Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
My rating: 3/5 cats
hm. i don’t really know what to make of this one.
see, here’s the deal—i know this is a hugely popular gay teen fiction book—it has been around for a while and everyone loves it (LGM), but in light of recent current events, it just makes me nervous.
this book takes place in a gay utopia, really. a world where there would be no need for the “it gets better project.” and on the one hand, i’m sure gay teens would love reading it because it is like an escapist fantasy where everyone is tolerant and heterosexuals actually seem to be the minority and the homecoming queen is the same entity as the quarterback. football players in drag, what more could an acceptance-seeking gay teen want??
but on the other hand, doesn’t this kind of hyperbolic fantasy make teens feel worse?? because it is totally not like this anywhere i have ever heard of. where the boy scouts have been banned from town for not being gaycepting and changed to “the joy scouts.” where the vegetarians win and get the local mcdonalds changed to a veggie d. where everyone’s parents are cool with their gay kids coming out when they are 8. (but not one town over, mind you, just in this weird rainbow-gated community). doesn’t a kid read that, and then go to their real high school and get called a fag, and doesn’t it make them feel worse?
i have no idea.
apart from my squeamishness about how this book operates psychologically in a real-world context that has lately been more dramatic than usual, the book itself is okay. it’s a fine little story about first real love and loyalty and all the regular ups and downs of high school. not particularly illuminating, but it is only 185 pages, so what can you do??
however, all social climate stuff aside, this got me peeving:
Joni’s brought us here because sometimes you just have to dance like a madman in the self-help section of your local bookstore.
this is untrue. no dancing, please. it is a place of business. take that shit outside, capice?
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