#rubyfruit jungle

[catchinggmybreath]

i can do this.

Estée Lauder / "Change" - Taylor Swift / Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown / Stephen Hawking / Tate from American Horror Story: Season 1 / Margaret Thatcher

[butcharium]

Present from my father which he got for me in the states!

[beebooks]

pelt a guy with grapefruit until he creams for a hundred bucks sure why not. why shouldn't that be the next course of action

[genshis-balkans]

[madiquotingdonquixote]

Amphibians must think we're inferior creatures since we can't go in and out of the water the way they can. Besides being biologically superior, that ole frog is more together than I am. That frog doesn't want to make movies. That frog hasn't even seen movies and furthermore that frog doesn't give a big damn. It just swims, eats, makes love, and sings as it pleases. Whoever heard of a neurotic frog? Where do humans get off thinking they're the pinnacle of evolution?

- Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown

[devils-party-press]

WELCOME TO PRIDE MONTH!

Be an ally, during pride and all life long!

Dave and I agree, our lives would not be as loving, interesting, or rich without the LGBTQ+ people we have been fortunate enough to have in our lives. And certainly not as colorful! Pride Month! We love you. We hope we do a good job of valuing Pride all year! For this year’s Pride I was thinking about probably the first time I ever knew there were people who were gay, when I read Rita Mae…

[workingclassbutch]

god, this girl in rubyfruit jungle (and presumably the author) are so miserable and unlikeable. idk why the book is so beloved

[catchinggmybreath]

Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown

[therealrichardpapen]

Guys, guys, guys, read Rubyfruit jungle. It's kinda good ngl

[beebooks]

haven't had much to say about rubyfruit jungle so far, not because i haven't had any thoughts, but because i don't know how to put them down in any way that would make sense

i understand why it gained notoriety and why so many lesbians have loved it. the main character is completely unashamed, the book is unashamed about it's unashamed main character. life isn't great but she takes no shit, she accepts her losses and moves on. she's angry but that doesn't stop her. she fucks girls and boys and she hides it only because she knows she has to, and when it comes out she owns it completely. she is herself and refuses all labels and boxes anyone tries to shove her in

it took me a bit to get into still, which, to be fair, is true for most books i read. rarely do i truly like a book from the very beginning. but with this book it's a lot to do with the fact that those kinds of, i guess, "raw" honest depictions of life, as much as they may be true to many people's experiences, i just don't really like. sue me, i don't care for kids running around demanding a cent to see some kid's dick. kids will be kids, but i was never that kinda kid and i'd rather spend my time reading about other things

it picked up as she entered high school and made friends and then lost them and went to college. her drive has more punch behind it, probably because she's more grown up. the friends and lovers she makes are more interesting (sorry to leroy, you are a victim of society, but you were not the most compelling character), her ability to pick herself up after setbacks and preserve her pride more engaging

no doubt though, it is a very flawed book. i've seen some criticism of the main character being constantly portrayed as so much smarter, so much cleverer, so much more quick witted than the slow, dumb people around her. she can outplay and show up anyone. other than her dad, who encourages her to pursue the life she wants, she never learns anything from another person. she's always right, always smart, always ruthless and ambitious

there's also how characters talk about lesbians. lesbians are all ugly and wanna look like men, but our dear molly isn't like that. while she never accepts any label like dyke or queer or lesbian for her own, she doesn't shy away from the fact that she will be called does things. still, i don't like the book having this constant through line of how people view lesbians(read butches) but then just brushes it aside with, well, molly isn't like that. while i'm only around halfway through so i can't judge it fully by now, i don't expect that view of butches to be challenged. based on the criticism i rather expect it to be reinforced

still don't think i'm summarizing my thoughts properly here, but tldr: book not my thing to begin with but getting better

[onebluebookworm]

Ranking Books I Read In 2022 - 60-56

It’s time once again to rank the books I read this year! Enjoy!

Spoiler warnings for all books from here on out. I’ll provide trigger warnings where I think they’re needed.

60. Rubyfruit Jungle - Rita Mae Brown

What I liked: If we’re being honest, nothing. Which infuriates me because this is a pillar of LGBT literature, and I really wanted to like it. What I didn’t like: Molly is insufferable. The writing is juvenile, which is fine when your protagonist is a child, but as they grow, the writing should really grow with them, and this stays painfully childish. I had to read the words “incest doesn’t seem much like trauma to me” with my own two eyes, and far be it from me to go purity police on anybody, but fuck that. Also parenthesis happen in dialogue which just...no. Final thoughts: This book was gross, I hated it terribly, and that makes me more mad than any stupid brain fart Rita Mae Brown put to paper in this book. TW for incest.

