#joe vallese

[mahariel-s]

CURRENTLY READING:

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, edited by Joe Vallese. Published 2022 by The Feminist Press.

From the back cover:

"Twenty-five contemporary queer and trans writers reflect on the horror films that shaped them and shook them, from Hitchcock to Halloween to Hereditary."

Featuring essays written by:

Samuel Autman, Jen Corrigan, Viet Dinh, Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Ryan Dzelzkalns, Sarah Fonseca, Bruce Owens Grimm, Richard Scott Larson, Jonathan Robbins Leon, Tucker Lieberman, Zefyr Lisowski, Carmen Maria Machado, Laura Maw, Carrow Narby, Sachiko Ragosta, Sumiko Saulson, Prince Shakur, Will Stockton, Grant Sutton, Tosha R. Taylor, S. Trimble, Stefan Triplett, Addie Tsai, Joe Vallese, and Spencer Williams

[smokefalls]

Title: It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror Editor: Joe Vallese Publication Year: 2022 Publisher: The Feminist Press Genre: nonfiction, horror, essays, queer lit

The affinity that a number of queer people have with the monstrous is one that is explored in depth in this essay collection. I was invested in what each contributor had to say about their thoughts on their queer identity in relation to a horror film of their choice, which ranged from classic slashers to non-US horror films. Furthermore, this is an incredibly diverse collection of essays, not only in terms of how queerness is defined, but many of these authors also consider their race and/or disability. The contributors’ respective reflections really revealed the complexities of how the monster has been defined by culture and society, some taking a more academic tone when discussing this, while others had a more conversational tone.

Like any edited collection, I found some essays stronger than others. Overall, though, I’d say that it’s rather difficult to call any of them weak. Well worth picking up if you’re interested in horror (and a number of these essays don’t shy away from it, fair warning) and queerness. Relatedly, I recommend picking up Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry edited by David Ly and Daniel Zomparelli, if you’re looking for more queer monstrosity.

Content Warning: homophobia; transphobia; lesbophobia; violence; ableism; medical content; racism; gore; body horror; blood; domestic violence; pregnancy; suicidal thoughts; self harm; miscarriage; biphobia; murder; death; references to pandemic, pedophilia, forced institutionalization, suicide, deportation, and alcoholism

[professionalqueerbookworm]

Queer Reviews: Joe Vallese, "It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror".

Summary (from Goodreads): Through the lens of horror—from "Halloween" to "Hereditary"—queer and trans writers consider the films that deepened, amplified, and illuminated their own experiences.

Horror movies hold a complicated space in the hearts of the queer community: historically misogynist, and often homo- and transphobic, the genre has also been inadvertently feminist and open to subversive readings. Common tropes—such as the circumspect and resilient “final girl,” body possession, costumed villains, secret identities, and things that lurk in the closet—spark moments of eerie familiarity and affective connection. Still, viewers often remain tasked with reading themselves into beloved films, seeking out characters and set pieces that speak to, mirror, and parallel the unique ways queerness encounters the world.

"It Came from the Closet" features twenty-five original essays by writers speaking to this relationship, through connections both empowering and oppressive. From Carmen Maria Machado on "Jennifer’s Body", Jude Ellison S. Doyle on "In My Skin", Addie Tsai on "Dead Ringers", and many more, these conversations convey the rich reciprocity between queerness and horror.

[qbdatabase]

Horror movies hold a complicated space in the hearts of the queer community: historically misogynist, and often homo- and transphobic, the genre has also been inadvertently feminist and open to subversive readings. Common tropes—such as the circumspect and resilient “final girl,” body possession, costumed villains, secret identities, and things that lurk in the closet—spark moments of eerie familiarity and affective connection. Still, viewers often remain tasked with reading themselves into beloved films, seeking out characters and set pieces that speak to, mirror, and parallel the unique ways queerness encounters the world.

[onebluebookworm]

30 Days of Literary Pride 2023 - June 11

It Came From the Closet - Queer Reflections on Horror - Joe Vallese

[book0ftheday]

It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror edited by Joe Vallese, illustrated by Bishakh Som, cover design by Bràulio Amado, published 2022.

[dotsunflowers]

[Image ID: Screenshot of a paragraph, which reads, "Of course, the incomprehensible intimacy promised or threatened by the blob is just a fantasy. Each of us is ultimately alone: a discrete little being with access only to our own senses and sensations, our own thoughts, and our own fragile body. Left to fumble for meaning in our constant pursuit of imperfect intimacies. We submit ourselves endlessly to that mortifying ordeal of knowing each other, just for the chance to be alone together. Language might be the best thing that we have to bridge the void between ourselves, but it will never be enough." /end ID.]

Carrow Narby, Indescribable in It came from the closet. Queer reflections on horror, edited by Joe Vallese, p. 81

[makingqueerhistory]

Do you have any recommendations of books/ studies/ articles about the representation of queer people in media? Thank you for all the work you do!

Yes absolutely, I would be happy to share. Any discussion like this needs to mention The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies by Vito Russo. Making Queer History does have a set of articles about this as well, with Queen Christina, Queer Codes, and Queer Coding and Different from the Others.

