Author Topic: In the New Yorker...  (Read 1925372 times)

Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2810 on: July 30, 2021, 12:57:27 pm »
We all knew it existed. We just didn't talk about it. Remember The Crying Game and Boys Don't Cry?

Yeah, we knew transgender people existed. The travel writer Jan Morris wrote a book in 1974 about her own transition. When The Crying Game came out I was working at the paper in New Orleans and I said, I want to write about someone like that. So through connections, I met Terry, a transgender woman who worked as a fashion model, and wrote a long profile. So personally I talked about it pretty frequently. I always say, if all of America had read that story they wouldn't have been so shocked about Caitlin Jenner.

What I think people didn't know about -- at least I didn't -- was how many people identified as neither male nor female. (With the exception of intersex babies, often surgically assigned one or the other.) Remember the SNL skit "Here's Pat"? That was funny because people didn't know there were actually lots of real-life Pats.





Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2811 on: July 30, 2021, 07:12:24 pm »
I said, I want to write about someone like that. So through connections, I met Terry, a transgender woman who worked as a fashion model,

I should add that Terry was Black and looked somewhat like the character in The Crying Game.

But also -- Jan Morris died last year and I don't recall seeing anything about it! But maybe I did and just don't remember, which is always possible.


Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2812 on: July 30, 2021, 10:21:51 pm »
I got the August 2 issue, and of course I had to jump right ahead and read Jill Lepore. Boy, does she hate Facebook.

Am I ever going to get off my duff and write her a fan letter.  >:(
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2813 on: July 30, 2021, 10:26:09 pm »
I always say, if all of America had read that story they wouldn't have been so shocked about Caitlin Jenner.

I don't know. I think at least some people who are old enough to remember Caitlin as decorated male Olympian Bruce would have been shocked.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2814 on: August 03, 2021, 07:08:05 pm »
I don't know. I think at least some people who are old enough to remember Caitlin as decorated male Olympian Bruce would have been shocked.

Well, I know. It's not exactly the same, and Caitlin's previous identity is certainly some of the surprise. But I think a lot of people were, and still are, pretty ignorant and/or confused about transgender people.


Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2815 on: August 04, 2021, 09:26:49 am »
Well, I know. It's not exactly the same, and Caitlin's previous identity is certainly some of the surprise. But I think a lot of people were, and still are, pretty ignorant and/or confused about transgender people.

Sure enough.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2816 on: August 13, 2021, 12:05:56 pm »
Have you ever felt like Larry McMurtry did upon reading Brokeback Mountain that you wished you had written it and thought that you could've? I felt that way upon reading about Real Estate, a new book by Deborah Levy. The review is in this week's (August 16) issue of The New Yorker.

One thing that's all good about my crazy life is that I can and am living in my own house, with no one but my cat. Single men often live alone but when you see an older woman living by herself many people think it is a thing to be pitied or concerned about. I could not be happier this way. Of course, my whole family lives nearby and I have a constellation of local friends and neighbors. But I begin and end the day by myself, with my trusty cat. Thus, I've designed the space and rituals to suit my needs exactly.

I love my home's doors, of which there are many. EDelMar once said that my front door looks like Mrs. Twist's. It has six panels of glass in the top half and is finished in a natural wood shade. The closet and bathroom doors are also natural wood and have a lovely wood aroma. Some of the closets are lined in cedar for moth prevention. Their knobs are old-fashioned faceted glass and catch the light. The upstairs front door is heavy but not grand, with a hexagonal porthole window. Some of the doors have locking screen doors, so you can leave the door open to fresh air.

The other book reviewed is Wayward by Dana Spiotta which also sounds uncannily like my biography. So much so that I don't think I'll try to read it.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2817 on: August 14, 2021, 11:12:32 am »
David Sedaris' essay in the Aug. 9 issue made me laugh out loud (several times) and literally cry -- in less than four pages. His essays have always been funny and readable, but over the past, I don't know, 10 years, he's been going deeper. The essays are still always funny (or at least usually -- I don't know that the one about his mother's alcoholism was very funny). But they also have some larger, subtle but powerful point.




Offline serious crayons

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2818 on: August 14, 2021, 11:15:25 am »
Have you ever felt like Larry McMurtry did upon reading Brokeback Mountain that you wished you had written it and thought that you could've? I felt that way upon reading about Real Estate, a new book by Deborah Levy. The review is in this week's (August 16) issue of The New Yorker.

I had a book by Deborah Levy that sat around for several years without me ever getting around to reading it. I think I gave it away when I moved. So I'll be looking forward to reading the review of her new one.


Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2819 on: August 14, 2021, 11:33:27 am »
David Sedaris' essay in the Aug. 9 issue made me laugh out loud (several times) and literally cry -- in less than four pages. His essays have always been funny and readable, but over the past, I don't know, 10 years, he's been going deeper. The essays are still always funny (or at least usually -- I don't know that the one about his mother's alcoholism was very funny). But they also have some larger, subtle but powerful point.

I'm looking forward to reading the Sedaris, but right now I'm working my way through Jane Mayer's article, because, as scary as I find it, I think it's very important. (Yes, it's a duty article.)
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.