Archive for the ‘Language’ Category
On Vexed
In which The Gay Recluse is vexed. Lately we’ve been thinking about how much we still kinda h8 the words ‘gay’ and ‘queer.’ Though we know that many in ‘the community’ consider this a ‘settled issue’ — and perhaps this is a vestige of our own self-h8red, which is not small by any measure — […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Drivel, Gay, History, Language, Quotes, Resignation, Ruins, Science, Search, Sickness | 15 Comments
Tags: Queer, Vexed, Vext
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. You’d be surprised how often ‘str8 bros’ write in to tell us how ‘wrong’ we are in our assertions that this or that is homophobic, that we really shouldn’t be offended by something that’s ‘not that offensive,’ that we’re actually hurting the […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gay, GWB Project, Health, Language, Letters, Pessimism, Sickness, Stereotypes | 1 Comment
Tags: Hassles, Homophobia, Letters, Str8 Bros, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse reads Roberto Bolaño in stages. In the fourth book of 2666, we are presented with something of an encyclopedia of the literally thousands of crimes (99 percent of them against women) that occur in Bolano’s fictional border city of Santa Teresa — modeled on the real Juarez — over a […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Conspiracy, Decay, Disease, Dissonance, Gay, Landscape, Language, Literature, Sickness, Writers-Chilean | 1 Comment
Tags: 2666, Feminism, Juarez, Murder, Rape, Roberto Bolaño, Serial Killers, The Part About the Crimes, Torture
In which The Gay Recluse recommends a scholarly work. Recently we heard from Scott Gunther, an old friend of ours from college (we also spent a semester together in Paris) and law school. Scott is now a French professor at Wellesley — i.e., he’s practicing as much law as we are, lol — and it […]
Filed under: Gay, Landscape, Language, Letters, Writers-American, Writers-French | 2 Comments
Tags: Academic Works, France, Homosexuality, Scott Gunther, The Elastic Closet
In which The Gay Recluse reads dead flowers. When we first read about The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher, we were excited! Not only was it short-listed for the Booker Prize, but it was rated the #1 Editors’ Pick for Best Book of 2008 by Amazon.com.* And oh yeah, Hensher is “openly gay” — kinda […]
Filed under: Dissonance, GWB Project, Language, Literature, Photography, Stereotypes, Writers-British | 4 Comments
Tags: Book Reviews, Dead Flowers, Gay Writers, Philip Hensher, Roses, The Northern Clemency
In which The Gay Recluse ponders gay marriage literary equality. (Ed: we accidentally published an earlier version of this piece with a lot of unfinished crap at the bottom — please disregard in favor of the below!). UPDATE: please check out this post for gay-oriented 2008 book recommendations from those better informed than us! Last November, […]
Filed under: Disease, Gay, Government, Health, Landscape, Language, Literature, Politicians, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Assfucking, Cocksucking, Fiction, Gay Marriage, James Balwin, Janet Maslin, Marcel Proust, Michiko Kakutani
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. So today we read a most excellent post on marriage at Emily Magazine, which we strongly recommend (and not just because we’re quoted at some length in it, lol!) We have to wonder, is it a coincidence that the only two bloggers to link into […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Dissonance, Faith, Gay, Government, Language, Pessimism, Philosophers | Leave a Comment
Tags: Civil Union for All, Ellie Smeal, Femiladyism, Gay Bffs, Gay Marriage, Marriage, N.O.W., Seagulls, The Hudson River
In which The Gay Recluse wonders who made this stuff up, and not without appreciation. “I like your style” is kinda funny, but the back of the bottle is where things get good. “Wow. That’s some great looking hair you have.” Did you lol? We did. For some reason it never ceases to amuse us. […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Dissonance, Language | 2 Comments
Tags: Copywriters, Great Looking Hair, Pert Plus
In which The Gay Recluse clarifies his thoughts on gay marriage after years of skirting the issue. Since we are gay and in a long-term relationship — almost ten years! — we are constantly besieged by frenz and relatives with questions that more or less could be summed up as this: “Oh it’s so sweet that you’re […]
Filed under: Disease, Dissonance, Drag Queens, Drivel, Gay, Government, Infrastructure, Landscape, Language, Law, Pessimism, Politicians | 5 Comments
Tags: Civil Unions, Gay Marriage, Marriage, Semantics
In which The Gay Recluse feels vaguely nauseous. So OMG did everyone hear that Keith Olbermann had a “special comment” last night (or was it two nights ago, whenevs) about Prop 8 and gay marriage? Chances are, if you spent five seconds on the internet today, you did! We were told not only to watch […]
