less detailed than usual!

Jude, Shelley, Lisa, Marg, Julie, Marj, Ange and Sam came along to discuss this book. Welcome to our Literary Lesbian first-timers Shelley, Marg, Julie and Marj. Great to have you along!

We agreed that the book wasn't exactly high literature, but "it's amazing what you'll forgive if there's a lesbian plot"! Jude commented that she'd rather watch a good straight movie than a bad lesbian movie, and Julie pointed out that the problem was that those were generally the only two choices!

Julie pointed out that the characters in the book were fairly clumsy for surgeons! They were always hurting each other as an excuse for physical contact.

We laughed about how Pearce, after being hit on the head with a baseball bat during the car jacking, suddenly then wants kids.

We all agreed that the best bit of the book was when the two characters first met. We all knew then that they were going to end up shagging, but we had to wait until two-thirds of the way through the book before they finally got it together!

There was discussion about how the characters were again stereotypical cut-outs. The butch dyke, the femme-coming-out, the daughter "Ronnie" and the black friend.

As usual, the sex scenes were the subject of critical analysis and a reading-out-loud, to much laughter. Someone pointed out that there were 4 pages of foreplay and that it all took so damn long! Jude also commented on the fact that the two characters seemed to narrate their sexual encounters all the way through: they talked about who's doing what to whom, who's coming when, did you come, etc.

We wondered why lesbian characters in the past few books all had these ridiculous names (Pearce and Wynter in this one). We brainstormed some lesbian heroine names for future books: Cherry Bomb, Busty, Skip, Charity, Chastity, Blossom.

We chatted about the books we had read this year, and which we had loved and which we had hated. We mostly all liked Alma Rose, although Jude pointed out that it was exasperating for her and that the main character "should have just gone to uni and got a good degree"!

Literary Lesbians on JOY FM, 15 September 2008

2008-09-16T19:57:00.005+10:00

Sam and Sal joined Bridget Boson in the Campervan on JOY FM for an interview about book group.

You can hear a podcast of the interview by clicking here.

Here's a rough outline of how the interview progressed:

Why lesbian book group?
A good excuse to get the girls together over a wine. Bridge wonders whether we need a book group to do that - we explain that you learn all sorts of things you otherwise wouldn't know about each other when discussing books (especially when they involve lesbian sex scenes)! Bridge remembered that at the last book group dinner she saw that we were pretty tough critics on the sex scenes!

What were our favourite books?
Unanimous support for "The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse" by Mabel Maney. Bridge said that she loved Rubyfruit Jungle and we agreed that most of book group had enjoyed that book too. Sam also is a big fan of "The Straight Girl's Guide to Sleeping with Chicks" and explained how she had once bought three copies, much to the checkout operator's surprise. When she looked at Sam with wide eyes, Sam explained "they're gifts", at which her eyes opened even further and she blushed!

Is Sam seriously addicted to reading?
Yes, Sam is constantly reading: cereal packets, notices on trams, the fine print on the back of tickets....

Is text-messaging the new love letter?
Sam explains that she's more than happy with the idea. She'll accept love letters by smoke signal, carrier pigeon, email, text...

Why the name Literary Lesbians? It's kind of hard to say.
We thought of the L-Word, but there was already another group with that name. We also quite liked the Clit Lit book club. Bridge starts calling us the Cliterary Lesbians.

Bridge read our website and thought our competition for how to explain what a strap-on dildo was to customs was funny.
We read out some of the ideas.

What sort of books would you like to see more of?
Better plotlines. Not just the old cliche of confident butch lesbian seducing femme straight girl. More 'real' sex scenes. Discussion about how we are convinced that some of the books we've read were written by men.

What was the first lesbian book you read?
Sal - a pillow book of soft erotica.
Sam - Well of Loneliness

That's about all I can remember! There was quite a bit of laughter, and texts in from book group members and others listening. Thanks for your support everyone! Special thanks to Kel and Brooke who described Sam as "the next Alice Pieszeki" - the highest praise possible! ;)

Literary Lesbians in The Age newspaper, 26 August 2008

2008-09-16T19:54:00.002+10:00

Lesbian chick lit, Aussie crime or a bit of Harry Potter, whatever reading matter takes your fancy, there's a book group that's just right.

For marketing specialist Sally, 31, being part of the Literary Lesbian Book Club feeds both social and intellectual wants. The book club was started by her friend Samantha and another woman in May last year. "They were saying it would be really nice if they could read some literature either by lesbian authors or with lesbian themes," Sally says.

The group of 13 women, who range in age from early 20s to 40, meets every six weeks and welcomes new members (it is not a prerequisite to be a lesbian, although Sally says they have had only one member who wasn't).

The group researches authors, compiles a list of books, then votes, ending up with a final list of six to 10 books, most of which have to be ordered from overseas. Sally counts The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse by Mabel Maney as one of her favourites, although she says "some of the books we've read have been quite cheesy".

"It's certainly to get some more chick lit on our bookshelves that is lesbian themed, but it is also a bit of a social catch-up too. The last time I was looking around the room at all these really intelligent, great women and we were all just laughing away and it was just really, really nice."

http://www.theage.com.au

JULY: Hunters Way by Gerri Hill

2008-09-02T21:43:00.006+10:00

The usual suspects attended this month's book group, and a couple of new faces joined in the fun. Sal, Amanda, Lynnie, Ange, Sam, Kat, Jude, Jessica and Bridge were there. Not everyone had read the book, but who cares, attending our meetings is like reading the best bits without the effort. Sometimes they even get acted out for you (see below).

Kat entertained us by sharing with us her recent experiences at pole dancing classes, and we sympathised with her dad's difficulty in comprehending that she was attending both a lesbian book group AND pole dancing classes - two apparently diametrically opposed activities. Hey, she's an enigma, our Kat! Jude was seriously impressed. Kat explained that she had really sore thighs, and Jessica wanted to know whether that was because of pole dancing or something else. Sniggers all round. Next reading group will be at a venue with a pole, so Kat can show us her skills. Sam remembered that her mother had one of those poles with plant holders hanging off it...weird...!

Kat wanted to know why all the women in the books we have been reading have weird or androgynous names. Sam pointed out that in Hunters Way, one of the main characters was called Sam, and that wasn't weird. Although she admitted it was potentially androgynous. Ange pointed out that in the book, the character insisted on being called "Samantha" although Tori always called her Sam anyway. Lynnie (rather disdainfully) observed that "Tori changed all the rules."

Yes, you guessed it, Lynnie wasn't a big fan of the book. Everyone else was just so thrilled that there were decent lesbian sex scenes that they weren't going to let the lack of a plot, bad writing and dreadful stereotypes get in the way of their pleasure! Kat, our resident sexpert, was pretty happy with the sex scenes. Ange said that you "could tell that the book was actually written by a lesbian"! Phew! What a relief!

Sam has been travelling a lot lately, and found the book a great consolation while she was away from her girl.

Ange and Kat had a bit of trouble reading the scenes in public places. Ange was squirming on the tram. Kat was so caught up in the juicy bits while she was at the airport waiting for her girl to arrive from overseas, that she didn't even see her get off the plane. Worse, as her long-distance girlfriend approached for a passionate reunion, Kat greeted her with a wave of the hand and the instruction "Wait a sec, I just have to finish this bit of the book"! Lynnie demonstrated how she had had to re-enact the shower sex scene as, on first reading, she just couldn't figure out how it was actually working with the various body parts in seemingly unreachable places. All in the name of research, of course!

Bridge pointed out that the shower scene had no loofas, but definitely soap. Lynnie clarified: "There was no soap-on-a-rope though"!

Jessica came up with the sterling idea that we should list the page numbers of the best sex scenes from each book on the website. Once I find them again, and can concentrate on identifying the page numbers, I promise to list them.

Lynnie cracked up at the fact that the characters had to go to lesbo bars to solve crimes. In particular, she laughed at the fact that the out lesbian had to take the straight girl to the lesbian bars (visualise Lynnie humping Ange here) "oh hello, we're just working"!!! Ange, after getting her breath back, also cracks up at the fact that the straight girl, realising that she is about to go to a lesbian bar for the first time, decides......NOT TO WEAR A BRA!!!!! As you do.

Kat notes that Samantha becomes more butch as the book goes on. Sam agrees with Kat, and points out that she is surprised that Kat hasn't cut her hair short yet. Kat explains that she can't, as pole dancers need to be able to do the "flick" (visualise Kat flicking long blonde hair pole-dancer style here).

Jude didn't like the fact that both women were stereotypical "trauma survivors". Kat says that she was shocked by the rape scene and didn't understand what it brought to the story. We all agree that it was shocking, and also the fact that Tori and Samantha had sex so soon after it. Kat's words: "I mean, you've just been fucked violently by 4 men!" Lynnie thought that the rape scene wasn't contextual (Jude: like the baby that died in the last book) and also that it was a bad attempt to demonstrate that women don't need / are not affected by men. Bridge wondered if the publisher asked to have the rape scene included. Ange thought the scene was to emphasise that Tori was not there to look after Samantha. Kat groaned again about the whole butch/femme dichotomy. Jude also noted that Samantha didn't have a very butch boyfriend at the start of the book. Lynnie was angst-ridden about the fact that Samantha said something to Tori along the lines of "you can love again...". Lynnie said this line made her laugh out loud, wet her pants. Sam pointed out not the kind of wet your pants we are looking for. Everyone agreed that the book's biggest failing was that there were no scenes involving handcuffs. I mean, seriously, lesbian cops and no handcuffs??

Bridge asks what everyone thought of the punctuation and grammar in the book. Lynnie nearly bursts out of her chair to point out one glaring error that she had identified. Everyone laughs. Amanda reminds us that librarians are the profession most asked out on dates while they are at work.

Lynnie is annoyed that at least two of the chapters (20 and 26) start out almost exactly the same way. Samantha is sitting waiting for Amy, who is late. Lynnie is also annoyed that there are about 360 pages of Tori and Samantha ordering pizza and takeout. Kat thinks that this minor criticism was more than compensated for by the fact that the two women worked a lot of that off in other parts of the book!

Kat, Jessica and Jude read out one of the sex scenes. Kat narrates, Jessica reads Tori's role (which largely involves long deep and meaningful butch silences, Lynnie explains "you're the butch one, you don't have to do anything!") and Jude gives an all out logie award winning performance including sighs, moans and gasps. Ange asks whether that is a gun in her pocket. Jessica cracks us all up when she asks in the middle of the sex scene "sorry, what page are we on?" Kat tells her, it's 269. Jessica asks whether we can start off gently with just one 69, and not the whole hog. Bridge reminds us that the women are pigs (cops) after all. The theme continues with one of the characters "suckling" the other. Kat gets shy in the middle of the reading and asks if someone else can take over. Jessica says she doesn't mind swapping partners in the middle. Kat reassures her "I'm cool with it being the three of us". Jude 'hisses' one of her lines as instructed. Jessica quickly quips "oh great, girlfriend with parsel tongue"! The reading stops suddenly. There is a silence as everyone recomposes themselves. Ange asks "Is it over?" Everyone cracks up. Lynnie leaps up out of her chair and announces "Great, I'm going to have a cigarette then"!

Discussion follows about symbolism in old movies to indicate sex (e.g. characters having cigarette, train going into tunnel). We try to think about equivalent symbolism for lesbian sex. Ideas include:

waves lapping at shore
clams/oysters
food / eating (especially mangoes, lychees)
flowers, unfolding, light rain, dew on petals
eating cornetto ice cream from the bottom (Bridge decides this means you are bi).

Bridge also reveals that she owns a collapsable funnel. Kat asks whether it is tupperware. I have no idea where that conversation was going....

We decided that book group needed to branch out, and we wondered about an excursion (perhaps reviewing lesbian travel books by visiting the places mentioned and seeing if they lived up to the book)....Lynnie pointed out that the obvious first choice was to go to the States to see Missy Higgins supporting the Indigo Girls in concert. Yes, it's true!

Oh, and Jessica contributed a few last minute comments on last month's competition to come up with an excuse for Kira next time she was detained at customs for having obscene material in her luggage. Jessica wasn't quite sure why Kira had been detained and assumed it was because she was carrying a weapon of mass orgasms. She and Sal also came up with the idea of explaining the straps as a guide dog harness, and the dildo as a guide dog prophylactic. Foolproof.

Kat wants to know if anyone reading the blog has been to Girlfest, and if so, what was it like? I mean, how bad can it be, a bunch of lesbians in the pool of a posh resort?

Thanks all for another entertaining and educative evening!

