#paul monette

[bassiter2]

i've been reading this compilation of essays by paul monette, and this one in particular struck me as something that everyone right now would benefit from reading

this was originally given as a lecture at the library of congress in 1993

[nobeerreviews]

Summer has always been good to me, even the bittersweet end, with the slanted yellow light.

-- Paul Monette

(Bistrița, Romania)

[man-reading]

Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story

by Paul Monette

The National Book Award–winning coming-out memoir. “One of the most complex, moral, personal, and political books to have been written about gay life” (LA Weekly). Paul Monette grew up all-American, Catholic, overachieving . . . and closeted. As a child of the 1950s, a time when a kid suspected of being a “homo” would routinely be beaten up, Monette kept his secret throughout his adolescence. He wrestled with his sexuality for the first thirty years of his life, priding himself on his ability to “pass” for straight. The story of his journey to adulthood and to self-acceptance with grace and honesty, this intimate portrait of a young man’s struggle with his own desires is witty, humorous, and deeply felt. Before his death of complications from AIDS in 1995, Monette was an outspoken activist crusading for gay rights. Becoming a Man shows his courageous path to stand up for his own right to love and be loved.

[havingapoemwithyou]

he worrying by Paul Monette

[uselessgay10101]

"I am a daughter of the light

It's a truth I hold tight..

"I AM a daughter of the light"

I swear I'm right.

...But at night-

You catch my sight

How do you tangle me in a sin so bright?"

[clbdreadeddancer]

Dancers: Aiden Feldman & Shawn Brush | Company: danceTactics Performance Group | Dance: Love Alone Anthology Project | Location: La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival (April 10-13, 2025), NYC

[onebluebookworm]

Ranking Books I Read on 2023: 25-21

25. Gallant - V.E. Schwab

This book is weird. There's no dancing around it. And not even really in a "holy shit what did I just read" kind of way that I might have liked more, more like reading out of the dream journal of a particularly creative and fandom-obsessed teen girl. Which is fine. That's not my jam as an adult, but I can appreciate weird books written specifically for weird little girls. If you have any of those in your life, they'd like this. Not really for me tho.

24. Afterlife by Paul Monette

This book will rip you open. What I went into thinking was gonna be a sort of serious found family romp turned out to be pretty bleak, but with a smidgen of hope at the end. This book is basically "not everyone who grieves can be saved from the self-destruction unhealthy coping mechanisms they have, and you can try to help them as much as you can, but not at the expense of your own health and well-being" and yes that's an immensely painful lesson to learn, but in the AIDS epidemic? That was basically a survival mantra. A little too much for me, but I can appreciate what it was doing.

23. The Skull - Jon Klassen

Does anyone remember that Twitter post with this author asking if any librarians could help him find a fairy tale he randomly stumbled across in an Alaskan librarian and couldn't remember the name of? Yeah, that was Jon Klassen, and that fairy tale inspired this book. That alone is pretty neat, but this book actually succeeds in being really charming and cute. I've always like Klassen's art style, and it's put to good use here. Plus, I'm always a sucker for skeletons. I just am.

22. Nobody: Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond

Another hurty read. Although it occasionally gets a bit stuffy and historical, it does provide a lot of context for everything, and the book is so short otherwise you can basically forgive it. This book will make you feel bad about everything though.

21. The Only One Left - Riley Sager

This book is silly, alright? It's pure, unadulterated, melodramatic nonsense. And it was honestly really refreshing. Maybe it was because I read this right after I finished The Poisonwood Bible and Lives of Girls and Women and just needed a breather, but it was fun and dumb and I actually had fun trying to guess the mystery. A good palate cleanser book if you're into these sorts of things.

[radiogornjigrad]

O knjizi Paula Monette: Postati muško - polovica jednog života

Paul Monette: Postati muško – polovica jednog života, izd. Petrine knjige, Zagreb, 2022. Piše: Đurđa Knežević “Zašto nas mrze? Zašto strahuju od nas? Zašto žele da ostanemo nevidljivi?”, pitanja su koja postavlja Paul Monette na samom početku knjige Postati muško – polovica jednog života. Međutim, autor se ne bavi traženjem odgovora na tako postavljena pitanja, o tim nekima koji mrze, strahuju,…

[floralisolation]

just finished Borrowed Time: an Aids Memoir and I am losing it.

Nothing I can say justifies the power of Paul Monette’s words. He simply writes with his whole soul.

[onenakedfarmer]

PAUL MONETTE "Everything Extraneous Has Burned Away"

everything extraneous has burned away this is how burning feels in the fall of the final year not like leaves in a blue October but as if the skies were a paper lantern full of trapped moths beating their fired wings and yet I can lie on this hill just above you a foot beside where I will lie myself soon soon and for all the wrack and blubber feel still how we were warriors when the merest morning sun in the garden was a kingdom after Room 1010 war in not all death it turns out war is what little thing you hold onto refugees and far from home oh sweetie will you please forgive me this that every time I opened a box of anything Glad Bags One-A-Days KINGSIZE was the worst I’d think will you still be here when the bus is empty Rog Rog who will play boy with me now that I bucket with tears through it all when I’d cling beside you sobbing you’d shrug it off with the quietest I’m still here I have your watch in the top drawer which I don’t dare wear yet help me please the boxes grocery home day after day the junk that keeps men spotless but it doesn’t matter now how long they last or I the day has taken you with it and all there is now is burning dark the only green is up by the grave and this little thing of telling the hill I’m here oh I’m here

[bassiter2]

i would give literally anything to see one of paul monette's novels get adapted to film. it would be really hard to do well bc his writing is so introspective and technically speaking not a lot of actual Events happen, but the characters and settings and vibes are so rich i know it's definitely not impossible. even aside from my biases i just know they'd be the exact kind of period pieces that gay people need right now

[gaypolls]

Not a poll, but some questions for you or your followers. if that's okay. :)

Do you have any LGBTQ+ songs you'd recommend?

