Madder Love: Queer Men and the Precincts of Surrealism - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0979083826 ISBN 13: 9780979083822

Publisher: Rebel Satori Press, 2008

Synopsis

Dreams, desire, darkened streets and the sudden miracles that appear there, the deep places of the mind. Two groups made these the heart of a radical project of liberation: queers and surrealism.

Better than many others, queers understand the power of these dark areas. The rich, complicated culture we've created for ourselves is constantly ready to allow us to follow our dreams and fantasies, carried by the surging waves of sexuality into some pretty and magical places. It s just as clear that the surrealists were chasing similar adventures as far back as the Twenties and Thirties. Given the similarity of their motivations, why have the two so often been in violent opposition to each other?

Madder Love is an anthology of cutting-edge writing that wants to look at that a little closer. It opens up the surreal possibilities of queer literature while simultaneously displacing the historic homophobia of Surrealism.

From dream states to erotic obsessions, from the muttering of the unconscious to parallel worlds (and the weirder cracks in this one) Madder Love tackles why surrealism can be so queer, and why being queer can be so surreal.

Contributions from Will Aitken, Stephen Beachy, Jeffery Beam, Stephen Boyer, Tom Cardamone, Sven Davisson, Peter Dube, Craig L. Gidney, Nicholas Alexander Hayes, Trebor Healey, Kevin Killian, Shaun Levin and Rob Stephenson help make the case.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Dube is a Montreal-based writer and the author of the chapbook Vortex Faction Manifesto (Vortex Editions, 2001), the novel Hovering World (DC Books 2002) and At the Bottom of the Sky, a collection of linked short fiction. His fiction deploys dense verbal surfaces to investigate the way narrative shapes our experience of the world, particularly at the points where imagination, desire and the body politic intersect. In addition to his fictional work, his essays and critical writings have been widely published in journals such as CV Photo, ESSE, Spirale and Ashe Journal in exhibition publications for various galleries, among them SKOL, Mercer Union and the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery of Concordia University. His interest in surrealism began in his adolescence, much like his interest in handsome men. He finds it difficult to be sure which has led him to more strange adventures, but happily neither is likely to vanish any time soon.

Review:

Madder Love ... may be just too far out there for you. But if you re willing to try something different and stretch your brain, you may find the erotic possibilities of surrealism. --Kathleen Bradean, Erotica Revealed

Some of the stories that stood out for me as responding to that treatment? Epidemic, which threads together narrative fragments with the lyrical certainty of a dream. Dim Star Described which is a beautiful pitch-perfect literary urban fantasy. Five Views of Mt. Fuji, a series of layered sketches that draws the reader in. Yolk, which is short, and rich, and physical, and glowing, like the rich gold of a Renaissance egg tempera painting. The Magus Club, which I almost didn't want to let settle into my mind, because it's genuinely creepy. Overall, this is a well balanced collection, showcasing some vivid and unusual writing; a collection I recommend dipping into. --Rainbow Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: Rebel Satori Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0979083826
• ISBN 13: 9780979083822
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 140
• Editor: Peter Dube