Better Angel (1933) is one of the first American novels to portray homosexuality in a positive way with a happy ending. The novel tells the fictionalized story of Forman Brown’s coming of age in Michigan and his young adulthood in New York in the early twentieth century. The author tackles promiscuity, queer love, representations of queerness in literature, queer mentorship, and much more. (Spoilers included!) 

The White Book is a weird name for a book, but then again, The White Book (Jean Cocteau's third novel) is a weird book. After parsing the title, we discuss the novel's tumultuous plot, which follows the protagonist's struggle to live as an openly gay man in early twentieth-century France. The discussion inspires Charles to share some vivid childhood memories that are sure to entertain, and in a very special Queer and Now, Charles shares some exciting personal news!

Not quite.  But in this episode, Travis discusses the queerness of The Great Gatsby's narrator and inspires in Charles a newfound appreciation for the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic.  Never ones to shy away from the tough questions, in Queer and Now we tackle a central issue in contemporary gay culture: do gay men really walk faster than straight men?

In an all-new episode of the podcast, the dynamic duo discusses Marcel Proust and his queer masterpiece In Search of Lost Time: Sodom and Gomorrah. Exhibiting his biblical expertise, Charles explains the origin of the title. We then debate whether queer men have changed all that much since Proust’s time before delving into the queerness of the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

In this week's episode, we discuss Edward Prime-Stevenson’s Imre: A Memorandum.  Despite the book's championing of gay masculinity, Charles and Travis have some thoughts on the characters' misogyny and internalized homophobia.  Travis tests Charles’s knowledge of the book and pop music as the two turn the Queerest of the Queer segment into a game. (Milton Bradley, sponsor us!)  And in Queer and Now, we tackle the unwillingness of Americans and Brits to acknowledge the discrimination that LGBTQ people still face.

Despite Charles's objections, Travis can’t help liking E.M. Forster’s Maurice, the novel discussed in this very romantic episode. There are three queer men in this tale, and we have thoughts on each of them.  There's Clive the money-grubbing pragmatist, Alec the flirtatious handyman, and, of course, the eponymous hero Maurice, whose love of fairy tales makes him a man after Charles's own heart.  In our Queer and Now section, Charles is s(c)hocked by recent legal developments involving a certain(ly not gay) ex-Congressman, and Travis notes that the Winds of Lent are upon us. Buckle up!

In this very special episode, Charles and Travis revisit the Melville oeuvre, this time to discuss Redburn: His First Voyage.  This is a bonus episode, so we've decided to mix things up: this time, Charles leads the discussion and Travis asks the questions. Join us as we discuss two-faced ship captains, a London sex club, a thwarted date-rape attempt, and - of course - sperm whales.  In Queer and Now, Travis takes Joe Biden to task, and Charles takes a (mostly ironic) victory lap.

Hello!  It’s our first episode, and what better way to kick off this podcast than with a frank discussion of A Year in Arcadia: a Shepherd’s Calendar, the first known novel to feature true-blue, honest-to-goodness, male-male romance.  In this episode you’ll also learn a little about us (just a little; we’re men of mystery), the reason we decided to make this podcast, and why we use the word “queer.”