Moderator: Asy
Attendees: Ron, Dorcas, Timmy
“Have you ever had a crush on, or fell in love with your best friend/s?” Asy asked, kicking off this month’s chill discussion. Continue reading
Moderator: Asy
Attendees: Ron, Dorcas, Timmy
“Have you ever had a crush on, or fell in love with your best friend/s?” Asy asked, kicking off this month’s chill discussion. Continue reading
Filed under Bisexuality, Coming of Age, Family, Lesbian, Love, Maureen Johnson, Queer, USA, Young Adult
Moderator: Asy
Attendees: Timmy, Aaron, Raj, Ron, Chris, and featuring Out in SG group – Eugene, Dan, Clarence, Xin, Kurien, Faye, Zach, Ping, Budi, Shawn, Eddie
August is considered Singapore’s birthday month, thus it felt fitting to read and discuss Chua’s book. Continue reading
Filed under Academic, Lynette Chua, Politics, Queer, Singapore
Moderator: Timmy
Attendees: Ron, Raj, Deborah, Hazel, Aaron, Zoe, Dorcas
This is the third young adult book that we are discussing for the year; clearly we are on a roll in spite of everything going on in the world. Unfortunately, the good mood stopped there. Continue reading
Filed under Coming of Age, Family, Gay, Jeffery Self, Love, Race, USA, Young Adult
Moderator: Vicky
Attendees: Alexius, Rachel, Ron, Dorcas, Malcolm Sunny, Jason, Raj, Asy, Darren, Zoe, Clement, Timmy
Thank you to dearest Raj “Ponpon” for the wonderful spread of Turkish delights! All of us were definitely delighted (heh heh) with the delicious morsels. “Come for the book club, stay for the food,” Timmy declared.
A summary of the book by moderator Vicky started the discussion, highlighting events such as the depressive episode the narrator was going through at the start of the book, the lusting of Haluk Pekerdem, and the openly queer culture of Istanbul. Continue reading
Filed under #QBMCSG10, Crime, Disability, Love, Mehmet Murat Somer, Queer, Sex, Technology, Transgender, Turkey
Attendees: Rhys, Colin, Asy, Vicky, Yi Sheng, Rui Jie, Qian Hui, Azura, Calvin, Daniel, Raj, Maya
Moderator: Timmy
Thank you to our friends from gayhealth.sg, Calvin and Daniel, for joining us and sharing their knowledge and insights for this discussion, and of course to our host Raj for the Deepavali snacks and alcohol. Continue reading
Attendees: Asy, Joyce, Rachel, Yi Sheng, Pamela, Timmy
Moderator: Vicky
All of us completed the required reading and were raring to go! Continue reading
Attendees: Asy, Pamela, Kenny, Maya, Timmy
All of us read the book, but the abstractness left us perplexed. Pamela said reading the book was like reading “random words strung together”. Kenny was left frustrated, as he really tried to find resonance with the collection; this ultimately marred his enjoyment of the book. Asy shared that the sense of fulfilment after reading was missing, since they didn’t get what the poems meant. Maya admitted to Googling his poems to find any interpretations of them. We collectively agreed that the book is an esoteric collection not meant for the masses.
There were a lot of things to unpack and decipher with this book: Continue reading
Attendees: Raj, Timmy, Asy, Fiona, Mya, Vicky, Reynard, Shawn, Aaron, Henry, Olivia.
We discussed The Chinese Botantist’s Daughters, directed and written by Dai Sijie, a French-Chinese, who writes in French, although he is a Chinese national. The themes that we talked about: nature/location, religion, music/soundtrack, rebellion, politics, race, and family.
In particular, we looked closely at the drug scene in the steamroom where hallucinogens are used to induce buried memories (of the Western mother), prompting Liming to cut her hair short and don a man’s uniform; why are drugs associated with homosexuality? And why does Liming fall into a heteronormative narrative of being a “man”?
We also talked about the phallic symbols in the movie and how male sexual desire needed to be extirpated in order for lesbian love to rise.
We also reached a conclusion that the rebellious actions are sometimes pointless and, coupled with the paradisal locale, the Western corruption into a carefully cultivated isle can be read allergically as serpent destroying Eden (Liming as the serpent, An as Eve, her brother as Adam, and the father who created the isle as God) or politically as Pro-China. The political aspects, we concluded, are so patent in the movie that we didn’t believe Dai Sijie when he claimed that his movies aren’t political.
Furthermore, in the last scene, which moved many of us, an educator and religious leaders support the lesbian couple; we read this as a form of resistance against the state laws. We thought the “Bury the Gays” theme deserves 10000 eye-roll, but, like all tragedies, their deaths make the movie more poignant.
Attendance: Henry, Daniel, Alexis, Timmy, Mya, Zoe, Vicky, Pierre, Raj, Aaron.
“Hopeful and optimistic.” — Timmy.
“It’s in the details!” — Vicky.
“But it’s the mid-west! It’s the mid-west!” — Pierre.
“Billy is the pet dog, right? Woof woof!” — Pierre.
“The space between the lines is huge… which makes reading easy.” — Alexius.
“Praise the author, not the characters!” — Zoe.
“We went in knowing this book is trashy.” — [I forgot whom]
“The book feels very noisy.” — Alexius.
We also discussed themes such as parenting, family, and diversity; and characters including Toni, Tara, Jayson with a Y, Helene, and Davin.
Filed under Disability, Family, Gay, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Race, USA, Young Adult