Literary Lesbians Word Cloud

2008-08-21T19:27:00.005+10:00

A word-cloud of our blog, created by Wordle (click to enlarge):

JUNE: A Curious Intimacy

2008-08-03T20:21:00.006+10:00

It was a small gathering for this month’s book, just Sam, Ange, Kat, Sally and Jude, but there was no shortage of discussion! General consensus was that this book wasn’t great. Not as bad as Beneath the Willow, but not good either. Lynnie couldn’t make it to dinner, but sent a message with her thoughts about the book. She thought the book was “badly written, almost as bad as Beneath the Willow. It was very disappointing, especially as it was marketed as a 'literary' type novel.”

Sam started the discussion by quoting something she read on the web: “This book has martyr written all over it”. Jude responded with an interesting question: “Which one did you think was the martyr?” Interesting discussion followed about whether Ingrid or Ellyn were more like martyrs in the story.

Sam thought the book was a rip-off of The Well of Loneliness. Supportive father, no mother (very Disney!), horse riding, fox hunting, married woman who breaks the ‘real’ lesbian’s heart.

We spoke briefly about the botanical references (Jude thought she didn’t do her research very well about that) and how many seemed to imply reference to female genitalia. We weren’t sure about the appropriate female equivalent to the word ‘phallic’ and wondered about ‘vaginal’, ‘labial’ or ‘clitoral’ imagery. Sal told us about a meditation retreat during which one of of the gods at the front of the room was holding something between his hands and it looked very clitoral. Every time she opened her eyes she got very distracted!

Kat quite liked the book (although she thought that maybe she just liked it compared with Beneath the Willow, the book we all hated from the month before last). She thought that it was weird that, for the era of the book, it was page 186 before anyone asked Ingrid where her husband was, or why she was not married.

Sal pointed out that the book was very basically written, and that the author had described everything in minute detail, much of which was so irrelevant. Ange noted that the author had been deaf since the age of 4, and wondered whether the intense visual imagery might be related to that fact. Jude thought the book needed a good editor, and that writing in a style other than first person might have helped.

Ange quite liked it when she started, thinking that the concept of the book (lesbian, Australian, botanical themes, set in the 1800s) was a good one. But things went downhill.

Sally thought that the author kept using bigger words to try to sound more literary or more interesting, but that it just didn’t work. For example, page 8:

What I really wanted was to set up camp before nightfall, but the woman peturbed me.
‘Just one cup?’ she asked. ‘I should be glad of the company.’
‘Well, perhaps a quick one,’ I conceded.
Mrs Ives smiled. I followed her up the steps to the house, the dog sniffing my boot. I supposed he could smell the wound.

Kat laughed and said, ‘yeah, that bit read like: I thought you were weird but I decided to stay for a lovely cup of tea anyway’!

Sal was waiting for the wound to have some significance.

Sal also pointed out that this book, like many others we’ve read, had the same stereotypes over and over again. A strong masculine woman, earthy and ‘of the land’ and a frail femine one. Sam explained: ‘real lesbians are earthy’! One woman who pursues the other and is confident in her lesbianism and feelings, and the other who take ages to ‘give in’ to the other. Very Mills & Boon.

Ange was just disappointed that there was no minature horse in the book. We all cracked up remembering Barney from Beneath the Willow.

Jude thought it was amazing that Ellyn hadn’t topped herself after losing her child and having no support. In those days people didn’t acknowledge that grief. Babies died often, there were no grief counsellors. Jude was pretty angry with Ingrid. Ellyn was having a breakdown about the death of her child, and Ingrid was petulantly saying ‘don’t you want to be with me?’ Sal agreed that Ingrid didn’t portray Ellyn as a grieving mother, but as a needy person.

Ange thought that Ingrid would have ‘shagged anyone she stumbled across in the bush’! Jude said she was really needy. Sam described her as a martyr.

Kat was so glad that she didn’t give in to Helena at the end.

Sal was frustrated by the part where Ingrid was saying goodbye to Mr Phillips. Mr Phillips was described as getting uncomfortable when he was giving her the present. The way it was described Ingrid was very knowing and self-sufficient – there was no real explanation about why Mr Phillips was uncomfortable. The author made it sound really significant but it was rather strange – niaive perspective. Jude agreed that the book had lots of loose ends.

Kat also pointed out that the author alluded a lot to other relationships not being perfect, but never really reached any point. The book explored some turbulent relationships. Jude thought she was trying to show hypocrisy.

There was some discussion about whether or not Ellyn was actually gay, and whether or not you could/should define gay anyway.

Sal wondered why nobody ever confronted Margaret. Kat also wondered why Ellyn didn’t confront her husband about why he had changed.

Ange said that he knew something was going on and didn’t want to know, so was in denial by drinking.

Kat described Ingrid as Daddy Warbucks with all her money, trying to be Ellyn’s sugar mummy.
Jude really liked the last page, especially the bit about people reaching their limits and having had enough. Kat was surprised by the emotional depth Ingrid found at the end, deciding to wait for Ellyn to come to her. Sal said “thank god”!

As usual, Kat was our expert critic about the sex scenes, and was again disappointed! She pointed out that the characters didn’t really seem to enjoy sex, there was no real indulgence, and Ingrid didn’t seem to get any real pleasure at all. We defined a new term for this kind of sex ‘perfuctory’.

Kat wondered whether readers are not ready to hear/read about lesbians who don’t fit stereotypes? Like wearing dresses and lipstick? We told her to google Deborah Hutton!

Last month we ended with a competition: everyone had to come up with imaginative explanations for Kira to use next time she is held up at customs in Fiji with a dildo, about why it is not ‘obscene material’. Here are some of the ideas we came up with:

TV award

Zucchini stuffer

Holiday game (stand for quoits)

Giant ice cube tray

HIV educational tool

Truncheon for personal safety

Tampon for heavy flow

A cake icer

Water pistol

Ergonomic pencil holder

Bangle stand

Fashion accessory (strap-on broach)

Fancy dress nose

Exercise dumbell

Fertility symbol

Massager

Rolling pin

MAY: The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse

2008-07-20T17:35:00.007+10:00

Kira, Sal, Lisa, Loz, Lynnie, Sam and Ange (with a late appearance by Shar and special guest appearance by Laura) had a simply smashing time at this week's book group. It was a rather gay affair, and we all had a nutritious snack to calm the nerves and help us concentrate on the serious task of analysing this month's book.

Last month we all pretty much loathed the book. This month we had 100% agreement: this book was totally brilliant! We were initially caught off guard by its cheesiness but soon realised that this book was so, so, so, so much more. It’s very, very funny and extremely clever. Lisa really set the scene by calling on us all to “embrace our inner cheesiness”. Gradually, the sheer brilliance of the book crept up on us… as we read on we realised how deliberate and very witty Mabel Maney’s writing is.

There was something in this book for everybody….it was a hilarious piss-take on our favourite childhood books like Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. In The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse, the main character was Cherry Aimless (based on another heroine from that era, Cherry Aimes) a dutiful nurse on her first vacation to visit her Aunt in San Francisco. Along the way she has many gay adventures and meets up with Nancy Clue, famous girl detective.

Sally tracked down a quote from the author, Mabel Maney, which we thought pretty much summed it all up: “For a long time I thought I wanted to be a nun. Then I realised that what I really wanted to be was a lesbian.” Slightly off topic, but fabulous nevertheless, was a similar quote Sally found by Kate Clinton, Americal political lesbian comedian: “Some women can’t say the word lesbian, even when their mouth is full of one”!

The book has a major uniform theme which appealed to our readers this month (especially Lynnie). There were nuns, nurses, policewomen.…and also a bit of detective bondage thrown in for good measure. Midge asks Cherry “How do you feel about girls in uniform?” and Cherry blushes, secretly thinking that she does find girls in uniform quite dashing! Lynnie was particularly taken by the “nursey stuff” (actually, I think we all like a good game of nurses and nurses!) Lynnie was also impressed by Cherry’s quick changes, and that she wore at least three different outfits every day!

For those of us obsessed with stereotypes and labels, there were lessons in ‘butch’. Poor Cherry, disguised in men’s slacks and shirt, was a little concerned about her cross-dressing experience. Midge explains, “No self-respecting butch would ever be seen with a purse.” “But where will I keep my lipstick?” Cherry gasped. “And who is this Butch person you’re always talking about?” Sal also loved the reference to the ‘big boned girl in a chiffon dress’ who she meets at the drag show.

Sal gave a great example of the book’s clever nuances, with veiled references to Doris Day and Greta Garbo. In one scene, Cherry recognises a woman in a bar as being a movie star, but can’t remember her name. Cherry exclaims “I know your face” as the actress gets a little fresh (or was her hand on Cherry’s thigh merely an accident?). As Cherry politely excused herself, the actress got the hint and said “Que sera sera.”

Ange loved the fact that Cherry is so naïve and yet so completely gay! She misses all the clues (no pun intended) that she is entering a world of lesbians. She just stumbles across women and finds them rather attractive, and doesn’t think twice about her desire to spend a lot more time with a number of girls she meets along the way. Sam identified with Cherry in this respect, reminiscing about her ‘very bestest friends’ from school, from whom she was inseparable. Lisa admitted that this keeps happening to her at work - visualise Lisa hanging around water cooler waiting for cute girls to come by! (Luckily Laura had not arrived yet to hear her girlfriend say this!)

Lynnie was in hysterics at all the things that Cherry carried in her purse (such as the handy rope she was able to produce just in time to tie up a bad guy). Lynnie joked that Cherry wasn’t gay, she was just ‘practical’! She loved how the nuns were all completely self-sufficient.

Lynnie also had a startling revelation: maybe her childhood hero, Trixie Belden, was gay too! Ange reveals that she always wanted to be Nancy Drew. Lynnie loved the way the girls rock up to Cherry’s mum’s house and they all hit the road, without a second thought.

Serious discussion about the role of men in the book. Sally asks “what’s with Cherry’s dad?” – he doesn’t even come and say hello when Cherry arrives home after a long absence. Kira noted that the men were all bad, unless they were gay. Loz was disgusted by how irritating Cherry’s dad was when he was sick. Ange pointed out that Cherry’s dad was probably typical of a man of that era. Lisa asked why Cherry’s brother had to be gay. Kira and Sam both agreed that it was simply because it was funny! We also cracked up about how Aunt Gert, 'who had never married', had a falling out with her brother (Cherry’s father) after she became fast friends with the town librarian, Miss Hathaway, and was found ‘napping’ with her one afternoon. Aunt Gert moved to San Franciso soon afterwards!

Some of our favourite parts of the book:

p.47
Cherry walks into a bar and tells a ‘handsome looking girl’ that she is looking for a telephone.
“I’ve got a telephone back at my place,” the girl replied, between puffs on her cigarette. “You’re welcome to it.”
“What a nice girl,” Cherry thought….A private telephone would certainly be more convenient.
“That would be great!” Cherry cried. “I don’t mean to be pushy, but can we go right now?”
The girl whistledlow under her breath. “I like pushy,” she said….

p.109
Cherry is getting up close and personal with a ‘rather attractive’ girl she has just met in a bar. The girl surveyed Cherry, looking her up and down. She whistled, a long, low appreciative whistle. Cherry dropped her coat.
“It’s a full moon,” the girl said. “You never know what will happen.”
A shiver went down Cherry’s back, for she was having that very same thought.
Cherry began to wish she has worn panties. She had decided against them so as to preserve the line of her dress, but they would be a big help right now.

The book was forgotten as Kira told us her terrifying (but funny in the safety of Australian lesbian-friendly society) story of her recent trip to Fiji with her girlfriend, when they were detained in customs after they found a dildo in their suitcase. The experience must have been really frightening, but we were soon in fits of giggles at the imagery and the ridiculousness of the whole situation. Lisa’s quote of the moment was “Hi, welcome to Fiji, and have a lei – oh no, they took that away from us!”

APRIL: Beneath the Willow

2008-05-28T20:06:00.004+10:00

After a summer hiaitus, the literary lesbians snuggled up under their doonas and got back into the books. Sadly, our first book of the year was a complete fizzer. For once, everyone actually agreed with one another - this book was AWFUL!

Kat, Lisa, Shar, Sam, Ange, Amanda, Kira, Sally and Lynnie had an absolute ball discussing this novel. Highlight of the night was Lynnie and Sally's performances: Lynnie would narrate parts of the book while Sally would act them out to demonstrate how ridiculous the descriptions were. Visualise: "Paris gave a weak smile and nodded in agreement, tears still occasionally filling her eyes and spilling out....She sat down on the bumper of her car and allowed the breeze to stir her hair...A shiver ran up her back and made her shudder..."

Kat summarised the book's contribution to lesbian fiction as follows: "If I was a straight girl and I read that and thought that was what lesbian sex was all about I wouldn't try it"! We all cracked up laughing at phrases like "mounds rubbing" and "her musky womanness" (Sal quickly turned this last one into a deodorant commercial).

