Welcome, first post

[ithiliana]

I can feel the pain and rage and loss condensing in my chest.

I would not be the queer woman I am today had I not read "When It Changed" in a small town in Idaho during the late 1960s (I never remember the exact date, I was 13 or 14).

I have been walking carefully since I first read of her entry into a hospice yesterday, because I'm afraid of what might happen if I let go.

But I'm not alone. We're not alone. And I started thinking about re-reading Russ' work, and posting about it, and then I thought--a community because I'm not alone.

So I started this community.

I am mourning, we all are, but I also want to celebrate her life and works.

Comments

[sanguinity]

All day, I've been trying to remember exactly what year I first became familiar with her work. I can't. But when I was a young dyke, back in the pre-internet era, I always checked where her books would be, in any bookstore I was in, in case there was a title of hers I hadn't read yet. Because she was hard enough to get a hold of that yes, most of hers I hadn't read.

:: ...because I'm not alone. ::

And that's why I searched for her books so hard. Her words were evidence that I wasn't alone.

(I "knew" I wasn't alone -- I was partnered, and there was a dyke bar a couple miles away, and nobody would be bothering with anti-queer initatives every election season if I was truly alone. But there's knowing it and feeling it, and her books helped me feel it.)



I started re-reading The Female Man today. Some things about it look very different than they did. And others seem downright prescient. I was wondering if I should be liveblogging it as I re-read, because I wanted to talk about it. It was good to see your announcement of the comm.

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[(Anonymous)]

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