Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
dark
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
I am not a big non-fiction reader, so take this with a grain of salt, but I found this book to be extremely dull. There are points where the authors jump in with little jokes, but because the rest of it is written in such a formal, academic register, the jokes are more jarring than they are entertaining.
The majority of the people chosen as "bad gays" also don't seem particularly bad. The criteria to include them doesn't seem particularly uniform.
The majority of the people chosen as "bad gays" also don't seem particularly bad. The criteria to include them doesn't seem particularly uniform.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
This book was fascinating. Some chapters really drew me in. I could read a whole book like this only on Hadrian. Others were a bit hard to get through.
The level of detail on each figure made it a bit hard to read. Could just be my brain after a long day of taking care of a toddler but it put me in a bit of a reading slump. Too academic and sense at times.
It ended up devolving into a book that I picked up every few weeks to try to get through a chapter. Even if I was really interested in the subject, by the end of the chapter, I felt exhausted.
The level of detail on each figure made it a bit hard to read. Could just be my brain after a long day of taking care of a toddler but it put me in a bit of a reading slump. Too academic and sense at times.
It ended up devolving into a book that I picked up every few weeks to try to get through a chapter. Even if I was really interested in the subject, by the end of the chapter, I felt exhausted.
I picked this book because I wanted learn more about queer history - which I guess I did. I definitely found out about queer people from history that I probably wouldn’t have sought out more info on. But overall, I didn’t love the actual writing of this book - the language felt overly academic and “uppity.” It was like I was legit reading a history textbook which maybe I should’ve expected, but I think I just wanted it to be different.
Obsessed with the premise, but this book didn’t do it justice. Bad Gays reads more like a series of disjointed (and Eurocentric) history lessons than as actual biographies. There is some interesting history - pederastry, criminalizing sodomy, masculinity & homosexuality - but it gets very dry at times and reads almost like a textbook.
I liked the sections on Hadrian and Hoover, and I was struck by Frederick’s story of his beloved’s death. And Roy Cohn’s death; the quilt reading bully, coward, victim. But there are very few other stories that stood out to me.
Also, it very much lacked a central point - are these random bad gays, or those that contributed to the wider history of homosexuality (bc I struggle to see how some of them did)? And how do the authors define a bad gay, anyway? Some are obvious, but Frederick the Great, for how people used him as a face of german masculinity after his death? Casement, for being passionately but imperfectly anti-colonist? It felt all over the place and lacking in acknowledgement that one day the authors themselves - and all of us - will be the ‘bad gays’, the ones who didn’t do enough.
2.5 stars - somewhat informative, but not enjoyable.
I liked the sections on Hadrian and Hoover, and I was struck by Frederick’s story of his beloved’s death. And Roy Cohn’s death; the quilt reading bully, coward, victim. But there are very few other stories that stood out to me.
Also, it very much lacked a central point - are these random bad gays, or those that contributed to the wider history of homosexuality (bc I struggle to see how some of them did)? And how do the authors define a bad gay, anyway? Some are obvious, but Frederick the Great, for how people used him as a face of german masculinity after his death? Casement, for being passionately but imperfectly anti-colonist? It felt all over the place and lacking in acknowledgement that one day the authors themselves - and all of us - will be the ‘bad gays’, the ones who didn’t do enough.
2.5 stars - somewhat informative, but not enjoyable.
"We do not get to choose who we are but we do get to choose how, and with whom, we dance: what queerness, what faggotry, what transness, what gender trouble and abolition will be for us and with us and to us. The past is still with us; the revolutions of the queer future beckon."
Come for an abridged biography of fourteen historic homosexuals, stay for a detailed, thoughtful, passionate, and moving journey through civilization's goods and evils.
Come for an abridged biography of fourteen historic homosexuals, stay for a detailed, thoughtful, passionate, and moving journey through civilization's goods and evils.
challenging
informative
slow-paced