Mark Thompson (1) (1952–)

Some books you read, and don't remember. Some books you read, they help you and you move on. Some books haunt you for life. This is one of the haunting kind. I'm still chewing over the essays by Dorothy Allison, John Preston and Thom Magister. I suspect, since they deal with ultimate matters, including death, that they'll be with me for the rest of my life. On the lighter side, Samuel Steward's hilarious account of a day at the Kinsey's makes a really interesting addition to the movie "Kinsey"

4.5, really. But such an enormously richly textured and well-edited collection. Almost every essay had points I viscerally adored and points that made me noticeably uncomfortable, which seems ideal for this kind of work.

Gay spirit, psychic and creative energies generated by people we now call gay, has always existed on the outer shores of our culture's collective consciousness. In the past, gay people were labeled heretics, perversions of nature, or categorized pseudoscientificly; consequently, gay people lived on the edge of the global village or worked within its mainstreamin denial and disguise. But today that spirit has reemerged and lives amongst us.

The result of nearly a decade of investigative show more cultural reporting and research into the ethnicity of the gay subculture, this wide ranging collection of essays by some of the most original and provocative gay thinkers suggest that gay people have a particular vision and special contribution to make to society, arising from a perspective that is subtley and essentially different from the non-gay view. show less

A wonderful introduction to s/m and the leather community. The essays here are thought provoking and heartfelt. Worth a read for anyone interested in the leather community or simply curious.