I feel very attacked

 So, as part of my mild Keith Hartman obsession (Ok, so I love his writing, I'm not stalking him or writing fan letters), I picked up a copy of his first published work, Congregations in Conflict: The Battle Over Homosexuality, written, near as I can tell, when the author was at Duke. 

I had read this previously, in maybe 2005ish, which meant even then, some of the conclusions herein are a bit outdated. (Copyright is 1996, even if most everything discussed tops out in 1995.) Nearly 30 years on, much of what's happened in the intervening years has shown that progress has happened, although at different rates among different factions. However, what I missed the first time I read this, was that all 9 situations explored are in the North Carolina Research Triangle Area. (While two of my brothers live there these days, I doubt either would have an interest in doing follow up for me.) 

Anyway, we start with a Methodist congregation and two Southern Baptist congregations, and how they deal with ministers trying to minister to gay members, and the problems that happen with that. (The Methodist congregation has an older population, and a younger population, with no in-between membership to kind of help reconcile the differing generational views. And since the older folks have the purse strings... Both Baptist churches, which eventually work out to be accepting congregations get expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention.)

We then move into the Episcopals and a bunch of drama concerning a same sex union and the Duke Divinity School dramas of 1992. 

Discussion gets into the Metropolitan Community Church of Raleigh (for those who don't know, they were founded as a church specifically for LGBTQ+ people), and the adventures in what to do with a growing congregation who've moved beyond being just celebrating Gays and God, and also dealing with a minister who's being pulled in several directions due to parishioners dying of AIDS. 

Then we get two chapters of Non-programmed Friends gatherings and the fun of trying to find clarity on blessing unions in both meetings, before getting involved in Dignity, the organization for Black Catholics, and the friction between them and a Jesuit church founded as an all Black congregation, made more complex by edicts from John Paul II and the now Benedict XVI. 

The Epilogue deals with congregations on a national level and the author's predictions on how the drama will play out over the next few years (as the book was written.)  

Thankfully, not all of them came true. Of particular interest to me was discussion on the dueling sexuality reports in the Presbyterian General Assembly of 1991. (I seem to recall perusing both reports in High School for an argument paper on gay rights I was writing. Yeah, that whole, explore gay issues by posing as an outsider trying to understand. Worked out soooo well.) While he (like everyone else) predicted that the Minority report would get adopted, I seem to recall it didn't, and the denomination wound up compromising one way and another. It was ugly, since while Homosexuality was main event, there was a whole "fidelity in marriage, chastity in singleness" clause that had a few folks asking if the ministers were going to become bedroom police. Of course, I also recall an agreement between a few Protestant denominations in the Reformed tradition that would require each denomination to recognize the other's ordinations, and that a few of those in that agreement (like the United Church of Christ) whole heartedly ordained the gheyz. In terms of the Roman Catholics, while they're still not where a lot of us would like to see them, the Scandals of the past few decades and the Promotion of Francis I have moved the needle a bit with them. As for the Episcopals, this was written before V. Gene Robinson became a household name for a few months and nearly broke the Communion. 

This remains a fascinating time capsule of church history and exactly how far things have come in 30 years.

Captain Caveman!

 Technically Murder Beneath the Buried Sky by Keith Hartman is a novella, but when it came out, it was the first writing from the author in quite a while. 

We follow Calvin around, in the cave system his parents and several others followed into the cave to escape "The Burn", a nuclear holocaust. While indications remain that it started off as a cult of religious types, it comes clear that isolation had kind of ended the more religious mania of the area, as free love regardless of gender seems to be the norm among most of the folks in the caves. 

The problem is, as we find out, Calvin's dad is found dead at the opening, and Calvin is the prime suspect. 

What follows is a rather engaging mystery, as to who killed Dad and, more importantly why someone would kill the Quartermaster. 

To go into too much detail on everything would spoil the plot, although I think I can get by with saying the author himself expresses its inspiration came from Plato.

Lots of fun, although darker than much of what else Hartman has published.

Secret identity issues

 I was really happy to see that Keith Hartman released a new novel this year, since his other 3 novels have been entertaining and fun and rereadable. 

So, Confessions of a Former Teen Superhero has what we want from a novelization of a four color comic, with cosmic powers, supervillains, and angst. Since it's Hartman, the hero we're getting as a POV character is queer, and his life without the cape is a shambles. 

