International Bon Vivant and Raconteur ([info]nick_kaufmann) wrote,
@ 2009-07-06 00:14:00
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Entry tags:books, horror, writing

THE STATE OF THE GENRE: The Monster Outside the Closet
My latest State of the Genre column is up at Fear Zone, and this time I lift up a rock to shine a light on the grotesque anti-gay sentiment that can sometimes be found in the "horror community," as well as highlighting some gay horror authors and straight horror authors unafraid of writing sympathetic and realistic gay characters.

In the letters column of the April 2009 issue of Rue Morgue magazine, a reader named Jerry Diego writes, "As a gay man who loves horror, I've rarely felt like the horror community embraces anything about us (other than killing us horribly in movies)...[yet] I know that not every horror fan is a single white male, testosterone-fuelled, T&A-loving homo-basher like every single forum of every horror site seems to suggest."

As someone who used to frequent horror message boards before I realized life was too short to spend that much time wading through nonsense, I've seen firsthand the macho, anti-gay attitude that can be prevalent in the horror community.

Go check out "The Monster Outside the Closet" and let me know what you think.


(27 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]yuki_onna
2009-07-06 04:30 am UTC (link)
I don't think Poppy would enjoy being first in the list of straight writers...

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[info]nick_kaufmann
2009-07-06 04:31 am UTC (link)
It occurred to me, actually!

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[info]mroctober
2009-07-06 11:31 am UTC (link)
It's hard to make your point and explain genderqueer (in the case of Poppy). I think its a great essay.

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[info]nick_kaufmann
2009-07-06 11:37 am UTC (link)
True, and thanks!

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[info]mroctober
2009-07-06 07:45 pm UTC (link)
Btw, I spread word of this blog entry to Towleroad, a very well-read gay blog and they mentioned it!

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[info]nick_kaufmann
2009-07-06 08:20 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for doing that!

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[info]mroctober
2009-07-06 11:29 am UTC (link)
Thank you for mentioning me.

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[info]leethomas
2009-07-06 11:39 am UTC (link)
Great work, Nick. Thanks!

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[info]nick_kaufmann
2009-07-06 11:46 am UTC (link)
Glad you like it!

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[info]pgtremblay
2009-07-06 12:10 pm UTC (link)
Nice job, Nick.

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[info]nick_kaufmann
2009-07-06 12:29 pm UTC (link)
THANK YOU. MY NEXT COLUMN WILL BE ABOUT KNIFEPOINT HORROR.

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[info]pgtremblay
2009-07-06 12:33 pm UTC (link)
EXCELLENT

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[info]jeffpalmatier
2009-07-06 07:07 pm UTC (link)
Some weeks ago I googled this again. Apparently after the first Volume 1 of Knifepoint Horror, that's been it, unless he's currently hard at work at another tome.

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[info]nick_kaufmann
2009-07-06 08:21 pm UTC (link)
I SUSPECT KNIFEPOINT HORROR IS DEAD IN THE WATER. COLD AND DEAD LIKE MY EMOTIONLESS PROSE.

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[info]jeffpalmatier
2009-07-07 03:41 am UTC (link)
This whole Knifepoint Horror concept reminds me of an episode of Dr. Katz Professional Therapist I saw some years ago. This comedian was on the coach, saying something like, "I used to see people with tattoos, and I would think, 'How could they do that to their body?!' Now I admire them, because they can say, 'Yeah, give me a tattoo of a pig with wings, breathing fire from its nostrils . . . because that's who I am!' I want that certainty!"

When I later remembered that email you and Paul Tremblay put up of that guy describing his new proposed sub-genre of horror, I thought, Well, I guess you can't accuse him of not having not having a vision/POV, however misguided or even bizarre we think it is!

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[info]possumqueen
2009-07-08 05:37 pm UTC (link)
Oh gawds, that was one of the funniest flame-wars ever! Link back to it?

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[info]scanner_darkly
2009-07-06 04:04 pm UTC (link)
Great, great column.

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[info]nick_kaufmann
2009-07-06 04:05 pm UTC (link)
Thanks, Seth.

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[info]relby
2009-07-06 06:54 pm UTC (link)
Fabulous piece!

BTW, you were picked up by Towleroad, the amazing and VERY highly trafficed gay news blog: http://www.towleroad.com/2009/07/news-1.html

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[info]mroctober
2009-07-06 07:46 pm UTC (link)
Ahh, I see I did good.

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[info]relby
2009-07-06 07:55 pm UTC (link)
You're like a gay horror evangelist!

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[info]nick_kaufmann
2009-07-06 08:23 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for the link!

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[info]livia_llewellyn
2009-07-06 10:40 pm UTC (link)
...Poppy Z. Brite, Anne Rice, Peter Straub, Gemma Files, Nick Mamatas, Livia Llewellyn, Nancy Kilpatrick, David Wellington, Sephera Giron...

This is a pretty fucking awesome list to be a part of - thanks! Am I famous now? AM I?

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[info]nick_kaufmann
2009-07-06 11:11 pm UTC (link)
You're famous among teh gays!

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[info]livia_llewellyn
2009-07-07 12:06 am UTC (link)
YOU MEAN MY NIPPLEPOINT HORROR IS FAMOUS. COLD AND FAMOUS. LIKE NIPPLES.

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You Go, Boy...
[info]jewellwelles
2009-07-07 07:02 pm UTC (link)
Interesting reading this right after watching "The Innocents" on Netflix. That adaptation of The Turn of the Screw was co-written by Truman Capote and I thought, not entirely because I read Capote's name, there was an interesting gay subtext running through the movie, particularly with the Uncle (although he is not sympathetic) and with the boy, Miles. Miss Giddens believes "he's not like the other boys" (all these questions of what he did get kicked out of school for, etc.), which she attributes to possession (which resulted from Miles' relationship with an older man), and when she attempts to take that away from him, he dies.

It's not a perfect analogy, of course, and the movie shows actual ghostly manifestations, so the haunting seems real, but I started thinking about it watching the film (which I thought was a good adaptation, btw). Then I came upon your essay. Serandipity!

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Re: You Go, Boy...
[info]nick_kaufmann
2009-07-07 08:16 pm UTC (link)
Cool interpretation. I remember liking that movie a lot.

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