Evan Urquhart

Lmao the naked shower scene!!

Like, they're both naked, it's hot and steamy, both are slick with soap and sweat. Card's writing is never more visceral than when depicting male bodies making skin-to-skin contact.

honestly i think maybe that's what I found in Card: a fellow self-hating queer looking to overwhelm that self-hatred with intelligence and compassion for everyone but yourself.

Same. I still have a soft spot for him, even though I know his political stances are really toxic.

Same. I've been afraid to re-approach the books but I'm five years into my transition more or less and I think I'm secure enough in who I am to squarely encounter such a man.

I've spent a lot of time wondering why a man who spent his whole literary career preaching radical, universal empathy became so implacably opposed to it, but I just now had an idea: in the 1970s and 80s, when he did his best work, homosexuality was unacceptable.

errr 80s and 90s.

But anyway, he wrote about empathy for the other and the monstrous when there wasn't any. But now there is, and there's all this messaging about it being okay to be queer, and he has to reinforce *his own decision* to keep his queerness held down.