Poor Josh. He lives in his mom's basement, and due to his need to go save the world, he has issues getting and keeping employment. Yes, he moonlights as Kid Quasar, complete with a Superman-esque backstory of being an alien sent to earth as a baby, but who gained superpowers when his transport got too near a quasar on the way. He can fly and is invulnerable to bullets, plus he has super strength. Problem is, outside of his skin tight black and gold costume, he has the body of Clay Aiken back in American Idol season 2. 

Josh's mom sets him up with Rick, who leads us in to the idea that Superheroes in this world get sponsorship deals. Rick is part of an agency that works for the current wunderkin Comet Boy, a super speedster who leaves flames in his wake, and seems to always rescue celebrities or save the world where people can film it. 

Not that Quasar Boy doesn't have his fans, there's Tiffany, the obsessed stalker girl who puts herself in jeopardy to get Quasar Boy's attention, plus a few "Mean Girls" men who basically love screwing capes. (Due to my own censorship and the fact I like to keep this blog PG-13 at the outside, I'm sure adults can read between the phrasing on that one and get the idea.) He also has a super scientist Arch-Nemesis, Doctor Nightmare, who winds up providing a heck of a lot of humor through the book. (Really, it's a bit like if Batman and Joker went out for beers and started discussing their personal lives at one point.) 

As the book progresses, we meet other minor superheroes, like Super Surfer (whom just about everyone refers to as Super Stoner) and La Tarantula, the female Mexican Wrestler. And of course, a finale when the masks more or less come off everyone out of camera range.

I found myself loving this book, less because it manages to humanize Superheroes in a way the DC Shared Universe movies have decidedly failed to do (Ok, that was uncalled for. But the DC animated universe has done a better job of making the characters more relatable to viewers than the Live Action one have ever done.) and more because I can better relate to Josh than I would like to admit. (I realize Marvel downplays queer characters for International sales, but with 4 phases, we deserve more than one guy mourning his husband at a support group at the end of Phase III.) I mean, yeah, Josh is fighting the fact he feels ugly because out of costume, he finds himself unattractive surrounded by underwear models and fitness trainers. While I'm surrounded by less...athletic...body tyoes, I feel his pain, as siomeone who's been a fatass most of my life. (Off topic. Even when I got down to 180, I still felt like a fatass.)

Two good things come out of this. One is that it seems to be the start of a series *fangirl squee*, and two, it gives me a chance to recommend another good read to people.

Gorilla my dreams....

So, once again, reading through Keith Hartman's Gorilla series, which I've already reviewed.

https://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2016/01/january-re-read-ii-gorilla-returns.html

Still fun.

Oops, I ran out of books...

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I let my TBR pile dwindle down to nothing, and I couldn't find the books I had from various sales, Amazon's shipping takes time, particularly when preordering, and the library doesn't have copies of stuff at your preferred location....

Anyway, this lead to rereading Keith Hartman's The Gumshoe, The Witch, and the Virtual Corpse. Which I've already read several times and actually have a review posted of on here already.

As such, I'm not going to rereview the book, merely point out the original review, and then mention that the edition I have currently is not the original Meisha Merlin edition (which I loaned to someone and never got returned), but the more recent revised version, complete with artwork, moving the story 20 years after where it was originally, and a few changed references. Interestingly enough, my copy of the follow up is the Meisha Merlin edition without all the new bells and whistles, and it's up next just to finish the story. Eventually, I will replace my original edition and get the revised edition of the follow up, but not today.

January re-read II: The Gorilla Returns

Well, I've now officially re-read the Gumshoe duology by Keith Hartman, and now find myself cursing that he never wrote another one in the series. He did write on other novel (Murder Beneath The Buried Sky, which if I can figure out where I put it last time I redid my bookshelf might be up next), but as of late, he seems to be in Hollywood self financing fun movies. (Seriously. Go find copies of You Should Meet My Son and Real Superheroes. I guess he's still trying to get Vampire Strippers Must Die funded beyond a short film.)

Gumshoe Gorilla picks up in April 2025, roughly 6 months after the events of The Gumshoe, The Witch, and the Virtual Corpse. This time, we start with Jen ("The Psychic"), who's doing her darndest to inflict a bit of karmic retribution on her previous beau, who it seems was dating two other women and using the same cheesy lines on as he did with her.

We do return to Drew ("The Gumshoe") in due time, who is dealing with Laughing Bear constantly dropping off Ice-In-Summer's former wardrobe at Drew's apartment. We also briefly meet Natalie ("The Number Cruncher") who's basically feeding information from both the Baptist Broadcasting Network and the Christian Alliance to Roaring Grizzly ("The Tele-shaman"). We do gets hints that the three of them may be colluding, but only one is aware of all the players in the scheme.

