Westbound

I'm headed westbound to San Francisco in less than 10 hours, and not at all prepared to leave (although I am more than ready to go).

I should have spent the day doing chores and packing, but instead after I got off work, I spent time finishing Lauren Myracle's novel Kissing Kate (and now I've been hooked by Hell's Kitchen).

It was nice, for a change, to read a "gay YA" fiction featuring girls as the main characters (don't get me wrong, I love my boys in Boy Meets Boy and Totally Joe, but some balance is certainly good).

I was skeptical of the emphasis Myracle put on lucid dreaming initially, but in the end it proved a useful tool to get at the ways in which various moments of our lives are connected, as well as to make the point that we are empowered to direct not only our dreaming selves, but also our waking selves--powerful lessons.

Lissa is far from perfect, but she really pulled me into the story. The way in which she sulked around the house and school, only later to snap at Ariel at work were certainly something I could identify with. But, what I really liked about these elements were that they gave Lissa some depth of character. Particularly, they illustrated not only the typical denial you would generally expect to find in a gay YA coming out tale, but also gave voice/embodiment to anger as well.

Granted, anger and aggression don't typically make for ideal representations, but in this case, I might make the opposite case. That is to say that I found it refreshing to see girls' anger and aggression given representation when it too often seems that the "sugar and spice, and everything nice" gender stereotype is emphasized instead. Of course, acrimony between girls is far from ideal, so it's not unwelcome that by the novel's end Lissa and Ariel have become good friends. It is also refreshing to a degree that Lissa and Kate don't end up together; I definitely cheered when Lissa stood up for herself and told Kate to go find her own answers (perhaps another lesson of the text?).

I have to also say that I also really enjoyed the portrayal of the relationship between Lissa and her little sister, Beth. Not having any sisters of my own [well, other than the API Queer Sisters I celebrated Capital Pride with this past weekend ;) more on the weekend later--perhaps much later when I get back from SF], it was a treat to experience girls bonding in a filial relationship. And, in fact, other than in Keeping You a Secret and Luna, I can't readily recall sisters in all the various gay YA novels I've read (I can name several brother-sister pairings, though--whether out of frequency or memorability I can't say for sure...)

In any case, some of the things from Kissing Kate I want to hold onto:

Touching is good...But that's what I wanted to tell her, that one person touching another person was perfectly normal (23).

Don't you think sometimes you shouldn't do what you'd normally do? That maybe you should try something new (70)?

I thought it was interesting how the brain worked that way, how it went to such lengths to make things fit with prior experience. It reminded me of the time I'd gone to the beach with Kate's family, when I'd spent an entire morning searching for sand dollars. For the longest time I couldn't find any, because I was used to seeing nothing but sand, and so that's all I was able to see. But once I found my first sand dollar, I was able to find them everywhere. I just had to develop a new way of seeing" (76).

I almost got sucked in. It would have been so easy. But feeling needed was one thing; having your own needs met was another" (187).