#by armistead maupin

[youaremysunshine-court]

Love books where half the characters don't know each other but if you put them in a room together they'd all have at least one connection to every other person in the room

[mrmousetolliver]

Tales of the City (1978) by Armistead Maupin.

[celluloidrainbow]

THE CELLULOID CLOSET (1995) dir. Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman This documentary highlights the historical contexts that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders have occupied in cinema history, and shows the evolution of the entertainment industry's role in shaping perceptions of LGBT figures. The issues addressed include secrecy - which initially defined homosexuality - as well as the demonization of the community with the advent of AIDS, and finally the shift toward acceptance and positivity in the modern era. (link in title)

[davidhudson]

Happy 80th, Armistead Maupin.

Photo by Christopher Turner.

[nerdygaymormon]

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Parfois j’ai le sentiment que le bon Dieu a mis les femmes sur cette terre pour rappeler aux hommes l’heure des cocktails.

- Armistead Maupin

[oldcountrybear1955]

The Advocate Magazine 23 June 1987 - Armistead Maupin

[abatelunare]

- Al giorno d'oggi sono tutti così sensibili! Gli indiani non sono più indiani, no, bisogna chiamarli nativi americani. Ci ho messo dieci anni per imparare a dire "neri" e adesso sono diventati "gente di colore". Maledizione, non so nemmeno più come chiamare la cameriera! (Armistead Maupin, Tales of the city. I racconti di San Francisco).

[out-of-the-forest-i-come]

Yesterday, I listed some queer books coming out this month, and today I'll go over the queer series that are being continued in March. This is a non-exhaustive and informative list, checking out the trigger warnings and possible problematic content/author will be up to you.

Cirque du Slay, Book 2 of Hayden & Friends; Rob Osler, March 5th

Remnants of Filth: Yuwu, Vol. 3; Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (translation), March 5th

Saint, Sorrow, Sinner, Book 3 of The Gideon Testaments; Freydís Moon, March 5th

Mona of the Manor, Book 10 of Tales of the City; Armistead Maupin, March 7th

Blessed Water, Book 2 of A Sister Holiday Mystery; Margot Douaihy, March 12th

Infinity Kings, Book 3 of Infinity Cycles; Adam Silvera, March 14th

Heir to Dreams and Darkness, Book 3 of Court of Broken Bonds; Ben Alderson, March 15th

The Weavers of Alamaxa, Book 2 of the Alamaxa Duology; Hadeer Elsbai, March 19th

Guardian: Zhen Hun, Vol. 2; priest, March 26th

In Walked Trouble, Book 2 of Single in Seattle; Dana Hawkins, March 26th

The Feast Makers, Book 3 of Scapegracers; H.A. Clarke, March 26th

The Phantom Flame, Book 2 of Brimstone and Fire; T.M. Ledvina, March 26th

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin

goodreads

Now a fragile ninety-two years old and committed to the notion of "leaving like a lady," Anna Madrigal has seemingly found peace in the bosom of her "logical family" in San Francisco: her devoted young caretaker, Jake Greenleaf; her former tenant Brian Hawkins; Brian's daughter Shawna; and Michael Tolliver and Mary Ann Singleton, who have known and loved Anna for nearly four decades.

Some members of Anna's family are bound for the otherworldly landscape of Burning Man, the art festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada where sixty thousand revelers build a temporary city (Michael calls it "a Fellini carnival on Mars") designed to last only one week. Anna herself has another Nevada destination in mind: a lonely stretch of road outside of Winnemucca where the sixteen-year-old boy she used to be ran away from the whorehouse he then called home. With Brian and his beat-up RV, she journeys into the dusty, troubled heart of her Depression-era childhood, where she begins to unearth a lifetime of secrets and dreams, and to attend to unfinished business she has long avoided.

Mod opinion: I haven't read this book yet, but I did find a copy in a library book sale. So hopefully I'll get around to it at some point.

[subway-tolkien]

Book Rec for Queer Kids and Allies

Hey Gen Z/A, this is for you, and anyone else who needs a refresher course in queer history.

If you want a good, hard look at what it was like to be queer throughout the 1970s-early 2000s, you should read Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series. Tales of the City in 1976 as a serial story in the San Francisco Chronicle, detailing the lives of a boarding house of misfits. It is set in San Francisco, and it covers everything from the early days of queer culture right on up through the AIDS crisis and into Reagan’s 80s and onward. I believe the last book was set in the early-to-mid 2000s. If you want a snapshot of our history, if you want to know the timeline that led to gay characters on mainstream television, for drag queens to march at Pride, for the legal right to marry your partner, these books will take you there.

