The New Era in Sci-Fi.

In the 1950s, the post-war American empire changed the politics of the world. It took a science-fiction novel, Gore Vidal’s Messiah, to see how that change was not necessarily for the good.

“Vidal’s progress toward writing a sci-fi story about America in the grip of post-war hysteria started with the publication of his novel The City and the Pillar in 1948. Through its tale of a young man struggling with his homosexuality, Vidal inadvertently entered the realm of speculative fiction.”

Revealing the Gender Spectrum.

Pioneering activist Carol Steele talks about the questions that face people who are transgender, and the obstacles that trans people have yet to overcome.

“Transgender people can be straight, lesbian, gay or bi in much the same way that cis-gender people can be straight, lesbian, gay or bi – but we do have one thing in common with all cis-LGB, we have all suffered from persecution.”

Revealing the Hidden Life.

Damon Galgut talks about his novel Arctic Summer, what drew him to EM Forster, and how Forster’s hidden life brought on his writer’s block.

“I’m fascinated, in a literary sense, by that: what happens if you don’t express what you’re feeling? I’m interested in what’s not said, what’s not acted upon, and the kind of plot that might arise from inaction”

IDAHOT 2014.

To mark IDAHO(T) 2014, Polari’s editor recalls the homophobic attack that he and his partner endured on his birthday, the day after IDAHO 2013.

“I was thumped to the ground, and kicked; when I tried to get up the more aggressive of the three yelled, ‘Stay down, faggot’.”

[rating=5]
368 pages • Atlantic Books • March 06, 2014 [HB]
Damon Galgut’s remarkable novel Arctic Summer imagines the life of the great novelist E.M. Forster and the conflicts that led him to write A Passage to India.

“Forster knew when his great work had been completed, and the wonder in Damon Galgut’s Arctic Summer is that it enables the reader to feel both the triumph as well as the pain at the heart of this conflict. “

Tales of the City.

Armistead Maupin talks about The Days of Anna Madrigal, the last Tales of the City novel, his Republican beginnings and his plans for life after Tales.

“Anna Madrigal is a good person by the time we meet her at the beginning of Tales, and I had to go back and find out what it was that created this person, that created the possibility of this person. And darkness was required.”

The Polysaturated Alternative.

Rosie Wilby talks about monogamy, and the ways in which we’re all polyamorous without necessarily knowing it.

“I’d always been led to believe that monogamy was the only optional, but there are options that don’t just involve having an affair. There are people who are polyamorous, people who have open relationships.”

[rating=4]
288 pages • Doubleday • January 30, 2014 [HB]
The final Tales of the City, The Days of Anna Madrigal, is as glorious as its main character. It is filled with the heart, hope and compassion of its predecessors.

“Tales of the City is the most significant series in the literature of the post-liberation era, a lionhearted, optimistic ray of light that sees the world not only for its struggles but for its possibilities.”

Top 10 search terms that have led readers to Polari in 2013.

From ‘gay face’ and ‘porno polari’ to ‘horror movie sex’, the weirdest web searches bring readers to Polari Magazine. Here is our Top 10 List of WTF?! search terms from 2013.

“Looking back on the web searches that made Polari Magazine popular in 2013, there are many that make sense but also an amazing amount that do not.”

Nothing to Say.

It seems that nobody likes reading the comments section under articles, writes Polari’s editor, so why keep them?

“There will always be interesting points made in the comments section, just as there will always be interesting conversations in social media forums. But those comments are invariably buried under a torrent of dreck. The very immediacy of the comments section nurtures the instant, single-minded opinion.”