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Sunday, January 30, 2005 A quick note on S&M and Happy Baby: It was mentioned recently in the very nice and well thought out review in the Buffalo News that Theo comes to S&M because of his abusive childhood. That's not really the point. The problem with Theo is not his desire to give up control, the pleasure he takes from being tied up, humiliated, and hurt. The problem with Theo is his inability to accept his desires and work within them in a healthy way. And the reason Theo has such a hard time coming to terms with his desires is because he had an abusive childhood and spent a lot of time in the Juvenile group home system where alternative sexualities had to be sublimated as a matter of survival. And it's because of this that Theo's desires manifest themselves in unhealthy ways and he loses control of them. And that's really the point of Happy Baby. It's entirely possible, if you come from a loving understanding home, to have a healthy relationship with your sexuality whether it's S&M, homosexuality, or whatever, since being healthy is really about accepting yourself. But that's not what happened to Theo, and what could have been a source of pleasure instead was a source of hurt and deep shame, which impaired Theo's ability to operate at times in society. posted by Stephen Elliott 1:55 PM | link | |
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"Any true love story, if told with the urgency and animal intelligence of love, isn't for the fainthearted. On every page of this profound, distilled work of art, Stephen Elliott wrestles with the unknown and unspoken essences of love, and articulates that unknown so beautifully, with such clear-eyed fearlessness... Imagine a glass of pure water with one drop of blood hanging in its center, about to dissolve... Then drink it and be transformed." -Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City "There's an emotional courage to these stories, and a sense of urgency, that are thrilling to encounter. Elliott writes as if his life depended on each sentence. It is not overstating the case to say that he does for the BDSM community in this book what Denis Johnson did for lost druggies in Jesus' Son." - Steve Almond, The Believer Magazine Best of the year: Salon.com, San Francisco Chronicle Reviews: Salon.com, LA Weekly, The Believer Excerpts: My Stripper Year, Just Always Be Good Purchase from Amazon, Powells, Cleis, and your local bookstore 
"Happy Baby is surely the most intelligent and beautiful book ever written about juvenile detention centers, sadomasochism, and drugs." - Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times Book Review Best of the year: Village Voice, Salon.com, Chicago New City, The Journal News Awards: Finalist Young Lions Award, Silver Medal California Book Award Reviews: The New York Times, Salon.com, Village Voice Excerpts: Stalking Gracie Part 3 Purchase from Amazon, Powell's, and your local bookstore 
"Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer, Richard Ben Cramer: the great, all-American genre of the political campaign in extenso (and in extremis) has had its Homers and Boswells. To that list we can now add Stephen Elliott. Hilarious, strange, electrifyingly written, and heart-pumpingly idealistic, Looking Forward to It wins every literary caucus and primary in a landslide." -Tom Bissell, author of Chasing the Sea Best of the year: Village Voice Reviews: New York Magazine, New York Times Excerpts: The Dennis Kucinich Polka, A John Edwards Almanac Purchase from Amazon, Powell's (cheap!), and your local bookstore 
"A Life Without Consequences was harrowing, hard as nails, brutal, and soaring. Stephen Elliott has to be watched, because he knows things almost no one else could." - Dave Eggers, author of A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius and What Is The What Excerpt: Adlai Stevenson House Reviews: Austin American Statesman Purchase from Amazon |