NOTE: You will probably be offended by some of the subject matter. These books were written decades before you were born. Calm your tits and keep reading.

(Armistead Maupin is also a cool dude and you should definitely check out his other work, including his memoir, Logical Family, if you really want a glimpse into life as a gay man over the course of almost 80 years.)

[bethaven]

#13 Tales of the City (2019)

Plot: About 20 years since we last saw her, Mary Ann Singleton returns to Barbary Lane for Anna Madrigal's 90th borthday. Though it feels like coming home, it's not as easy as to just step in and be loved by all. While Mary Ann tries to reclaim the trust of the people she left, Anna struggles with dark shadows of the past that comes back to haunt her. It's time to tell the family what happened.

Years: 2019

Seasons: 1

My story: I've never heard about the original series or Armistead Maupin's books until I stumbled upon this series at Netflix around release. It fast became one of my all time favourites and taught me some very important queer history. Parts of it still makes me cry. It's one of my go-to comfort series.

Teachable moments: This is a natural and sophisticated depiction of queer everyday life. More than anything it shows the meaning and importance of chosen families.

Best character: Anna is a 90 years old transgender with her own home and chosen family in the middle of San Francisco. She've done what many haven't, not only did she survive, she also build a life for herself. Watching the series we know it wasn't all on good grounds, but it really pushes us to reflect on morality, ethics and doing what you have to in a very hard situation. Can we really judge Anna for what she did?

Best episode: "Days of small surrenders" (E8). Whenever I start another rewatch, I long for this episode. It's the most important episode and it's so beutifuly made. I'm really dragged into the story and it's like I'm walking side by side with Anna in the 60's.

Best quote: -"We're sitting on top of layers and layers of queer people sediment.." -"Of years" -"No, decades" -"And you know like every minute 30 000 dead skincells shed of a person and seep into their living space, that's like 1.8 milion an hour. So this place is probably more Anna and Michael, than Anna and Michael are." -"Wow" (Ani and Raven)

Fun fact: Three actors reprise their roles through all installments of Tales; Laury Linney as Mary Ann Singleton, Olympia Dukakis as Anna Madrigal and Barbara Garrick as DeDe Halcyon. Paul Gross plays Brian Hawkins in the first installment in 1993, but doesn't return to the role until the 2019 revival. In the other two, Brian is played by Whip Hubley.

If you like this you might also like: The 2019 Tales of the City is the revival of three earlier installments; Tales of the City (1993), More Tales of the City (1998) and Further Tales of the City (2001-2002), which are adaptations of Armistead Maupin's books (9 in total). You don't have too see the earlier ones to understand the revival, but it helps to understand the story even further. Others you might like are Looking, Queer as folk, Hollywood and Glamorous.

[hottdoggblogg]

[artemismatchalatte]

My January 2023 Reads!

I read the first five books and I'm still in the middle of the last three. Ford's The Good Solider and Woolf's The Common Reader are both from my grad class on Modernism. We only read pieces of The Common Reader so I wanted to finish reading the whole thing since it's one of Woolf's books that I haven't read completely yet.

Strange Weather in Tokyo and Convenience Store Woman are both novellas that are translated from Japanese.

The best of the books that I finished this month was Strange Weather in Tokyo.

[abatelunare]

- Cosa vuol dire essere felici? La felicità finisce nel momento in cui si accendono le luci. (Armistead Maupin, Tales of the city. I racconti di San Francisco).

[zippocreed501]

AUTHOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

'I think that instinct, that storytelling instinct, rescued me most of my life.'

'I have always distrusted memoir. I tend to write my memoirs through my fiction. It's easier to get to the truth by not claiming that you are speaking it. Some things can be said in fiction that can never be said in memoir.'

'I think many writers write because it's a convenient way to explain themselves to themselves. We take the chaos and the turmoil and the bullshit of our lives, and we make it into something that has a harmonious shape and sound.'

'I tend to prefer the shelter of fiction.'

'I can't imagine a more fulfilling thing for a writer than that you've made a strong impact on the lives of other people.'

Author Extraordinaire Armistead Maupin