Filed under: Disease, Dissonance, Gay, Government, Language, Law, Pessimism, Politicians, Resignation, Stereotypes, Television, The Gay Recluse | 8 Comments
Tags: Fucking, Keith Olbermann, Love, Shells, Teevee, The Gays, The Straights
In which The Gay Recluse is appeased. So remember how the BBC invited us on their radio show and made it seem like we were some random caller and not The Gay Recluse? Well, they responded to our complaint with the following message: I’m sorry your blog wasn’t mentioned. I’ve added a link to your […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Faith, Language, Law, Letters, Longing, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: Apologies, BBC, Blog Wars, Sweet Linkage, Traffic Whoring
On The Metropolis Case
In which Matthew Gallaway aka your local gay recluse gets a book deal. Eight or nine years ago, we decided to write a novel. It was actually our second attempt; the first one — a satirical look at internet start-up culture in the late 90s — we had retired to the desk drawer after sending […]
Filed under: Animals, Capitalism, Dissonance, Dream, Faith, Infrastructure, Landscape, Language, Literature, Weather, Writers-American | 15 Comments
Tags: Agents, Book Deals, Editors, Matt Gallaway, Matthew Gallaway, The Metropolis Case
On a Story of Floating Weeds
In which The Gay Recluse is entranced. Tonight we watched A Story of Floating Weeds, the 1934 film by Yasujiro Ozu. It’s a silent movie, which takes some getting used to (and we say this with regret, not about the movie, but the state of our frenzied existence). Like the other Ozu films we’ve seen […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Dream, Film, Gay, Language, Longing, Pleasure | 2 Comments
Tags: A Story of Floating Weeds, Gay Directors, Japan, Silent Movies, Yasujiro Ozu
In which The Gay Recluse remembers tenth grade. Like a million other kids in 1984 we were obsessed with Murmur, by R.E.M. Our friend Tom owned the LP and we used to go down to his room to listen to it — this was at boarding school — and then we made a tape. (That […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Death Culture at Sea, Good Rock, Language, Longing, Memory, Nostalgia, Obsession, The Gay Recluse | 2 Comments
Tags: Boarding School, Michael Stipe, Murmur, Perfect Circle, R.E.M., Tenth Grade
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. “Love is perceiving and perception is anguish.” — James Baldwin, Just Above My Head
Filed under: Gay, Language, Literature, Longing, Quotes, Writers-American | Leave a Comment
Tags: Anguish, James Baldwin, Love, Perception, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse visits a friend’s garden. Sometimes we long for more gardening space, so that we could enjoy exploding swaths of bee balm every July. But then we would have to drive everywhere. And our head would be filled with dangerous little songs. Don’t get me wrong, i think it’s terrible to […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Disease, Drivel, GWB Project, Landscape, Language, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Summer Garden, Travel | 1 Comment
Tags: Bee Balm, Closet Cases, Genuises, Homophobia, Straights, Suburbs, The Pixies, Wave of Mutilation
In which The Gay Recluse retreats to the summer garden. Remember that post we did on that stupid Nike ad? Huge traffic whores that we are, we immediately sent it to Queerty and Towleroad, and they picked it up. And then JoeMyGod and Gawker did pieces, too! And a bunch of other sites we never […]
Filed under: Addiction, Drivel, Gay, Language, Resignation, Ruins, Sickness, The Gay Recluse, The Summer Garden, Traffic | 5 Comments
Tags: Arthur C. Clarke, Feelings, Homophobia, Lilies, Lolz, Nike, Retirement, Traffic, Whores
In which The Gay Recluse throws out his running shoes and says wtf. According to our Harlem correspondent Neskers, the below ad is plastered all over phone booths in his neighborhood: We’d like to say fuck you, Nike, and all the advertising geniuses who created this piece of shit. Srsly, unbelievable. Nike should be forced […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Language, The Gay Recluse | 80 Comments
Tags: Ads, Downlow, Homophobia, Nike
In which The Gay Recluse updates his informal but rather telling quantitative analysis of Modern Love, the weekly Style Section (of The Times) column in which openly gay writers almost never appear, and even less frequently describe a romantic relationship. This week’s piece: How My Husband Won Back My Vote by Andrea Neighbours Subject: A […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Language, Search, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrea Neighbours, Daniel Jones, The New York Times, Workaholics
The Gay Recluse 