#related sexuality
transformativeworksandcultures:
Not sure what my favoriters are: it’s probably a split between animals AS fans and Gawain and Green Knight as fannish…Vol 29 (2019): General Issuepublished
Editorial
TWC Editor, In defense of revision
Theory
AC. Lee Harrington, Animal fans: Toward a multispecies fan studies
Hannah E. Dahlberg-Dodd, The author in the postinternet age
Sebastian F. K. Svegaard, Toward an integration of musicological methods into fan video studies
Erica Lyn Massey, Borderland literature, female pleasure, and the slash fic phenomenon
Andrew Crome, Considering eighteenth-century prophecy as transformative work
Leah Steuer, Structural affects of soap opera fan correspondence, 1970s–80s
Praxis
Gayle S. Stever, Fan studies in psychology: A road less traveled
Jessica Ethel Tompkins, Is gender just a costume? An exploratory study of crossplay
Olympia Kiriakou, Big name fandom and the (inevitable) failure of Disflix
Xianwei Wu, Hierarchy within female ACG fandom in China
Angela L. Florschuetz, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” canonicity, and audience participation
Alice Margaret Kelly, Fan fiction as feminist citation: Lesbian (para)textuality in chainofclovers’s “Done with the Compass, Done with the Chart” (2017)
Symposium
Xiqing Zheng, Survival and migration patterns of Chinese online media fandoms
Effie Sapuridis, Gendered Fairy Tale Heroics: Ginny Weasley in The Source
Cody T. Havard, Introducing Sport Rivalry Man, protector of positive fan behavior
Martyna Szczepaniak, Death in Marvel
Cody T. Havard, Rhema D. Fuller, Timothy D. Ryan, Frederick G. Grieve, Using the Marvel Cinematic Universe to build a defined research line
Review
Abby Waysdorf, “Framing fan fiction: Literary and social practices in fan fiction communities,” by Kristina Busse
Wikanda Promkhuntong, “Chinese stardom in participatory cyberculture,” by Dorothy Wai Sim Lau
The Priory of the Orange Tree on Goodreads
Release Year: 2019
Format I Read: ebook
Length:848 pages
Genres: high fantasy
LGBT Rep: sapphic (I’m assuming lesbian) pov character, lesbian love interest/major character, gay man pov character
Spoiler-Free Review:
Ho-ly crap my dudes, I finally did it. I finally finished this absolute unit of book, and guess what? I really loved it a lot. This is exactly a book I’ve wanted for forever. A really killer high fantasy epic that also just happens to be really gay at times.
The main romance in the book is a f/f slow burn (yes, an honest to god lesbian slow burn), and I went in pretty much only knowing that, not even knowing who. At times I was definitely Sherlocking every single female character trying to figure out who the gays were, and I was pretty sure I knew who they were pretty on, but it takes a while for it to get going. When it does though…they sure do go, huh?
There is also an older gay male point of view character who’s gayness is pretty important to his story and motives, though (and this is a slight spoiler but it comes up pretty early on) the love of his life died some time before the story began.
This is a long, long book, and the Gays have issues throughout, some of it stemming somehow from them being gay or from their gay relationship conflicting against the society. Even with that, once their relationship really starts, there isn’t much in the way of outright homophobia. It’s hard to explain exactly, but there is the sense that being gay isn’t normal or completely accepted in the society, but also the relationship is pretty accepted once it gets kicked off. And the one plot issue that comes from someone trying to stop the relationship still doesn’t really stem from it being a gay relationship. It’s hard for me to explain further without going into spoilers.
But yeah, the gayness isn’t hidden by any means, but it also isn’t always in focus. It interweaves with the plot for sure, but the central plot isn’t about it by any means. It’s very much a high fantasy story with a high fantasy plot, and it just so happens that the main romance is f/f.
Synopsis: Honestly there is so much going on that I’m not sure how to set it up, so I’m just going to copy and paste the official synopsis from goodreads:
“The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction–but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.”The Good: You get the sense of the threat of homophobia without ever actually having to face it. The romance is cute and is the opposite of rushed. All of the definitely defined gay characters feel like fully fleshed out characters. They have motives. They have good and bad qualities, and aren’t perfect but also are never demonized. They do good and bad things. Dare I say, they are treated like actual people?
What Might Hinder You from Reading It: You are utterly intimidated by the size of the book. It’s really hefty. You don’t like high fantasy. You don’t like dragons. You don’t like monarchy stories (which I often don’t but I still liked this).
Would I Recommend It?: YES. YES MY GOD YES.
Now for the Spoilers: