I'll soon be teaching Alison Bechdel's FUN HOME
in my GLBT Literature class. The book delights me,
not least because it reminds me of reading
Bechdel's comic strip DYKES TO WATCH
OUT FOR while working at a feminist bookstore.
The comic strip was included in the underground
dyke publication LESBIAN CONNECTION, which
arrived in the mail folded lengthwise and stapled
about 100 times (lest a man, or a non-lesbian,
find the publication and read it, thereby causing
it to self-destruct).
I miss some of those funny little details --
the staples in LC; the smell of the bookstore,
which was filled with incense and shrines to
various goddesses; potlucks and softball
practice. It's nice to see Bechdel's success,
to see an out lesbian writer gain mainstream
attention without selling out or closeting
her subjects.
She has a blog, too, which I just discovered:
dykestowatchoutfor.com
in my GLBT Literature class. The book delights me,
not least because it reminds me of reading
Bechdel's comic strip DYKES TO WATCH
OUT FOR while working at a feminist bookstore.
The comic strip was included in the underground
dyke publication LESBIAN CONNECTION, which
arrived in the mail folded lengthwise and stapled
about 100 times (lest a man, or a non-lesbian,
find the publication and read it, thereby causing
it to self-destruct).
I miss some of those funny little details --
the staples in LC; the smell of the bookstore,
which was filled with incense and shrines to
various goddesses; potlucks and softball
practice. It's nice to see Bechdel's success,
to see an out lesbian writer gain mainstream
attention without selling out or closeting
her subjects.
She has a blog, too, which I just discovered:
dykestowatchoutfor.com
Comments
Didn't LC actually sell staple removers as a fundraiser once? :)
I know exactly what you mean about the smell.
I'd love to write an essay about the bookstore but every time I try, it comes out wrong. Hard to capture a precise moment in time.