Overall we agreed that this book was so overdone with cliches that it was painful. Lynnie and Sal pointed out that you could find at least one cliche per page - usually many more. Sal read out the author's profile at the back of the book and laughed about how even that was full of cliches. We all rolled our eyes at the line "she is once again back where bare feet, faded jeans and lazy streams fill her life"...oh, puhleez! Lynnie said that you could almost complete all the sentences without having to read the end of each one (...except that she would never complete sentences in such a dreadfully cliched way)!

Kat wondered whether the author had written a standard heterosexual Mills & Boon type novel and had just done a find-and-replace to change all references to "he" to "she" to make it a lesbian love story. Lisa thought that the author probably wrote it as a heterosexual love story and then thought this is such crap that nobody will buy it - so let's make it a lesbian story because there's nothing much in that market so I'll have more chance of selling it! Lisa did point out that the one (small) thing in the book's favour was that it didn't have a whole lot of the typical political lesbian stuff. Sam said that she thought maybe the book was self-published!

Ange thought that even the font on the front cover was bad! She also pointed out that the book was supposedly about strong characters but they were really quite pathetic. For example, Paris's way of dealing with the real estate agent was hopeless. Sal said that the book kind of reminded her of an earlier book we read "Between Mom and Jo" in that the couple was quite stereotyped. Paris was like Mom (the driven strong lesbian) and Sloane was like Jo (the kind of down to earth sensitive one). We all made loud 'eeeew' noises to the names Paris and Sloane. Kat thought it was a bit odd that Paris didn't recognise Sloane when she first met her at the house (when she had just recently been thinking about her and all the old memories).

Kat liked the fact that Sloane went out of her comfort zone to chase her girl to the big city. Sal said that Paris was a bitch. Lynnie responded indignantly: "hey, she was hurt Sal"! Despite the fact that we all thought the book was terrible, we also all read it right to the end and frequently in a very short space of time. It was easy to read and somehow, despite the dreadful writing, we had to get to the oh-so-predictable end.

There was some discussion about Paris's grandma's spirit hanging over the house and the theme of the place of connection. Kat said that if Paris really thought this then she'd track down the original bathtub and chandelier and restore the house to its former glory. Sam said that as a cardiac surgeon, she wanted sensor lights and a spa.

Ange pointed out that Sloane never actually asked what Paris did for work. Lynnie's quote of the night was "that's because she just wanted to slam her". Kat really thought that there should have been a scene where they played doctors and nurses.

Everyone agreed that the best character in the book was Barney the horse, and we laughed about the confusion where Paris thought that it was actually Sloane caught in her burning house. Bad taste jokes about barbequed pony and the fact that Sloane was obviously very short and horsey looking followed.

We discussed whether or not the author was actually a lesbian. Sam joked that the author was probably a teenage boy, but Kat pointed out that if a male had written it the sex scenes would have been hotter! Kat thought that given the dreadful sex scenes, the author must be either straight or a lesbian virgin!

Lynnie pointed out that the chapter of avoidance, where Paris returns to the city and Sloane couldn't contact her, was supposed to build suspense but in fact it was so obvious what was happening. Lisa agreed that the plot was really not sophisticated. Kat reminded us that the sex was crap. Sal agreed that there was very little interaction between them during the sex scenes. One of them was always fully clothed and just pleasuring the other. There was no mutuality.

Sal and Sam both drew Freudian type of drawings about what the lake, the island and the weeping willow looked like to demonstrate that it was just a metaphor for the female genitals. Judging by the quality of their artwork, neither of them got very far past cut-and-paste at kindy.

OH! And this was our one-year anniversary of the Literary Lesbians Reading Group! A milestone for well read lesbians of Melbourne! CHEERS!

JANUARY: Between Mom and Jo

2008-03-27T10:31:00.003+11:00

Reading group this month was a little overshadowed by the festival of Ange. Lots of people turned up for dinner to celebrate her birthday, but not much discussion took place about the book! Sal, Tina, Amanda, Ange, Sam and Jude had read the book. Shell, Laura and Nai hadn’t read the book but came along anyway. Lynnie dropped in to say hello as well. We thought she was out on a hot date (embarrassingly at the same restaurant where we all turned up for reading group) but she denied this!

Sal’s initial impression of the book was that she didn’t like the use of “Mom” which made her feel that the book was very Americanised. She also questioned whether we, as readers, started to turn away from Mom because her son Nick did. She noted that Nick had more of a relationship with his Mom at the start.

Jude pointed out that Mom’s voice was completely silenced and she was kind of invisible in the story. Jude also felt that Mom completely shut down because she was exhausted, but Nick couldn’t see that because he was an egocentric 13 year old.

We all agreed that it was terrible that Mom denied Nick contact with Jo.

Sal thought it was beautiful that Nick called his non-biological mother his real Mom. She also really enjoyed the book for its child’s perspective on having same-sex parents.

Jude felt that they were isolated as a family and that there was no sense of community.

Tina really liked the part of the book where they were spitting watermelon pips. She didn’t like the fact that Jo made Nick lie to Mom. Tina didn’t like Mom at all and thought she was manipulative. Jude and Sam disagreed and said that they empathised with Mom.

Tina also pointed out that when Nick let the fish die, it was like a part of him died. Sam was amused by him dying all his clothes black, but Tina thought that was manipulative.

OCTOBER: Rubyfruit Jungle

2007-12-03T19:43:00.000+11:00

A small but very vocal group met to discuss Rubyfruit Jungle, promoted as "Sam's Favourite Book of the Year"!

Tina also loved the book - she could read it on a beach, and not even go for a swim, it was so good! Sam read it on a plane in one go. So did Rosie.

Strangely, discussion began not with the heroine of the story, Molly, but with her closeted friend Leroy and his coming out 'issues'. Tina felt sorry for Leroy. He was boyish and didn't have the charms of Molly. He feared what others would think of him (if he came out). He doesn't want to go against the grain. Jude said she thought he was just a bit slow. In comparison, Molly's intellect allowed her to go against the grain and be her true self. Leroy did not have the inner resiliance. Jude revealed that the first girl she kissed is now married (like Leroy).

Sam said that she liked the character of Molly so much that she would have named her dog after her if she had read the book in time. (Note: Sam's dog's name is Corky, named after Gina Gershon's character in that terrible movie Bound).

There was some discussion about the ending and whether or not it was disappointing. Some thought that it was good because it didn't 'sell out' with a happy-ever-after. Others thought it was a bit depressing.

