I saw a sad facebook post from the gay bookstore back in Ann Arbor where I used to live about how they hadn’t sold any books that day so I went on their online store and bought a couple, and while you don’t get #deals like elsewhere online, I’d love it if y’all would consider buying your next gay book from them instead of like, Amazon.
Common Language is a great bookstore and while I’ve only been there once, I follow it on Instagram and really want to see it succeed!
Their most recent Facebook post (~9:30 PM, April 18):
A little update:
At last count we had 211 online orders over the last couple of days. We generally have a handful of online orders PER MONTH. And many days our in store sales are 3-5 books. In other words, this deluge is significantly more than we sell in a month. We are literally brought to tears by this outpouring.
About 80% of them have already been fulfilled and are on their way to you.
The other 20% require special attention (out of print book, book temporarily out of stock, etc.) or we need to pull together books from various sources. Some of you will be getting emails from me!
Our staff is three people and one dog. And while the dog is, perhaps, the world’s sweetest dog, he’s not much help in this task. The lack of opposable thumbs is a big hindrance to many bookstore tasks.
Mind you, we are not complaining. Having a surge which overwhelms our current resources is a great problem to have. Heartfelt thanks.
As I take a short break from fulfilling orders I wanted to share a few thoughts.
This is transformative.
We will be able to pay some bills which will steady the ship for a longer voyage. In our wildest dreams this surge would continue, we’d hire more people to handle the load, and the world would have a thriving honest-to-god queer bookstore.
But even if it doesn’t continue at this truly astonishing rate, having a regular flow on online orders would give the store a level of security we haven’t seen in a long time.
All of you did this. You made it happen. And you can be a part of making that dream come true. In fact, you can be the most important part of making that dream come true. You can be an ambassador.
It was, after all, an ambassador who made this happen.
When a friend talks about getting a book, steer them to us. Our mission is to create a safe space for LGBT people, a resource for a community, a place of equality for women, a place where black lives truly matter, a place where your gender is what you say it is, not what anyone else says it is.
If this is your mission as well, join us.
so my roommate, the person I live with, my memeing friend MADE THIS POST
I’m sure you receive many, many emails of this kind, but I could not let my gratitude go unexpressed.
The short version of it is that I may not be here today were it not for you.
Now, the longer version of it is that in my 17th summer, my sister went to our town’s sparse public library and brought home a massive stack of paperback novels to get us through the long, hot, enui that can be the countryside days and nights. Interview with the Vampire was among the books, and I happened to grab it first. Honestly, I was more amused by the title than interested, so I decided to see if my predictions for “a little light horror fiction” might come true. Well…
I practically locked myself in my room for three days until I had read it, and then re-read certain passages three and four times over. I had found a new respect for the power of literature.
You see, this was a time when I was beginning to understand my homosexuality, and I had never encountered such rich and erotically charged writing with two male figures. But beyond that–and, more importantly–no work of fiction or fact had ever made me feel that its author had, somehow, reached a hand inside my mind, pulled out the most important philosophical questions that I could not yet put into words, and then laid out the answers in ways that made me hunger for more, and which made me want to live.
The true nature of that time is that I was terribly sad and suicidal because, in my very small and inhibited world, I was sure there were no other boys like me. No one to learn from, no one to take solace with, no one to confess all my fears and doubts to. At 17, as you are aware, I’m sure, the world is always about to end for things that people get through every day. For me it was no different, yet it was insanely compounded by the “gay thing” in the rural south. I won’t go further into that, I know you know what it means.
So, as I read, I saw myself so completely in the character of Louis–and I desperately wanted to be him, sad as he was–that I was able to forget my “family prison”, as I called it, and started thinking about how to really be who I was meant to be. I’ll tell you the part that got me weeping, and that I go back to often when I need to re-feel that old passion that first woke me up…
It’s the section of the book when Louis is in Paris with Armand, and they’re in Armand’s chambers discussing the nature of good and evil, and Louis asks him if they are the children of Satan. Growing up in the Baptist church, I had been taught that “my kind” were just that, and so this was one of my eternal questions brought to the printed page for discussion with a Master (I was shaking by this point!). And then came that beautiful answer–please forgive me if I murder the direct quote: “Exactly. And, consequently, if you believe that God made the world around you, then you must also believe that God made Satan, and that all of Satan’s power comes from God. There are no children of Satan, really.”
And that was it. That was the moment I realized I didn’t need to end my life because I was this aweful thing that didn’t belong in the natural world. I decided to embrace what I was, just as Lestat and Armand had been trying to teach that lesson to Louis, and I have never looked back, hard as the road has been at times.