We also meet Skye ("The Writer"), plot coordinator for CzechMates, which is currently filming in Atlanta. As plot coordinator, her job consists of making sure all the deviating plotlines from any edit of the show makes sense. Skye hires Jen and Drew to investigate what her boyfriend is doing, since she's sure he's in trouble. Her boyfriend is Charles Rockland, one of the 3 Rockland brothers working on the show. (The other two being Doug and Bernie. Albert works alone and is in Thailand, Eddie is busy keeping the tabloids in business.)

The thrust of that plotline works out to finding out Charles is trying to help Eddie out of a really bizarre blackmail scheme, which brings Drew and Jen back to working with Linda ("The Woman in Black"), who was last seen working for Justin Weir.

There's also a case Drew is working to try to figure out what's wrong with Daniel, his much younger call boy friend, who is indeed now dating a man named Vincent as Drew saw in a vision last book. Drew's concerns stem from Daniel getting arrested for possession of Bliss (think MDMA), and then finding out the Bliss is laced with heroin. This leads to a vampire sex club, and further down the rabbit hole into the camps where unwanted gay youth were housed in the years following the genetic test. We also find out more of Drew's past, like how he got kicked out of his parents house during his sophomore year when his genetic test showed he was gay, and how he worked for one of the escort agencies to get by until he joined the police later on.

Ultimately, these mysteries get wrapped up (including one introduced early on about a woman convinced her daughter's new husband is hiding something) satisfactorily, but again, one is left wondering what happens to everyone after the lights go down and everyone takes off their masks.

This one is also less focused on big ideas, and more so on little ones like individuality and the prices of fame. During one of Drew's Shamanic voyages, a mockingbird recites poetry on the latter, before being eaten by the asphalt.

As I stated above, I caught a few things I haven't noticed in previous readings (something Laughing Bear says near the end seems to register with something Skye says elsewhere earlier), which makes me really wish there was another Gumshoe coming out sometime.

Don't let that stop you. The book is still a damned good read.

January re-read

I sort of reviewed Keith Hartman's The Gumshoe, The Witch, And the Virtual Corpse (as well as its follow up, The Gumshoe Gorilla) way back in 2013, but a January slow down in library book has afforded me the opportunity to re-read the duology. (I have a few quintets I'd like to re-read as well, but quintets are much more of a time sink.)

The year is 2024, in a week that ends with a Friday the 13th. We start on a Sunday evening, with one of our narrators (Drew, who's chapters get listed as "The Gumshoe") on a case, trying to figure out if his clients fiance is gay or not. When the client shows up on the stake out, it gives us a chance to examine America in the mid-20's, with Atlanta being a microcosm of the nation. We hear of the genetic test for homosexuality, which leads to an uptick in abortions in all populations other than Catholics. ("'You gotta love the Pope. She may be a reactionary old cow, but at least she's consistent.'") Most populations have managed to segregate themselves, with the gays taking over midtown, and the Southern Baptists occupying northern Cobb County. The client's fiance works for Rev. Zachariah Stonewall, one of Georgia's senators from the Christian Alliance party.

As the scene plays out, with the client following Drew up to her fiance's hotel room in DC to see if he's doing bad things with Drew's sidekick Daniel, we cut to "The artist", James Calerant, an artist with a sordid past. In this section, Calerant is at a grant performace surrounded by other artists showing off what they did with their money. (This included Foy Kucu rolling around in frosting and sprinkles while screaming racial epithets.) Calerant's performance for the evening (before which we get an overview of artistic politics) involves an old painting he bought from a museum where it had been languishing in a basement for 50 years. He sets it on fire, giving it meaning by destroying it. Then we cut back to Drew, who's client has pulled a gun on her fiance after finding him in the act. Drew takes a hit to the head and starts seeing thing right in the middle of the ensuing fight.

And from there we're off. We meet Megan, "The Police", who gets woken up to investigate a vandalism case in a graveyard. Given she's Special Investigations, she resents this, until she gets there and finds out the case involves a corpse exhumed and set up in what appears to be a Satanic ritual of some sort. We meet Ice-In-Summer, "The Lunatic", Cherokee shaman who's looking for her replacement, as she approaches the courthouse for a hearing about Raging Grizzly's "Ghost Dance" that wound up in a shootout between the Cherokee and the Baptists. We meet Benji, "The Chosen One", a young Baptist boy who writes an underground comic. We meet Justin, "The Singer", who just one best Male Artists at the Christian Music awards, and who's trying to bring down Stonewall. We meet Holly, "The Witch", who writes for a Wiccan newssite, and who's daughter becomes involved with Benji.

