(cont.) "One thing that still drives me crazy is the way people use the word 'normal' in the context of being gay. Like I was listening to this news report -- or actually it was a podcast -- and the reporter said something to the effect of 'won't it be great in the future when being gay is considered to be as normal as being straight?' and the other podcaster was like 'sigh, yes.' "
"A big part of me cringed when I heard that. I hate to criticize people whose intentions are clearly in the right place, but 'normal' is pretty much the last thing I would want to strive for. [Laughs.]"
"I mean, of course I look forward to the day when gay people aren't subject to discrimination and abuse because of who we are. Or not to worry about going to certain places like Kenya or India or North Carolina or Russia or take your pick from a very long list [laughs] where the hatred has been baked into the law. I mean, yeah, fuck those places and the politicians who run them."
"But does that mean I want to be considered 'normal'? I don't think so."
"Of course it depends on how you define the term. If you want to define normal as 'falling within a very broad range of acceptable behaviors,' then I guess I could get behind it. But usually when I hear people say the word, you get the sense that it falls in one of two categories, the first of which is someone whose really saying 'I want more people to be like me' and the second of which is 'I want to be less like myself because I feel uncomfortable being part of a demographic minority.' The first speaker is usually straight, while the second is usually not."
"The first category of speaker is more harmful -- or at least annoying [laughs] -- because there's almost always a certain presumption or arrogance underlying the statement, as if the person were saying 'wouldn't it be great if more people were like me? I'm just so in love with myself because I'm normal and I want to open up this party to as many guests as possible so we can all feel good together.' "
"But it's kind of sad if you think about it because it seriously downplays the advantages of being gay, which are many."
"Can I name a few? Well, aren't they obvious? [Laughs.] For starters you can have sex without worrying about getting pregnant. That's pretty much universal among gay people and it's a big advantage that most straight people don't want to talk about. Like seriously, we never have to worry about birth control. How amazing is that?"
"As for the rest of it, well, it's hard to discuss without resorting to stereotypes and generalizations, but I actually do think that gays tend to be more artistic and creative than straight people. We see things in a different way. Because so many of us learned to turn our sexual energies inward while growing up, we have an ability to focus and fixate on things. We're obsessive in the best -- and sometimes the worst [laughs] -- sense of the word."
"Look, I know there are plenty of exceptions to the rule, but I'm just saying that to me, being gay isn't 'normal' and we shouldn't ever want it to be."
"Think of it this way. Would you ever look at a group of professional athletes -- who are clearly abnormal when it comes to running fast or hitting balls or whatever the fuck they do -- and say 'oh I'm looking forward to the day when they're considered normal?' Of course not, so why should sex be any different? Why should I want to be normal? Normal is the most mundane thing you can be. If you're lucky enough to be made in a way that makes you abnormal -- at least in this context, and assuming you're not afflicted with criminal desires, which I realize is a loaded term but let's just say it's a desire for someone who can't consent to whatever it is you have in mind -- then you should be excited about it, and not have to listen to others telling you that 'some day you will be accepted by my kind.' "
"It's like when I hear people say that being gay 'doesn't matter' to them. Because when I hear that, I want to say to them, 'Really? It doesn't matter? Because I suspect that you -- assuming you're human -- have pretty strong feelings about sex and that it's a fairly important element of who you are, so please extend the courtesy of acknowledging that others most likely feel the same way.' Sex always matters and anyone who says otherwise is wrong or I guess a priest or a nun [laughs]."
"Maybe I'm too sensitive or extreme about this stuff, but I think words are important, and these terms and phrases get tossed around a lot -- they become part of a canon -- and they influence the way people think about themselves, usually in bad ways."
"It's not just sex, either. It can apply to many different things."
"A lot of people have said that I'm abnormal because of what I've seen. Just because I happened to stumble across some glowing figures in the woods one night, I must be insane. And believe me, there have been plenty of times when I've wished I didn't see anything, or just kept it a secret, because on a very practical level, it's led to a lot of grief. You see where I am now. But now that I'm here, I wouldn't want it any other way. It's not just about acceptance, it's gratitude."
"And learning that I'm not the only one. There are others who are just as abnormal as I am, which raises the question of whether it's a gift or a curse. I'm not saying it's been easy, but I'll always believe it's the former, because it changed the way I view the world, and what could be more important than that?"
Pictures taken on Long Beach Island (New Jersey) on June 25, 2016. Text excerpted from The #Gods Project: A Training Manual (Section 2, "Interviews with the Institutionalized.")
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06/30/2016
ORDER HERE
A RADICAL NEW MYTH ABOUT SEX, FAITH, AND THOSE OF US WHO WILL NEVER DIE
A young boy wanders into the woods of Harlem and witnesses the abduction of his sister by a glowing creature. Forty years later, now working as a New York City homicide detective, Gus is assigned to a case in which he unexpectedly succumbs to a vision that Helen is still alive. To find her, he embarks on an uorthodox investigation that leads to an ancient civilization of gods and the people determined to bring them back.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir—with a dose of deadly serious, internet inspired satire—#gods is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world. With each turn of the page, #gods will leave you increasingly reborn.
Praise for #gods
“#gods is a mystery, an excavation of myths, an index of modern life, a gay coming-of-age story, an office satire, a lyrical fever dream, a conspiracy. One of the most ambitious novels in recent memory—and a wild, possibly transformative addition to the canon of gay literature—it contains multitudes, and seethes with brilliance.” —Mark Doten, author of The Infernal
“Matthew Gallaway’s #gods is a novel so brilliant, so funny, so full of strange and marvelous things, I couldn’t stop writing OMG WTF I <3 THIS SO MUCH in its margins. It’s rare to find a novel that so dazzlingly reinvigorates age-old meditations on faith and f&!*ing, art and eros. Luminous, enterprising, and sublimely cheeky, #gods tells the story, the myth, the dream of the human soul in all its glorious complexity.” —Suzanne Morrison, author of Yoga Bitch
“Matthew Gallaway’s storytelling manages to be both dreamy and serious; lean and luxurious. His words carry an incantatory power of mythic storytelling where beauty and savagery wrap around each other like bright threads in a gorgeous tapestry.” —Natasha Vargas-Cooper, author of Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
“If the ancient gods were just like us, only more so, then the same could be said for this strange, wonderful book, in which the mundane sorrows and small triumphs of very ordinary lives glow ever so slightly around the edges, sometimes quite literally. At once an oddly romantic send-up of dead-end office culture and an offbeat supernatural procedural, #gods is terrifically weird, melancholy, sexy, and charming.” —Jacob Bacharach, author of The Bend of the World
'It’s to the credit of Matthew Gallaway’s enchanting, often funny first novel that it doesn’t require a corresponding degree of obsession from readers, but may leave them similarly transported: the book is so well written — there’s hardly a lazy sentence here — and filled with such memorable lead and supporting players that it quickly absorbs you into its worlds.'
-- The New York Times
Music: Death Culture at Sea and Saturnine
Listen or download songs and records from my indie-rock past with Saturnine here and Death Culture at Sea here.
Music Video: Remembrance of Things Past
Watch the rock opera Remembrance of Things Past written and performed by Saturnine and Frances Gibson, starring Bennett Madison and Sheila McClear.
Video: The Chaos Detective
The Chaos Detective is a series about a man searching for 'identity' as he completes assignments from a mysterious organization. Watch the first episode (five parts) on YouTube.