[I guess the debate here got a little heated between Sam and Rosie, as the notes read: "Boxing gloves on: Sam in the red corner, Rosie in the blue. Ding Ding!" Very funny girls!]

Tina liked the movie that Molly made and the 'loud silence' that was the reaction when her movie was shown.

We discussed the fact that the book is based loosely on the author, Rita Mae Brown's own life - we wondered whether she didn't end up making 'the' movie, so wrote the book instead. We all thought that Rubyfruit Jungle would make a terrific movie - but who would we cast as the lead role?

Sam could relate to the way Molly just did her own thing. Rosie thought that Molly was too idealistic in her integrity. Sam and Rosie entered into a heated discussion (sigh...) about whether or not Molly / Sam / Rosie was 'integrated'. Rosie and Sam at least agreed that Molly didn't want to be a man (see previous entry about Well of Loneliness).

Tina thought that the salsa music on in the background sucked.

We discussed how Molly was often emotionless as a way of protecting herself.

Tina likes small thin books with big (fat) print.

Rosie and Sam argue about whether there is a difference between being "integrated" and being "tolerated". Sam says that Rosie is so integrated that she not actually gay. Tina says "well she f...'s like she is". Laughter all round. Discussion about whether Molly could have been more integrated. Ange says she tried. Discussion about whether Molly's identity was founded in her sexuality. "Society says yes, Molly says no."

Discussion disintegrates and we refer to the very useful SparkNotes on the book. We crack up at the quote about the drainpipes in the book symbolising the vagina.

Thanks Ange for very interesting transcribing this month.

SEPTEMBER: Wild Surmise

2007-11-03T14:53:00.000+11:00

Our LL group started off as usual this month, with a round up of who's being doing what and whom over teh last month! These meetings are like a monthly lesbian culture update!

The only two people who read Wild Surmise this month were Sam and Ange, although Amy, Lynnie and Amanda turned up on the night anyway to hear all about it. For those of you who haven't read the book yet, it's entirely in verse, which at first is a little weird, but after a while you don't even notice any more.

The book took a while to get into because the seemingly abstract references to Europa and astronomy in the first few pages didn't make much sense. It's only later, as you get to know the characters, that you start to see the bigger metaphors throughout the book.

Wild Surmise is a book about infidelity and obsession. The main character, Alex, is a married woman who has a passionate and ultimately unrewarding affair with another woman, Phoebe. Alex is astronomy's glamour girl. Phoebe is an aloof and unreachable genius who specialises in black holes. There's something Freudian in that. Alex's husband Daniel is an academic whose area is literature. Towards the end of the book he discovers his wife's affair and is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and his world starts falling apart. However, the book is not really about him, it's about Alex.

Alex is not a very likeable character. Actually, none of the characters were particularly likeable, although it was easy to feel sorry for Daniel.

Astronomy is a central subject / theme throughout the book. Alex's futile search for water (and thus the likelihood of life) on the planet Europa seems to represent the central problem facing all the characters in the book - they are all looking for something that doesn't exist. Sam summed it up by saying the book was about futility and "they are all fucking miserable"! Amy's favourite theme of alienation was also obviously apparent in a slightly different form from usual - Alex's search for alien life forms.

Sam and Ange agreed that the language in the book was beautiful and it was well written. There were some similarities in style (apart from the poetry of course) to Janette Winterson. The characters all underwent some kind of important discovery but their discovery was also tinged with something bad - there was an underlying constant negative current throughout the book. The main character Alex demonstrates obsessive addictive behaviour.

One of the reviews of the book made a point that the author appeared to value the heterosexual relationship over the lesbian one in the story. Lynnie pointed out that this was stupid, as it defined the author by her sexuality and also the characters. We all discussed the fact that relationships are relationships, whether or not they are lesbian or heterosexual, and that Porter was an author who wrote insightfully, and often painfully, about relationships.

This book is about competing desires, and in a sense the impossibility of having everything you want. The characters all learn hard lessons in the end, making the story a classically tragic one.

The book was set in Melbourne and had many references to local places with which the LL's were familiar.

Amy made the point that Porter used few words to describe a scene or situation. Amy's actual words were something like "less is more (except when it comes to bling)"!

Conversation about the book was quickly overtaken by popular culture, with excited discussion about Season 4 of the L Word. Ange was excited to hear that Carmen was in a new show called Life.

There was also some entertaining banter about ex-sex and comfort-sex, and lesbian sex agencies; stalkers; being single; staying away from straight girls; next year's Mardi Gras, and PMT.

Quotes of the month:

Sam (discussing how her and Ange's cycles are not yet in sync, so they each have PMT at different times): "Half our lives are shit!"

Someone else, commenting on how lesbians tend to move in together really quickly, pointed out that it wasn't really that quick because "lesbian years are like dog years"!

AUGUST: Winter Warmers

2007-09-05T21:19:00.001+10:00

Well, this month's reading group meeting was an absolute riot. Thanks to Ange for hosting and for proving that she is, in fact, Nigella Lawson in disguise. Those baby quiches were divine (and oh so gay)!

There was a selection of books for us to have a giggle about this month. And I think many went home on loan to people other than their owners! At first everyone just kind of nervously looked at the selection in the middle of the floor. Everyone except for Lynnie, that is, who was reading away as fast as she could and looked quite peturbed when the discussion started to interrupt her education!

Sal took the lead by reading out some of her favourite parts of Box Lunch. There was general hilarity at chapters entitled things like "Learn to Love your Butt" (or was it more graphic than that?)! Box Lunch also had quite an extensive list of terms for vagina, which led to more laughter. The Straight Girl's Guide to Sleeping with Chicks was also good value, particularly for its definitions of terms such as "Lickety Split", "Hasbian", "Pillow Queen" and "Vanilla Lesbian". The group had quite a vocabulary lesson!

There was some debate about the veracity of some of the claims made. For example, is it REALLY true that all women can orgasm after 20 minutes of clitoral stimulation? Rosie's quote of the night: "Twenty minutes? That seems a bit long"! Nai also gets a special mention for her consistent theme of "it's all about me" - could she be a "pillow queen"?!!! Not surprisingly, the conversation got sidetracked into sex toys and their size, colour, appropriate use and pet names! Sam also shared her wealth of knowledge about dental dams (based on years of involvement with AIDS Councils, not so much personal experience)!

I'm not sure how much else I can write here without breaking the rules: What is said at book group stays at book group!

