When we talked with Augusten Burroughs a few weeks back about his back-to-back memoirs Dry and Running With Scissors, the news wasn't out yet about the latter being made into a movie. Wow—Running With Scissors is the book that put the D in Dysfunction. Well, when I heard the good news I got back to Augusten right away and he told me, 'As far as I know, Ryan Murphy (who currently writes/ directs/produces the hit series Nip/Tuck for FX network) plans to begin production in November. Julianne Moore is slated to play my mother ... .' Casting wise that's an excellent place to start. Supposedly Moore is the major force behind getting the project made.
'50s screen heartthrob/teen idol Tab Hunter (Damn Yankees, Track of the Cat, and of course as Todd Tomorrow in Polyester) has finally publicly acknowledged that he is gay. Hunter, now 72, is telling all in what is bound to be a juicy (and still untitled) memoir due for 2005 release. Perhaps everybody's favorite beach blonde was influenced by '60s heartthrob/teen idol (not to mention mini-series matron) Richard Chamberlain's recent memoir Shattered Love—only hopefully Hunter's autobio will feature a bit more dirt, or trash ... or at least meat.
And in a different medium ... a staging of Michael Cunningham's (The Hours, A Home at The End of the World) epic second novel Flesh and Blood (1995) starring Cherry Jones (out lesbian, awesome actress, and Tony Award-winner for The Heiress), Martha Plimpton, Peter Frechette, and Jeff Weiss just closed at The New York Theatre Workshop after mostly favorable reviews. From the sound of things a larger-scale production is no doubt in the offing. The novel (which incorporates such topics as the immigrant experience, coming out, incest, alcoholism, AIDS, etc.) spans generations and was undoubtedly a formidable challenge to adapt for the stage.
An amazing new memoir which bears mentioning (and reading) is Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi. This book is basically the transcripts from an online diary (a blog) of a young man in Baghdad throughout the course of the entire Iraqi conflict. What began as just a simple personal journal developed into a detailed and widely read rendering of real life in a time and place of conflict ... and Salam Pax has become the most famous web diarist in the world. The book includes not only the major things, but all the day-to-day things that compose a life—music (Coldplay and Bjork are favorites), friends, frustrations, coworker gossip, even his allergies. It's interesting to observe the gradual political progression and involvement of both the diary and the diarist as time goes on—and how Salam captures the confusion, divisiveness and eventually the disillusionment of the nation and the people. Despite widespread rumors that the blog was a joke, a CIA plant, or work of the Mukhabarat—the site and the writer are real. Due to the popularity of the site Salam Pax has become a worldwide 'anonymous celebrity' (talk about a non-Western concept!) ... writing featured articles in London's The Guardian, along with even pro-Salam Pax t-shirts and mugs (!!). However, despite the 'fame' keeping his anonymity and avoiding the country's censors is essential. He explains, 'In a Muslim country, they'll put me up on a pole and let me dry out in the sun until I die.' Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi now out from Grove books.
One of the highlights of my week is reading Dan Savage's 'Savage Love' column. His first book Savage Love was a collection of his sex advice letters, his second, The Kid, was a memoir of raising his son DJ and sudden fatherhood. It was entertaining and wonderful, and his newest Skipping Towards Gomorrah was an original joy as well. I was really happy to be able to ask Dan to take a break and answer a few questions for me ...
Owen: In your wildest dreams did you ever imagine you would become the guru of sex?
Dan: No. For years I doubted I would ever have sex, much less become—a, please, not 'the'—guru. I didn't set out looking for this gig, and I didn't prepare for it or study sex in college, or psych—which may be why people respond to my column. I don't come across like a psychobabble spouting, unhelpful, touchy-feeling 'professional.'
Of course, every gay person is kind of a guru —if only where his own sex life is concerned. When you're straight, everything is—or can be—assumed. You don't necessarily have to think very deeply about your sexual desires, what they mean, how you're going to function in the world. But when you're gay, you have to ponder all these things—you must—and then you make some hard decisions.