Now, in my 40th summer, I am studying to be a therapist so I can help others overcome the same suffering I went through and overcame. This confession, though, is not the first time I have revealed to others what, or who, saved my life so long ago. In my efforts to fully connect with others who are struggling, I often tell them of the power of your story, and how it offered a perspective rarely encountered even in the best “self-help” books. Sometimes, a beautiful and tragic allegory can elicit the most catharsis. Lucky for all of us.
In closing, I’ll say again how fortunate I feel to have found you and Louis that summer. He is always with me on some level. I’m not really sure I have the exact words to express all the levels of gratitude I feel, but I hope this letter can convey even a 10th of it. You may absolutely feel free to share it with others, if you think it would be of benefit. I am forever grateful, and forever changed for the better, because of your incredible spirit and voice.
This was me at 17, drinking blood orange juice in a hotel in Rome while on a school trip with the Latin club.
I’m nearly 26 now, and I’ve just finished Anne Rice’s latest novel “Prince Lestat”. I began reading the Vampire Chronicles when I was 15 or 16, I can’t remember exactly, and they really meant a lot to me. Armand and Daniel were my first OTP.
There wasn’t a real fandom to join since Anne Rice had attacked fandom activity, destroying the archives of fanfiction long before I’d ever pick up one of her books. Furthermore my guardians were leery of the internet and me being welcome in their home depended on staying in their good graces, so I never thought to rebel.
I dreamed of vampires on my own, devouring anything I could get my hands on, wishing I’d come of age in the 80s as “Lestat” described them, wishing these characters were real and would carry me away into their world.
From my reading, I think their families knew, I don’t know to what extent they faced prejudice for being lovers, I don’t know what that must have been like in the 18th century in France.
[^fanart by @garama] I would assume that they did have to face prejudice and other harassment for being lovers, but that they chose to stay together in spite of the prejudice/harassment, it was something they could weather.
There seems to be a shared fanon headcanon that Nicki was Lestat’s first real boyfriend
(2/2) Besides, I found this crazy place in Paris where people just love each other and are good to one another and never pressure anyone to do anything or judge them for their identities and sometimes I feel like I accidentally ended up in some sort of beautiful coven. And I’m the only human amongst non-humans there and now one’s telling me. :’D Sadly I’m moving out of Europe next month and I can’t stop crying over it. But I am lucky I got to experience this magic at all, if only for a short time.
So, by the way, did, like, everyone who at some point was heavily obsessed with the Vampire Chronicles end up being polyamorous?
I’m not sure about that correlation, I’m a heavily obsessed fan of the series and didn’t turn out poly, myself. But I wouldn’t rule it out as a possibility for me in the future. You’re the first that’s suggested a correlation between VC and heavily obsessed fans ending up poly, that I’ve seen. I’ve only known of a few VC fans who are poly, and I don’t know if VC was an influence before they identified as poly.
I come from this shithole of a small town in what is my country’s very own version of the ‘conservative south’ and I ended up both queer and polya (and critical of compulsory sexuality / amatonormativity) and sometimes I just can’t help wonder if it’s because of all the VC that I read. :‘D
I’m not sure about the affect of fiction on reality, do you think you might have
ended up either/both queer and polya without the influence of VC? Were there other influences? I know of several other fans who related to the characters (especially during formative years) and felt like their feelings and orientation were being represented in VC, they felt a sense of relief at seeing characters like themselves. I’m not sure if VC therefore turned them queer/LGBT+/etc, I get the impression that they already were what they were and VC gave them the confidence to embrace it and even officially come out to their friends/family.
I’m sorry you had to grow up in your country’s version of the conservative south, I can’t imagine how hard that must have been :[
(can you still use the word shithole or is that Trump-vocab now?)
Idk, I can see it w/o thinking of him, but I’m pretty thrilled about the ads reclaiming the word (I actually squealed with joy when I saw this one on a bus the other day!):
Besides, I found this crazy place in Paris where people just love each other and are good to one another and never pressure anyone to do anything or judge them for their identities and sometimes I feel like I accidentally ended up in some sort of beautiful coven. And I’m the only human amongst non-humans there and now one’s telling me. :’D
That’s wonderful, I’m so happy you found this beautiful coven! Where in Paris? Are some of them VC fans, too?
Sadly I’m moving out of Europe next month and I can’t stop crying over it. But I am lucky I got to experience this magic at all, if only for a short time.
Awwww that sucks :,( Well, “better to have loved and lost,” as they say. Maybe you can be the coven leader and create your own beautiful coven like the one you found in Paris! ❤
It’s here! After a year and a half of hard work, we are both so excited to finally share our film with you. Thank you all for your support and encouragement – this film means the world to us, and your kindness and enthusiasm has made this journey all the more meaningful. It is our great pleasure to share with you this labor of love, and we hope with all our hearts that you enjoy watching it as much as we did making it.
I-want-my-IWTV 