59. Dagon - Fred Chappell

What I Liked: Strong start, with some absolutely gorgeous language that really conjures up a feeling of being sweaty, hot, and dirty. What I Didn’t Like: Another victim of what I now call the Daphne Byrne effect - builds so much atmosphere (which is good) but then doesn’t do anything with it (which is bad and irritating and makes the book feel like it’s moving at a snail’s pace. Final thoughts: Could have been really good, but it gets so caught up in setting this unsettling, eerie mood that it forgets to do anything with it until it just kind of fizzles out at the end. There’s nothing sadder than wasted potential.

58. Adulthood Is A Myth - Sarah Anderson

What I Liked: Some of the strips did manage to get a giggle out of me. What I Didn’t Like: Had too many nlog vibes for me to really connect with. Basically told the same joke over and over again. Final thoughts: I understand why these are so popular, but I just don’t really care for them the older I get. You can only make so many comics about being a weirdo, just switching out the quirky nouns and verbs for other quirky nouns and verbs before it gets stale. Definitely doesn’t make me want to read the other books.

57. Stuff White People Like - Christian Lander

What I Liked: Again, managed to get a giggle out of me every now and then. What I Didn’t Like: Got really stale after the first several entries. Final thoughts: Much like Adulthood is a Myth, the joke just gets stale after the first several times you hear it, but at the opposite end of the spectrum. We get it, white liberals think they’re special because they aren’t like other girls. You didn’t need to write a 200-ish page listicle to tell us that.

56. The Women Who Hate Me - Dorothy Allison

What I Liked: Um...I’ll get back to you... What I Didn’t Like: Honestly, I’m hard pressed to recall any of the poems in this book. I didn’t write down anything about it, and can’t recall a single one from memory. Final thoughts: Definitely the least impressive poetry collection I read, but not really annoying enough to go higher in the list. Just unmemorable.

[cup-and-chaucer]

My Month in Books: October 2022

Disfigured: On Fairytales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc: This started out strong but really and truly fizzled the more it went on. I loved the concept of interweaving personal narrative and literary criticism but the further she moved away from the traditional fairytales (like those collected by Grimm or Anderson) and into less easily defined medias like Game of Thrones or the Marvel Universe, her arguments became a vaguer series of reactions, rather than a structured thesis. While meandering at the best of times, the end was a bit of a mess. The early sections of the book are definitely worth reading—I just wish this project had a better editor.

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown: This was a very charming book about an out and proud lesbian in 1960s New York City. I can totally see why this would have meant a lot to a lot of people at critical points in the development of their sexual identity. I think, honestly, at the ripe old age of 25, I’m too old for this? I feel like I’ve been out for awhile; have worked to develop a pretty nuanced understanding of my own bisexuality and gender expression at this point. The book takes a hysterical and campy left turn at the end. It’s worth reading as an artifact of its time and to appreciate a really distinct (if Mary Sue—did you know she could be a model) protagonist voice.

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing: I so enjoyed this!! Lansing is a really good writer and kept the story engaging and well-paced.

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: This was a recommendation from a close friend as a descriptor of our relationship. I was very moved by this novella, to be quite honest. I recognized in it—as I did in Notes from the Underground—the intensity of loneliness, the way that loneliness manifests, and how being a “dreamer” can feed and perpetuate loneliness while also being its own magic. I did see a lot of this particular relationship, in eerie ways, in the intensity and immediacy of the connection, the relief in discovering each other, and some events of the actual plot. I saw her in the narration of the dreamer and also in the actions of Nastenka. I read this, at a necessary point in my life, I think, and it made me reflect seriously on the type of alloyed love that can develop between two people. The love in this story is as intermediate as the nature of a dreamer. I don’t know if I will grow with this book (only time will tell), the way she has, but I think I will be able to use this book to describe the foundation of this relationship. It feels like an artifact of this year. Reading it made me tired, it made me hopeful, it made me sad, it made me grateful.

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman: I found this story had good bones but felt disappointingly unfinished in the way his graphic short Snow, Glass, Apple felt sort incomplete. The brief insight into the world he created was marvelous but there wasn’t much a twist on…anything? Like the motivations of the villain remained the same, even if her position was different. Increasingly, I feel like for me to enjoy retelling of popular fairytales, they need a more pointed perspective and I didn’t get that here.

[madiquotingdonquixote]

Miss Potter was right, I was so busy trying to get everything perfect that I didn't have time to get into trouble or think about anything else except Leota. I began to wonder if girls could marry girls, because I was sure I wanted to marry Leota and look in her green eyes forever. But I would only marry her if I didn't have to do the housework. I was certain of that. But if Leota really didn't want to do it either, I guessed I'd do it. I'd do anything for Leota.

- Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown