music, books, love and kindness

When I finish with a title on my Kindle I almost always delete it (though it still stays on my Amazon account) unless it's exceptionally good. I need the space and I feel like deleting it symbolizes I've closed the book and put it back on my shelf.

There are about a dozen (out of the more than I'd like to admit) romance novels I've kept on my device because they are that good. They are heavy on characterization, plot, theme and old-fashioned romance rather than sex. In fact, the less graphic the better; 'less is more' is much sweeter.

It irritates me (though not on a big scale when compared to other things in life) when people compare romance novels (of all kinds) to porn. I don't think the comparison is valid at all (at least with the type of novels I read) but then I can choose (most of the time) what to shut out in my own mind that turns pages into scenes.

I try not to judge people who do like porn because there are still a lot of people out in the world who somehow lump it in with (and judge) gays and lesbian simply because they don't understand (or purposely try not to understand) who and what we are.

On a episode of "Ellen" (the sitcom, not the talk show) that first aired years ago, she approaches a newsstand and asks the owner where the Advocate would be. He points to the porn section, where he has incorrectly stocked it. Anyone who's ever been witness to that subtle kind of homophobia gets the joke, both its humor and sadness.

Personally, I don't understand the pleasure in viewing porn. The only person I would want to see in such an intimate setting would be my spouse (in the hypothetical, parallel universe where I might actually have one.) To detach love from sex is as foreign to me as anything I could ever possibly imagine anything being.

But that's just me and I already feel like I'm sitting on my soap box so that it's for now...except for one last thing.

It's like a high school student interviewed for The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School (great book, by the way!)says: "People assume that straight people fall in love and gay people have sex." It's not fair at all, nor true, but it's an attitude that fuels a lot of anti-gay bigotry.