regshoe

Hehe, what a good earworm :D And yes, the book discussed how unusual it was for a musician in his context to be so openly and flamboyantly queer as he was—really admirable, and definitely a great vibe.

I immensely respect EPS for his commitment to queer readings of the Bible. I think his father and one of his uncles were clergymen, but he was not very religious himself (although, according to some accounts, he became more so later in his life) and yet, a lot of his writing has a rather spiritual mood

That's interesting. I wondered, reading the story 'Elek's Religion', how closely it reflected EPS's own religious views. I like that he writes stuff like 'A Prisoner Passes', where the story of Jesus is significant both in itself and in the queer context that he puts it in, while not necessarily being conventionally Christian himself—that goes well with my own feelings about religion, I suppose, and it's nice to see that reflected in fiction.

The animal stories are fun! I wondered who the satire in 'Liberty: A Fable' was aimed at—19th century libertarians???

On the whole I thought the portrayal of female characters in the collection was neither especially good nor especially bad for a male writer of the time ('The Yellow Cucumber' excepted, possibly). But I loved the drama and significance of the relationship between Miss Prior and Isabel May Duroc/'Laura Legrand'—I wish we'd got to see more of it!