Do you have any LGBTQ+ books you'd recommend?

Do you know any asexual couples/love stories? (could be books, tv series, movies)

Do you have any favourite LGBTQ+ artists?

so heads up, all my recs are gay man-centric, but YES i've got tons. at least with music and books.

gay musicians I like (whose lyrics are often overtly gay or at least have gay themes): The Smiths/Morrissey, The Magnetic Fields, Orville Peck, Bronski Beat, The Psychadelic Furs, Bonnie Parker, Kevin Abstract

gay authors/books: Alan Hollinghurst and Paul Monette are both novelists with pretty decent lineups that go back to the 70s. They basically both low-stakes slice-of-life period dramas surrounding gay life with a heaping dollop of casual eroticism. Those are the two authors that I always rec right off the bat but otherwise I'll just link my goodreads account bc it's easier lol

[everythingsecondhand]

Scarface, by Paul Monette (Sphere, 1984)

[little-mouse-adventures]

Books Read in 2024

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch

An Apprentice to Elves by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer

Beauty by Robin McKinley

Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women by Alexa Albert

By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey

A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear

Drifter's Vengeance by Max Brand

Exile's Honor by Mercedes Lackey

Exile's Valour by Mercedes Lackey

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch

Fashion Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones & Anonymous

Girly Drinks by Mallory O'Meara

Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater

Hotel Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones & Anonymous

How I Learned to Fall Out of Trees by Vincent X Kirsch

I Lived Inside A Whale by Xin Li

Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne

Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter

Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono

Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge by Paul Krueger

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater

Night at the Belfry by Xavier Saxon

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie

Paper and Blood by Kevin Hearne

Picture This - How Pictures Work by Molly Bang

The Quick and the Dead by Louis L'Amour

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

The Tempering of Men by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear

Time: At Your Pace by xkcd

vN by Madeline Ashby

The Wedding Girl by Madeleine Wickham

X'd in the Xeriscape by Dale Mayer

The Year of Less by Cait Flanders

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

[onebluebookworm]

June 2023 Book Club Picks

Outlaw Marriages: The Hidden History of Fifteen Extraordinary Same-Sex Couples - Rodger Streitmatter: One of the most popular (and irritating) things LGBT people hear from scared reactionaries is "This is a recent trend that kids learn about on tiktok! There are no LGBT people in history." Rodger Streitmatter sets out to prove that assertion wrong by showcasing fifteen same-sex couples that were, for all intents and purposes, close enough to be considered married, from grandfather of American poetry Walt Whitman to glamorous actress Greta Garbo to social reformist Jane Addams.

The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein: Husband, father, drag queen, sex worker, wife - Sandra Pankhurst was all of these things over the course of her life. By the time Sarah Krasnostein met her, Sandra had made a business out of handling trauma. In the filthy homes of hoarders and the lonely flats of overdose deaths, Sandra sashays in with a kind word and an understanding air to help people clean up when life becomes overwhelming. As Krasnostein explores Sandra's life leading up to the founding of her business, we learn what Sandra had to go through to become the Trauma Cleaner.

Afterlife: Steven, Sonny, and Del are "widows" - all three met in the hospital when their lovers died within a week of each other from AIDS complications. Through potluck dinners and emotional phone calls, they've tried to help each other pick up the pieces and move on, but things are quickly changing, and not entirely for the better. Del has turned to political activism to distract himself from his anger and pain. Sonny indulges in shallow hook-ups and new-age spirituality to find something to numb himself. And Steven is running himself ragged to take care of everyone but himself. When another friend falls ill, all three must make decisions that may effect the course of their entire lives and the future of their friendship.

I'm Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya: Vivek Shraya has reason to be afraid. The world of the masculine has never been much to her but cruel and aggressive, forcing her to perform at masculinity to get out of her childhood alive. Even as an adult, that fear haunts her, forcing her to make compromises to steel herself against heartbreak, threats, and her own mental health.

Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills: Claudia didn't mean to eavesdrop on the breakup of power couple Paige and Iris. All she wanted to do was use the bathroom. But now Claudia is on the wrong side of prickly Iris's temper, and will do anything to make amends. Unfortunately for Claudia, that means being thrown into a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream against her will. But all that changes when she meets the goofiest, most charming boy she's ever known and she starts to legitimately bond with Iris.

[masterwords]

the calamity

Summary: A series dedicated to HIV/AIDS and how it has touched the lives of Morgan and Hotch. (Morgan is HIV+)

Pairing: Hotch/Morgan (plus Haley & a few OCs for each in the past)

Warnings: see individual stories on AO3

Notes: I've been thinking about this for a while and decided to take the plunge. In the first story linked below I lay the foundation, and now as with all of my other long series, I will fire off one-shots and other multi-chapter stories at will. I welcome thoughts, comments, requests, etc! (title for series coined by paul monette and because he owns my entire heart, i decided to use it as a sort of tribute.)

The Stories

pain gives me the right - 12k words (2 chapters, complete)