The night ended with everyone playing The L-Game, currently in prototype form. Even though things were a little bit unfinished, and the dice-spinner-thingy kept sticking, the game seemed to be a success. Amy thought it was a little bit too much like real life, especially when her game-girlfriends dumped her and took all her money! Amy's rendition of the cheer routine for the Sappho Soccer Team was truly inspired. Closely followed by Lynnie singing the words from a part of The Straight Girl's Guide to Sleeping with Chicks to the tune of Advance Australia Fair. Sally's ten pushups were also an inspiration to us all.

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode in the lives of the Literary Lesbians!

Oh, and please note that we've had to change the order of the books for the next three months due to difficulties getting hold of Cat Catcher in time for September. Wild Surmise is now the next book on the list. See you in early October to talk about that one.

JULY: The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

2007-08-08T21:16:00.000+10:00

First of all we have to recognise the dedication of one of our reading group members, Amy, who stayed up until 1.30am on the morning of our meeting to finish the book (unlike most of the others). Hard core.

We should also welcome our new members Rosie, Tina and Lisa, all of whom were enthusiastic contributors to the discussion.

Lynnie also put in an enormous effort researching all there is to know about Radclyffe Hall, the era in which she lived, and 'the bible of lesbianism'. Lynnie pointed out that the novel is now 80 years old, having been published for the first time in 1928. This was the same year that women in the UK got the vote, and was only one year after 80 men were arrested in the UK for homosexual solicitation. Sexual acts between women were not criminalised, largely because they were not recognised. Previously, only a few novels written by women had hinted at or contained lesbian themes. Interestingly, Orlando by Virginia Woolf, in which the lead character changes from a man to a woman, was published in the same year.

Radclyffe Hall published 8 novels and 5 volumes of poetry. Another of her novels, 'Adam's Breed', published in 1926 won the James Tait and Prix Femina prizes - the only other novel to have won both of these was EM Forster's 'A Passage to India'.

The Well of Loneliness was banned in the UK soon after publication, but was still available from France by mail order. A court case to ban the book in the USA was not successful. The book was republished in the UK in 1949 after Hall's death.

Lynnie almost didn't get to finish her presentation about Radclyffe Hall's life because the heated debate started almost immediately. The first hot topic of discussion was whether the lead character, Stephen, wanted to be a man or was in fact effectively a male trapped in a woman's body.

Someone suggested that the problem was that Stephen grew up not knowing that she was a lesbian, 'unlike us' who have grown up in a culture in which lesbians are more visible and more accepted. Quite a few of 'us' then piped up to say that we didn't know we were lesbians, or even what a lesbian was, until quite late. So the societal difference wasn't as great as it might have initially appeared. However, gender roles have changed and it may be that Stephen was just a product of her times. She may not actually have wanted to be man, but simply have the rights of a man at that time.

Rosie thought that Stephen wanted to be a man, pointing out that Stephen had in fact expressed this desire, and then behaved as if she was a boy by dressing as a boy, engaging in male activities such as riding astride and fencing, and wishing she could play with the other boys. Ange and Lisa pointed out that they always played sport and wrestled with the boys when they were younger, and Amy said that she felt uncomfortable in a dress, but none of them wanted to be a boy.

Then followed the old "nature versus nurture" debate. We talked about how Stephen's father had wanted a boy, gave Stephen a boy's name, and encouraged her to engage in typically male activities. Sal asked whether or not behaviour and characteristics such as those displayed by Stephen, are innate and different from sex. She noted that some behaviours seem to be gender identified, and referred to twin children (one boy and one girl) she knew who behaved differently. There was quite a lot of discussion about how much social expectations impacted on the behaviour of particular genders. Sal said that Stephen's feelings for Collins at such a young age were not created by nurture, and this supported her 'nature' argument.

The character Valerie Seymour was discussed, as she didn't seem to fit the author's apparent definition of an 'invert' - a person who displays the characteristics and behaviour of the opposite sex. However, we noted that the author appeared only to approve of those relationships between two women, one of whom was the typical 'invert' and the other of whom was more apparently 'straight' and feminine. The other couples referred to in the book, male and female, who did not fit this heterosexual paradigm, were somehow thought of as 'deviant' by Stephen.

Lynnie pointed out that within society at the time, the only way Stephen could see herself being accepted, was if she fell within a relationship that closely mimicked the heterosexual paradigm. This meant that she had to identify as a 'man'. Sam also pointed out that Stephen valued the fact that she had a woman's insight in writing her novels. Rosie was not 100% convinced, but conceded that she didn't have enough evidence to support her earlier claim that Stephen wanted to be a man.

There was some discussion about whether or not Radclyffe Hall had to support her argument for the recognition and acceptance of the invert by making Stephen very masculine.

Sam also pointed out that Radclyffe Hall tended to have martyr themes in quite a few of her novels. We discussed how when Stephen was trying to feel Collin's pain, she was searching for martyrdom from the beginning, and this created an expectation for her that love = pain which continued throughout her relationships.

Radclyffe Hall was herself a strict Catholic, and her way of reconciling her faith with her invert status was to believe that God created everyone for a reason, and the invert's lot was to suffer. Sal pointed out that with this logic, Stephen couldn't see any way around her suffering. She couldn't be true to herself without hurting others (e.g. Mary).

We discussed the almost maternal nature of the love between Stephen and Mary and why Radclyffe Hall portrayed it in this way. It was suggested that this was to 'normalise' or to make more acceptable their love. We noted that there was never any explicit physical contact described between them. In fact the most that was said to imply a sexual relation between them was "And that night they were not divided". Rosie's quote of the night "But let's face it, it's dirty!" (Rosie made some other hilarious comment about 'ham fisted boxes' but I can't remember for the life of me the context in which that comment was made!)

The general consensus was that everyone enjoyed the first part of the novel, particularly the part in which Stephen was growing up. However, everyone agreed that the last third of the book became "preachy" which "pissed Amy off" (but as she said, all books piss her off in some way). We agreed that we all felt rather alienated (that's a word that has to be used at least five times at every meeting) by the religious overtones. In particular we found that to be something likely to annoy people of our generation, although at the time the book was written religion was much more a part of everyday life.

Some people were disappointed at the inevitable tragic ending, but as Sally said, 'happy endings don't incite change'.

Lynnie noted that the fact that we still found so much to discuss about the book some 80 years later was something that would have made Radclyffe Hall feel as though she had achieved at least part of her goal.

Literary Lesbians Tagged

2007-08-08T21:00:00.001+10:00

Daniela tagged us and asked us to tell her eight random facts/habits about ourselves. So here we go:

Amy used to hustle pool in high school instead of going to class. She also has slight OCD and requires the toilet paper to roll over the top - she even changes rolls at other peoples' houses. Oh, and she used to do archery.

