Tomorrow winds up what is becoming one of the biggest and perhaps one of the most important annual events in the M/M Community. I'm honored to be part of QRM this year and you can find my post here-ish.
There are many, many wonderful posts to browse and consider at QRM. Posts from authors I know but more posts by authors new to me. Posts I agree with wholeheartedly and posts that encourage me to consider a fresh perspective, a new viewpoint.
That said, I confess the older I get, the less patience I have with labels. I consider myself a humanist and while I write many stories featuring gay characters, I don't feel--have never believed--that the sexual identity or orientation is the most important or even interesting thing about the "people" I create. It certainly is not the most important or interesting thing I know about people in real life.
I think I belabor that point a bit in my QRM post, but it occurred to me as I was typing and deleting and typing and deleting that someone else had actually already said what I wanted to say--and probably said it better--in the afterward of the Japanese translation of The Hell You Say.
And because I am--and have always been more interested in what unites us, the things that are universal about humans everywhere--I'd like to share with you a bit of Japanese author and reviewer Shion Miura's words regarding Adrien English (courtesy of Aki Fuyuto, the series translator):
It may not be the problem for gay people only. Every person has a possibility to become a 'minority', if not by sexual orientation. Everyone is minority in some ways. But we hang onto the vague term as 'normal' or 'opinion of the society', comply with the voice of 'majority', we even sometimes foolishly discriminate against other person by that.
Adrien said to himself "what chance did the rest of us have, especially those who had never quite managed to find someone to share their life?".
Can you think that feeling is only for gay men? Can you tell that? I can't.
Most people have that loneliness in their heart's core like Adrien. Because we are all 'minority', we are all different person from each other. We have different opinion, different feeling. There is no 'majority', just the minority persons gathering to organize the society.
The varieties and differences of all people, which I have a hope and faith in.
Adrien English series is for everyone who has loneliness in your heart.
Adrien is fair, he has faith in the society and believe there is a bridge to reach other people even they have different opinion.
Waiting the next book, I wish him the happy ending from my heart!
----------------------------------------------
Isn't that what we all wish for ourselves--and each other? To be listened to. To be accepted. To be loved for who we are.
We may not all be lucky enough to find our Happy Ever After, but we sure as hell have a right to tell our story. Please pop over to QRM and read some of those stories.
I love this blog post today. I am a firm believer, that there is more that unites than those things that divide us. But as is human nature, I guess, it's the things that divide us that get the most press. The thought that we are, at our core, all searching for the same things, both delights and sobers me. It makes me want to be a nicer person. We don't know what struggles other people deal with in their search. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to get distracted by all that is different ("different" being equivalent to "wrong" in too many people's minds) and I am in favor of celebrating that which is unique and special about each of us. But what holds us together, what gives us the ability to "feel" for another is the ways in which we are all not so very different. The recognition that oh! you're human too! is kind of a profound one.
DeleteBecause not everyone gets it--as any viewing of the nightly news will reveal.
What a wonderful post! I'm all teary now, and smiling too. Thank you! :-)
ReplyDeleteThank YOU for reading, KC. :-)
DeleteI am sitting here in the break room and smile with tears in my eyes. I take this blog post to my heart and will be more attentive to hear the things, which people tell and to the things, which people don't tell.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love this: attention to "the things which people don't tell."
Delete:-)
Thank you for this thought-provoking blog post. The wish — the need — to be accepted, to belong, to be loved is definitely in all of us no matter who we are... or who we love in return.
ReplyDeleteAnd the differences between us, the diversity of us — I wish we all could see those as strength. Possibility for... anything, really. For friendship, for learning, for understanding. For acceptance.
Yes, I really like to think there are more things that unite us than divide us. Or at least the things that unite us are more profound than the things we see as differences.
Again, thank you for the blog post. I didn't manage to find the QRM post yet. But I'll keep looking. :-)
I forgot--and I believe I did this last year too--the posts are staged, so my post will probably be later in the day. ;-)
ReplyDeleteOR they never received it. Which is kind of how my morning is going... :-D
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced that we all are searching for the same thing. Who doesn't want to share their lives with a person they love. It doesn't have to do anything with the gender or a person's sexuality. In the end we all want the same. :-)
ReplyDeleteYes. Even if we are not searching for all those things at once. ;-)
DeleteSchmoopier mess after reading this than I already was most of the day...Such beautiful and true words from you and Shion, Josh. I shall echo the others in saying: if only people everywhere would keep what we all have in common foremost in heart & mind.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dianne. ;-)
DeleteJosh, you were one of my first m/m authors and my enjoyment of your books led me to reread them again and again. I finally realized what drew me to your books was that you wrote great stories whose characters just happened to be gay. And while being gay certainly affected their lives, the main point of the story was the mystery and the romance, making the characters relatable to anyone. You became my gateway drug...I mean author, and now about half of the ebooks I buy are m/m :)
ReplyDeleteBeth, thank you for that. It's exactly what I hope readers take away from my work.
DeleteAnd while I know not everyone agrees, this is the only way we survive as a planet.