One, of course, is to come out and be open. And that decision often prompts us to be open about all aspects of our sex lives, which can be very inspiring to the straight people in our lives, who often aren't very open—they're all worried about being 'normal,' which we walked away from when we came out. So they come to us with their questions. I mean, what gay person isn't constantly being asked for advice about sex by his straight friends? They know, deep down, that we know more about sex. Being pestered with sex questions from the time I came out until I started writing 'Savage Love' really prepped me for this job. But I wasn't aware I was in training for sex gurudom.
Owen: I envision you getting asked a lot of things at completely inappropriate times—at the grocery store, in elevators, etc. Is that true?
Dan: True, true: One guy came up to me in a Kinko's once and grabbed by crotch—he thought that was a cute way to say hello to a guy who writes about sex, but I don't think of myself primarily as a sex writer—or a sex worker, which is what the guy at Kinko's seemed to think. The worst thing, though, is all the family members who come to me for sex advice now ... weddings and funerals are a torment for me, I must say.
Owen: Is it possible to make you blush anymore?
Dan: Nope. Unless you're a relative and you're asking me about, well, blowjob tips or anal sex.
Owen: Are you planning a sex talk with your son?
Dan: No—he's only five. We've got plenty of time—and I don't think we'll be doing much of the talking ourselves, no one wants to listen to their parents talk about sex beyond the very basic stuff. We'll let him know which adults in his life have our permission to answer any questions he may have, and let those adults know they can talk to him about whatever he wants to talk about—and we'll tell them and we'll tell DJ that they're not to rat on DJ to us, i.e. they're not to come running to us and repeat his questions. That way DJ will have trustworthy adults in his life, people he doesn't have to look at over dinner ever day, who he can turn to but who won't turn him in to us.
Owen: Somewhat along those lines, how do you advise gay and lesbian parents to educate their children about sex and field their questions?
Dan: Well, I would advise gay and lesbian parents—so accustomed to being open about all matters sexual—to be careful about over sharing. No one likes 'The Nudist Parents'. We all knew someone growing up whose parents were way too 'healthy' about sex, too open, too ready to discuss sexual issues—for our own edification, of course. They were kinda creepy, and we all kinda wished they would shut up. Your kids don't want you to be their sex guru—and they don't want you to be the sex guru to their friends, or anyone they know.
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And in the ongoing investigation/pursuit of this column into the mind of those whodunit folk ... this week I talked to local (well, Mokena, Ill., anyway!) mystery scribe Mark Richard Zubro (A Simple Suburban Murder, Here Comes the Corpse, The Only Good Priest, Drop Dead, An Echo of Death, etc.). Zubro is the author of not one but two different gay detective series—The Paul Turner books as well as the Tom and Scott series. His latest—an entry in the Paul Turner series— is Dead Egotistical Morons, currently available from St. Martin's Press.
Owen: What is the first thing you have in place when you start a new mystery? The concept, the killing ...
Mark: I always begin with who's dead. I never know who did it. Who's dead is often someone I'm unhappy about, for example, homophobic judges, right-wing preachers, rude people, etc.
Owen: Well, I guess the title of your latest Dead Egotistical Morons sort of sums it up. Who's next on your hit/shit list?
Mark: At some point I'd like to do a mystery involving a homophobic U.S. Senator who is in favor of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Owen: Any idea what's next for you?
Mark: The next Tom and Scott book is on my editor's desk. Tom finds a head in the filing cabinet at a gay youth clinic where he volunteers. It involves rude people. I'm against them. The tentative title is File Him Under Dead. I'm currently also working on a Paul Turner book that takes place at a huge science-fiction convention.
Owen: Have you always been drawn to the genre?
Mark: I've loved reading mysteries ever since Freddy The Detective by Walter R. Brooks hooked me on the genre when I was 10.
Owen: Who is your absolute icon when it comes to mysteries?
Mark: Sherlock Holmes is always the top for me. I still reread the stories which I began reading when I was 11.
Owen: And lastly, are you always on the lookout for a killing?
Mark: I have a stack of newspaper and magazine clippings over a foot and a half high that contain notions, ideas for possible plot elements, characters, settings, etc.