The story gets more involved and interrelated as 3 murders happen as well as an act of terrorism at a family planning clinic. As the clock winds slowly towards Friday the 13th, tensions ramp up between all the communities and violence breaks out among them. We find out who Benji's real parents are and why he's being chased by Men In Black Suits, we find out why Ice-In-summer believes her time is nigh. We go with Drew on his shamanic hero's journey and enjoy his frustration with one of the archetypes he encounters on the way. (A giant turtle who tries to get him to journey over water and enter the underworld. Said turtle starts quoting Joseph Campbell before Drew finally takes matters into his own hands.)

And ultimately, we find out who started the Satanic Panic and why. And why "In order to save something, you must destroy it."

It's by far one of my favorite books of all time, one that I've bought for a few people and recommended to several others. I think the mix of Sci-fi, urban fantasy, magical realism, and just plain humor is a heady mix, frosted with themes that are close to my heart, was just what I needed to get 2016 off to a good start.

One of my all time favorites

Since I'm muddling through Kage Baker at the moment, I thought I'd drop in and talk about on of my favorite series that also happens to be calling from the shelf at the moment.

Many years ago, when I was frequenting the library branch south of Ohio State, I kept seeing a book on the New Books display called The Gumshoe Gorilla. I read the back, and kept looking at it every time I went in to drop off and pick up. Then someone in one of my LiveJournal communities reviewed it and pointed out that it was the second book in the series that started with The Gumshoe, The Witch, and The Virtual Corpse.

So, I placed reserves on both books, and wound up reading them on an extended weekend trip to Illinois for my cousin's wedding.

After realizing that I'd checked the books out 3 or 4 times, I wound up buying copies of my own, since I still enjoy re-reading them, even if the newer editions change a few references around. (In the original edition of GWVC, there's a Star Trek reference that gets changed to a Star Wars reference, and a few other nods to changing tastes or things considered too obscure. I still have an original version of GG, so I'm not sure what got changed in there.)

GWVC introduces us to Private Eye Drew Parker in the year 2024 as he's staking out the fiance of his client. His client is a Southern Baptist, who is trying to see if her husband to be is really gay. Drew's accomplice in this is the Escort Daniel, who does indeed prove the fiance to be gay. This is complicated by the fact the client has decided to come along on the sting. And the client pulls a gun when the fiance's infidelity is revealed.

This little vignette that opens the story gives us a glimpse of the world of 2024. Daniel is a product of the Camps, basically orphanages for gay youth abandoned by their parents following the development of the test for the gay gene. As times have passed, only the Catholics generally won't avoid aborting a gay baby. As such, the Gay culture has a bunch of iconography based on the fusion of Divas and Saints. (For instance, Madonna, the Like-A-Virgin, not the Holy Virgin.) Due to increasingly customizable entertainment options, most groups segregate themselves into fairly insular communities, with no real overlap.

(As a side note, and as a bit of an Eater egg, Drew's introduction was published as a short story in Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction edited by Stephen Pagel and Nicola Griffith. Stephen, in his introduction, makes a comment about how he goes by Stephe since he can't properly spell it Steve. In GWVC, a security guard does introduce himself as Stephe.)

The book itself is written in first person. The twist is that there are 22 narrators throughout the text, each with a handle and a time stamp to help keep track of where we are in the story. Drew, for instance, is The Gumshoe. The geriatric Cherokee shaman is The Lunatic. a school kid who figures greatly into the plot is The Chosen One, mainly because he thinks of himself as God's chosen victim. Nothing near martyrdom, but more like putting banana peels in his path to give God a laugh.

What follows is an investigation into 3 murders, what caused them, and what the murder is actually trying to accomplish. By the time you get to the end, the staggering beauty of the plan is almost overwhelming, and the social commentary quite pointed.

The second book returns us back to Drew a year later, investigating a famous film star on behalf of the star's girlfriend. (The star is on of 5 identical Tom Cruise clones. In the continuity, cloning dead celebrities is an expensive but valid means of reproducing.) It also focuses on Daniel and his past or what little he remembers of it. And in the meantime becomes a very deep meditation on the perils of fame and celebrity.

I recommend these frequently to all of my gay friends who like to read, since they really are fun reads with much to say. And it's hard not to feel kinship with many of the characters throughout both books. I wish Hartman would write another sequel, but I think he's busy doing movies now.