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asked
Adriano Bulla:
I read yours is not a gay novel, but an 'out' novel, meaning it is a novel with a gay protagonist (for me he's bi...) but that appeals to non-LGBT readers. How are you finding dealing with the two groups? How hard is it?
Adriano Bulla
Hello, thanks for the question. I read the same comment too. Interesting, isn't it, how tagging can hide books from readers... The Road to London was called 'out' when she was voted Book of the Month on Modern Good Reads; I hadn't thought about it before, but I am grateful to Kenneth Fore for no I acting her and all the readers who voted and then discussed the novel at such length.
I had not thought about it before that, but readers who I would call not-necessarily-concerned-with-LGBT-issues started reading her and they got the ball rolling. I am also grateful, on this, to Roger Hardy, who, in his literary blog, said that the novel 'is as gay as the Bible is to Jews', meaning that she has a gay protagonist but is not just interesting to gay readers.
Most of the novels I read are straight; thinking about it from a gay man's point of view, we grow up reading 'straight' novels at school. I don't find the sexuality of the protagonists an impediment, or an obstacle to enjoying the novel. Humans can empathise, and that means share emotions with people in a different situation from their own. I also believe that the great majority of readers don't care if a character is straight or LGBT. Why should they? Most of Human experience has universal qualities, and Literature needs, in my opinion, to present an idiosyncratic story but discuss universal themes: the search for happiness, love and freedom, self-discovery, soul-searching, the struggle to be an individual in a society where peer pressure and group mentality are rife, all themes in the novel, are universal.
I am not finding it hard to discuss with 'the two groups' as you call them. I have noticed quite a few reviews don't even mention the Boy's sexuality. Most people are just open minded; I've found that this is true in real life too: if you just present your sexuality as a 'fact of life', rather than an ideological and political issue, most people just accept you for who you are and don't make an issue of it. I think that is true of The Road to London.
What I found difficult was how to talk about the novel on Twitter, where hashtags and branding are the essence of small messages... I ended up writing 'with LGBT theme, if it matters'... More as a little 'warning' than a tag... And to ask readers if it really mattered to them when they read a book if the characters are LGBT or not. We need to move towards real integration, and that only happens if the word LGBT is not charged with exclusive (meaning excluding) connotations, but taken inclusively. Do I read texts about women? Of course, and quite a few of my favourite novels are about women, so, the problem is artificially constructed by a twisted and I believe a bit morbid market, rather than a real one...
I had not thought about it before that, but readers who I would call not-necessarily-concerned-with-LGBT-issues started reading her and they got the ball rolling. I am also grateful, on this, to Roger Hardy, who, in his literary blog, said that the novel 'is as gay as the Bible is to Jews', meaning that she has a gay protagonist but is not just interesting to gay readers.
Most of the novels I read are straight; thinking about it from a gay man's point of view, we grow up reading 'straight' novels at school. I don't find the sexuality of the protagonists an impediment, or an obstacle to enjoying the novel. Humans can empathise, and that means share emotions with people in a different situation from their own. I also believe that the great majority of readers don't care if a character is straight or LGBT. Why should they? Most of Human experience has universal qualities, and Literature needs, in my opinion, to present an idiosyncratic story but discuss universal themes: the search for happiness, love and freedom, self-discovery, soul-searching, the struggle to be an individual in a society where peer pressure and group mentality are rife, all themes in the novel, are universal.
I am not finding it hard to discuss with 'the two groups' as you call them. I have noticed quite a few reviews don't even mention the Boy's sexuality. Most people are just open minded; I've found that this is true in real life too: if you just present your sexuality as a 'fact of life', rather than an ideological and political issue, most people just accept you for who you are and don't make an issue of it. I think that is true of The Road to London.
What I found difficult was how to talk about the novel on Twitter, where hashtags and branding are the essence of small messages... I ended up writing 'with LGBT theme, if it matters'... More as a little 'warning' than a tag... And to ask readers if it really mattered to them when they read a book if the characters are LGBT or not. We need to move towards real integration, and that only happens if the word LGBT is not charged with exclusive (meaning excluding) connotations, but taken inclusively. Do I read texts about women? Of course, and quite a few of my favourite novels are about women, so, the problem is artificially constructed by a twisted and I believe a bit morbid market, rather than a real one...
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