Jude chose to have a baby on her own, although she wonders whether that's interesting or just mad.

Lynnie likes reading, loves Missy Higgins, likes long walks on the beach, and her nickname is 'Zilda'.

Sally has recently taken up stomping on towels for exercise (oh, and to mop up the water that she flooded her apartment with). Her random fact is 'don't forget the overhang on the washing machine'.

Laura started the first gay surf group in Melbourne in 2003, originally called Surfin' Gayfari, and now known as Bent Boards.

Ange can't brush her teeth standing up straight. She also once met Germaine Greer but accidently mistook her for Colleen McCullough, which didn't go down well!

Sam still hasn't lived down her fleeting moment of fame when, at the age of 10, her quote and her name was read out on The Kenny Everett Video Show. The quote was "You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose". It was cool at the time, but not at the age of 15 when the show was repeated.

JUNE: Alma Rose by Edith Forbes

2007-07-04T18:22:00.000+10:00

Discussion started with the controversial statement: Alma Rose is a 'player'. Sally leapt to her defence, arguing that she 'simply had a commitment problem'. But isn't that part of the definition of a player? Heated discussion followed. Alma Rose never shared her address, details of her life, with Pat. Pat knew what Alma Rose was like - she had a choice. Alma Rose never lied about her inability to settle down. Pat always knew that she would leave one day and not come back. Pat never asked Alma Rose to stay.

This led to a discussion about whether or not Pat was a 'victim'. Was Pat a complete pushover? Did Alma Rose simply 'feed off her'? Or did Alma Rose do all the work, 'fixing' Pat. Ange suggested that Alma Rose saw Pat as a challenge, Caroline said it was more like she saw her as a game (that she was playing?). Quote of the night from Caroline: "I think she was pathological"!

Sal said that she respected Alma Rose for not coming back. That she didn't give in to her ego and come back to see the sculpture and gloat about it.

Sal also described Alma Rose's influence on Pat as "People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime". Alma Rose wasn't the lifetime type, but she definitely was a big influence on Pat for the better. She brought Pat out of her shell, encouraged her to be more independent of her father, and gave her the motivation to do something really BIG with her life - literally.

Amy pointed out that she was disappointed that the main character in this novel, Pat, was again a kind of social outcast. That in a way her oddness ("You always were an odd child Pat") was in the end encapsulated by her sexuality. As her father said when he discovered her and Alma Rose in a compromising situation: "Oh, so that's it, you're just a queer!"

Lynnie wondered whether there was a book out there with a strong lesbian lead who was not somehow the odd one out. Where the story was not about her discovering her sexuality, learning to fit in, based on 'classic techniques of alienation'. Lynnie suggested maybe one of the lesbian detective novels would break this mould. However, coincidentally, in the latest edition of MCV, there's an article about queer crime fiction. In the last paragraph author Lindy Cameron explains: "a lot of the heros of crime fiction are loners and outsiders...So when you have a private eye who traditionally walks the streets on his or her own, then the perfect person to play that role is another of society's outsiders, the gay or lesbian". Is there no hope for the strong, independent, non-alienated lesbian heroine?

Amy and I were both a bit sceptical about the introduction of Donna in the second half of the book, although we were also pleased that whether or not she and Pat ended up in a relationship was left unsettled. It did seem a little too convenient that suddenly another lesbian arrives in town and falls in love with the only other lesbian around.

At around this point I got so involved in the discussion that I forgot to take notes about what everyone said next, so please feel free to add to this by posting comments to fill in the gaps!

I thought I'd finish with a quote from a reader's review I found on the net, that I think sums up what makes this novel such a joy to read:

"It is about a love so big outsiders can't see it. It is about being changed so much by love, waking up so much, that trivial things like 'facts' and broken hearts don't matter any more. It's about owning your own life, and never being a victim. This is a book about the wisdom of learning that what happens TO you doesn't matter so much as how you respond."

MAY: The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

2007-05-24T21:05:00.000+10:00

Our discussion of The Night Watch started with a quote from Kay in the novel:

"People's pasts, you know, being so much more interesting than their futures."

This led into a discussion about Sarah Waters' use of tense in the novel. Although I think we all agreed that it was an interesting technique, and that in one sense it kept us in suspense while we were waiting to discover how the characters had ended up where they were in the start of the novel, most of us found it rather irritating. Interestingly, nearly everyone went back and read the beginning of the book again after finishing it.

We also discussed the way in which this book differed from Sarah Waters' earlier novels - particularly that one of the things we loved about her earlier books was the depth of description, which this book lacked. Amy pointed out that this could have been a stylistic choice to emphasize that in war time things were fairly bleak. Thanks also to Amy for introducing us to the phrase "classic technique of alienation" and its development by playwright Bertolt Brecht.

There was also some discussion about the role of the characters Viv and Duncan. Some thought they were superfluous to the story, others thought they needed to be there (there was some suggestion that Viv was the token 'straight' character, although I think we ended up dismissing this as a theory - Sarah Waters told Lynnie that she wrote books about characters, not "gay" characters).

Thanks also to Lynnie for sharing with us the in-depth and cutting edge details of Sarah Waters in person following her interview with her in 2006. This provided us with some good background about the author and her interpretation of her own work. We thought it particularly interesting that Sarah Waters said that she would never write a book set in her own era as she "lived that every day" and that she preferred to either write about stories set in the past, or ghost stories.

General consensus was that we didn't like Julia, were rather annoyed by Helen, but grew to love Kay.

Inaugural Literary Lesbian Meeting

2007-05-24T20:57:00.000+10:00

On Tuesday 22 May a group of incredibly sexy and intelligent (not to mention well-read) lesbians met at an establishment (the location of which must remain secret for obvious reasons) for the first Literary Lesbian reading group discussion.

Over a couple of drinks, dinner and some comfortable lounges, we discussed Sarah Water's third novel "The Night Watch" and planned our reading list for the next few months.

Thanks to Sam, Jude, Ange, Lynnie, Amy, Laura, Caroline and Sal for enthusiastically participating in the discussion. Special thanks to Sal for being such a dedicated minute taker.

The notes from our discussion will be posted later this week, so if you missed the meeting you can read all about what we thought of the book of the month. You can also comment on the posting if you want to discuss the book further or debate any of the points of view represented.

"She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain."
Louisa May Alcott (1873)