Some more modern books that I can vouch for are:

The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me about (Desiring) Men

Manuel Betancourt

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror

Joe Vallese

Gays on Broadway

Ethan Mordden

Hi Honey, I'm Homo!: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture

Matt Baume

We See Each Other: A Black, Trans Journey Through TV and Film

Tre'vell Anderson

(Affiliate links above)

This is just what I have read though, so other's are free to add on!

[yvain]

Megan Fox in knitted leg warmers and short-shorts, a puffy coat and red fishnets, a color guard uniform, an Evil Dead raglan tee and star-spangled underwear, a cropped hoodie and low-rise jeans, an Edwardian prom dress with long white opera gloves. A wet strand of hair drawn through her mouth. Swimming naked in a lake glassy with twilight. Blackening the tip of her tongue with a lighter. In hunger, wan and beautiful as a consumptive heroine. Levitating. Snarling. Doe eyes, full and glossed lips. Dropping onto a car like a wild cat. Projectile vomiting an unctuous, inky liquid onto her best friend. Teeth like a nurse shark. A distended, disarticulated jaw like a python. Jennifer’s body on a sacrificial altar, sobbing. Jennifer’s body moving eerily from a great distance; then too close, and from the wrong angle. Jennifer pulling a rod out of her shish-kebabbed torso, saying, through a mouth of blood, “Do you have a tampon?” Jennifer’s body underlining the politics of Jennifer’s Body; a sex symbol through a funhouse mirror. (The film’s execs thought she’d be a draw for teenage boys, but teenage boys hated it. They didn’t know they were coming to be eaten. Not like that.)

Carmen Maria Machado, “Both Ways,” in It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror (ed. Joe Vallese)

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

public shame time

I haven't had to do this in a while, but I'm officially not allowed to buy, borrow, check out, place a hold on, or start reading any new nonfiction until I finish at least three of the follow:

Necropolitics (Achilles Mbembe)

Orientalism (Edward Said)

Africa Is Not a Country (Dipo Faloyin)

Rental Person Who Does Nothing (Shoji Morimoto)

It Came From the Closet (ed. Joe Vallese)

[unhingedfemmecontent]

LESBIAN HISTORY BOOKS pls boost

Female Husbands : A Trans History - Jen Manion

Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century America - Lillian Faderman

Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community - Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedey

Sappisteries: A Global History of Love Between Women: Leila J. Rupp

Not a Passing Phase: Reclaiming Lesbians in History 1840-1985 - Lesbian History Group

After Sappho- Shelby Wynn Schwartz

Public Faces, Secret Lives - Wendy L. Rouse

Lesbian Literature - Jodie Medd

It Came from the Closet - Joe Vallese

[showmethesneer]

"Bisexuality itself is inherently resistant to heteronormative frameworks. Because gatekeeping is shortsighted and unbecoming. Because desire and understanding do not always go hand in hand. The project of identifying false or performative queerness is dead in the water. Do not trouble yourself to rescue it. Do not grieve at its graveside. Kiss someone. Fuck someone. Think about fucking someone while kissing someone else. Let sex be unknowable, warm, thrilling, funny, erotic, terrifying."

-"Both Ways" by Carmen Maria Machado from It Came From The Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror edited by Joe Vallese

[nerdlifeisbetterthanreallife]

Top 12 Queer Witchy/Horror Books to celebrate Spooky Season

It’s October, that means it’s time to break out your sweaters and hang up pumpkins and ghosts and watch some horror movies or in my case, read some horror novels. Well, I am here to share some queer witchy/Horror books I am recommending to celebrate the season with media that centers people who are queer. 13. It Came from the Closet: Queer reflections on Horror ed. by Joe Vallese This one is a…

[salvadorbonaparte]

2024 in Books

Every Book I read in 2024 very briefly reviewed. I'm ignoring re-reads.

The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie (I definitely want to read the rest of the series but I haven't managed to get my hands on it yet)

Death's Country - R.M. Romero (I read this as an ARC, it's a journey to the underworld in free verse)

More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - M.R. James (I love this guy's ghost stories)

100 Poets: A Little Anthology - John Carey (I read this as an ARC, would have liked more international voices)

Ariadne - Jennifer Saint (Very solid version of Ariadne's story highlighting the lack of agency under the patriarchy)

Cien Microcuentos Chilenos - Juan Armando Epple (Not gonna lie I barely understood anything)

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller (I'm soooo not normal about this one)

The Murderbot Diaries 1-4 - Martha Wells (I'm really enjoying this series but I had to wait for months to get a library loan for the 5th one and now I forgot everything that happened)

Darius the Great is Not Okay & Darius the Great Deserves Better - Adib Khorram (Actually made me cry which tells you what kind of year I'm having)

The Jeeves Collection - P.G. Wodehouse (A 40h long anthology of Jeeves stories read by Stephen Fry what more can you want)

Von der Pampelmuse geküsst - Heinz Erhardt (Funny)

Die Jodelschule und andere dramatische Werke - Loriot (Funny)

Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree (This was truly so cozy)

Poemas Portugueses - Ed. Maria de Fátima Mesquita-Sternal (Good collection of different works)

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - James McBride (Highlight of the Year)

Quality Land - Marc-Uwe Kling (How is his satire so real??)

