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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > Are there any books that turned a light on for you, perhaps an epiphany moment?
Are there any books that turned a light on for you, perhaps an epiphany moment?  [message #75768] Fri, 17 May 2019 15:55 Go to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I was asked this question on Goordreads. "Are there any books that turned a light on for you, perhaps an epiphany moment?"

I replied there. You might wish to reply here. The question made me think deeply.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Are there any books that turned a light on for you, perhaps an epiphany moment?  [message #75770 is a reply to message #75768] Sat, 18 May 2019 17:37 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Mark Driver is currently offline  Mark Driver

Getting started
Location: California
Registered: March 2017
Messages: 21



Books that turned on a light for me about boys and sex were the Edmund White Trilogy, World of Normal Boys, Call Me by Your Name, and recently Lie with Me, how boys may want to have sex with another boy, but might not self identify as gay.  When thinking back to the boys and men in my life over the years that showed interest in me yet preferred women, these books have given focus to what may have been going on and help me clear my head about interactions I was in denial about.  Boys and men have needs, and for some their needs can cross over to being with another guy, like Oliver did with Elio when they crossed to the other bank.  They acted on their desire.  I rarely did.  But I saw it, the desire of other boys and other young men. Did any of them love me? Probably not or perhaps a few did, a little bit.
Re: Are there any books that turned a light on for you, perhaps an epiphany moment?  [message #75771 is a reply to message #75768] Sat, 18 May 2019 17:46 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Mark Driver is currently offline  Mark Driver

Getting started
Location: California
Registered: March 2017
Messages: 21



A book that held more of an epiphany from a religious sense was jamie O'Neill's At Swim, Two Boys, that the Bible was trying to show with the story of Lot and those two angels how society should treat gay men well.  The idea had crossed my mind before, that the sin of inhospitality is just as much a sin when harming gay men, hence the two angels were welcomed by Lot, but reading O'Neill, that he had already said this so many years ago turned a light on a little bit more, that the Bible was trying to teach this, yet no one (or almost no one) understood the message well.  If you haven't read it, the book is a love story between two boys and delves into Irish rebellion, religion and politics.  I recommend it, although as a Yankee I needed the reader's guide to understand some of it.  That's OK.  I wouldn't change a thing about that book.  It is quite something.

[Updated on: Sat, 18 May 2019 17:47]

Re: Are there any books that turned a light on for you, perhaps an epiphany moment?  [message #75772 is a reply to message #75771] Sat, 18 May 2019 22:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
joecasey is currently offline  joecasey

Toe is in the water
Location: American Midwest
Registered: December 2017
Messages: 35



I agree wholeheartedly with you about At Swim, Two Boys.  Extraordinary book.

[Updated on: Sun, 19 May 2019 02:38]

Re: Are there any books that turned a light on for you, perhaps an epiphany moment?  [message #75805 is a reply to message #75768] Thu, 13 June 2019 23:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
American_Alex

Toe is in the water
Location: New York, upstate
Registered: October 2017
Messages: 98



Gore Vidal's "The City and the Pillar" was a defining book for myself. My mom was a fan of gore's historical fiction and had all of his novels including that book. I was 13 or 14 when I first read it, and I always wondered if my mom bought it for my benefit. It certainly showed about the most 'positive' elements of gay life for it's time.

But, probably the MOST defining thing was the play, "The Boys in the Band", especially the movie version which I saw when I was about 15. Yes, some of the characters are quite shallow (as many people in real life are), but that play exposed me to a much wider cross-section of gay life than I'd ever seen before.



"Able was I ere I saw Elba"
Re: Are there any books that turned a light on for you, perhaps an epiphany moment?  [message #75815 is a reply to message #75805] Tue, 18 June 2019 20:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Teddy is currently offline  Teddy

Really getting into it
Location: USA
Registered: October 2006
Messages: 484



My response here may be triggering to some. I don't mean it to be.

Some years back I dug out my old copy of the Bible that my Grandmother gave me and I re-read the four Books of the Gospels in light of having long before accepted my sexuality. As I read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, I realized how anti-religion this Jesus I'd grown up being taught about actually was. He was nothing like I'd been taught, and I wondered how it was the Christian religion had managed to go so fare off the beaten track that Jesus had laid down for his followers, and what a crock of shit these same followers are laying down in the place of his actual teachings. Makes me wonder how different the world would be if over the last 2000 years Christians had actually followed the teachings of Christ.

It reminds me of Mihangle's historical novel here on IOMFATS titled "Ashes Under Uricon" that contrasted the difference between the Christianity and the Paganism of the 4th centurey. Apparently the rot set in very early and hasn't improved much over the millenia. 

At any rate, re-reading those for books of the Gospels solidified my belief in myself and the path I had been, and continue to be on, and probably not in a way that most of the Christians today would approve of. To paraphrase Ghandi, it only made me realize that while Jesus may have been a stand up guy, I want no part of the jesus fan club. 



“There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.” - Terry Pratchett
Re: Are there any books that turned a light on for you, perhaps an epiphany moment?  [message #75816 is a reply to message #75815] Tue, 18 June 2019 21:14 Go to previous message
American_Alex

Toe is in the water
Location: New York, upstate
Registered: October 2017
Messages: 98



"Teddy wrote on Tue, 18 June 2019 16:56"
...
It reminds me of Mihangle's historical novel here on IOMFATS titled "Ashes Under Uricon" that contrasted the difference between the Christianity and the Paganism of the 4th centurey. Apparently the rot set in very early and hasn't improved much over the millenia. 

...

--
If you are interested, Gore Vidal's historical fiction book "Julian" covers that period in some detail. Of course, Julian was the emporer who renounced Christianity, but died young, and his revival of paganism died along with him. I really enjoyed that book, and even wrote Mr. Vidal a letter, pedantically pointing out a couple of errors in his text. He even wrote me back.



"Able was I ere I saw Elba"
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