When Women Were Dragons - Kelly Barnhill (Highlight of the Year)

Gender Queer: A Memoir - Maia Kobabe (Very affirming to read)

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut (I'm so not normal about this that I'm considering getting a tattoo about it)

Andorra - Max Frisch (A play about antisemitism but in that very Max Frisch way)

Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman - Richard Feynman (I want to study this guy under a microscope but I also learned a lot about education and people skills)

Von Juden Lernen - Mirna Funk (Bad, unfortunately)

House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski (I've been reading this on and off for the better half of a decade and I have many thoughts none of them coherent)

Views - Marc-Uwe Kling (One of the most upsetting books I ever read and I mean that positively)

Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (What the fuck is happening but also oh cool)

People Love Dead Jews - Dara Horn (the other really upsetting book I read this year but beautifully written)

It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror - Ed. Joe Vallese (An anthology so up my alley you'd think it's fake)

Camp Damascus - Chuck Tingle (More upsetting than scary but a really good read)

Stephen Fry in America - Stephen Fry (Very funny and insightful if you've just moved there)

You Like it Darker - Stephen King (I'm still thinking about some of the short stories)

Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut (Also not normal about this one)

The Song of Roland - Unknown, Trans. Glen Burgess (It sucks that this slaps so much because it's blatant propaganda)

Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum - Heinrich Böll (Worst year to read and watch this tbh but highly recommended)

Herzog Ernst - Unknown (Medieval Fantasy but like actually Medieval)

Willehalm - Wolfram von Eschenbach (Sorry I only partially read this because I got too busy with school)

Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle (Better still than Camp Damascus but again more upsetting than scary)

[godzilla-reads]

“You can be a stranger to yourself; you almost certainly will be, at some point or another. It is inevitable, as inevitable as the moment of rupture that sends you hurtling toward the self you were always going to be.”

—Carmen Maria Machado, Both Ways- from It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror edited by Joe Vallese

[risingphoenix-nowreading]

What I Read In 2024

First of all, I highly recommend getting a library card, as my local branch and Libby are responsible for about 80% of this list. Second, if you want to read more classics, you might give Serial Reader a shot. Their collection is huge. Third, italics will indicate a reread and a heart means it's one of the year's faves and I might talk about it in depth one day. Lastly, it looks like I trended towards haunted houses and Peter Pan retellings this year, and also found a new favorite author...

The Damned Thing - Ambrose Bierce

Carmilla - J. Sheridan Lefanu

The Maker of Gargoyles - Clark Ashton Smith

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

❤️ Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Fire - Kristin Cashore

❤️ If We Were Villains - M.L. Rio

The Trouble With Twelfth Grave - Darynda Jones

❤️ Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik

Thornhedge - T. Kingfisher

Blood and Chocolate - Annette Curtis Klause

A Walk In the Woods - Bill Bryson

Nettle and Bone - T. Kingfisher

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor - Bianca Marais

❤️ The September House - Carissa Orlando

We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

Hell House - Richard Matheson

Longshadow - Olivia Atwater

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty - Anne Rice

❤️ Camp Damascus - Chuck Tingle

Light Magic For Dark Times - Lisa Marie Basile

The Woman In Black - Susan Hill

A Study in Scarlet Women - Sherry Thomas

The Familiar - Leigh Bardugo

Final Girls - Riley Sager

My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell

The 1990s Teen Horror Cycle - Alexandra West

❤️ The Child Thief - Brom

Your Shadow Half Remains - Sunny Moraine

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol 1 - Naoko Takeuchi

Family Business - Jonathan Sims

❤️ Gerald's Game - Stephen King

The House That Horror Built - Christina Henry

❤️ Wolf Creek Origin - Greg McLean

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

❤️ Bury Your Gays - Chuck Tingle

It Came From the Closet - Joe Vallese (editor)

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sangu Mandanna

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol 2 - Naoko Takeuchi

❤️ Labyrinth - Jim Henson, A.C.H. Smith

Night Shift - Stephen King

The Accidental Highwayman - Ben Tripp

Fright Favorites - David J. Skal

❤️ My Heart Is A Chainsaw - Stephen Graham Jones

Dead End Girls - Wendy Heard

Doctor Sleep - Stephen King

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol 3 - Naoko Takeuchi

Lifeblood - Gena Showalter

The Creeper - A.M. Shine

The Crow - James O'Barr

Harmony House - Nic Sheff

The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith

Hook's Tale - John Leonard Pielmeier

The Cruel Prince - Holly Black

Juniper and Thorn - Ava Reid

The Lost Boys - Craig Shaw Gardner

Dracula - Bram Stoker

❤️ Don't Fear the Reaper - Stephen Graham Jones

Bloody Jack - L.A. Meyer

Scarlet - A.C. Gaughen

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol 4 - Naoko Takeuchi

Murder at an Irish Wedding - Carlene O'Connor

❤️ My Best Friend's Exorcism - Grady Hendrix

Wakenhyrst - Michele Paver

In These Hallowed Halls - Marie O'Regan (editor)