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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2003)
July ta. 2Û03 ’ eatingout eating out eatingout “*35 eatmgout B uying D ad : O ne W oman ’ s S earch for the P erfect S perm D onor by Harlyn Aizley; Alyson Publica tions, 2003; $14.95 softcover en minutes after we have slowly inserted and retracted both vials I think I feel something moving inside me.... Then I get anxious. The incredible hugeness of what we’re doing hits and surprised me like all along I had thought we were buying a car.... Its perhaps the biggest, most life-altering, Harlyn Aizley reads from Buying Dad: One Woman’s Search irreversible thing you can do.” for the Perfect Sperm Donor 7 p.m. July 23 at In Other In Buying Dad: One Woman’s Words, 3734 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. Search for the Perfect Sperm it: We want to know if, how, why and to what Donor, Harlyn Aizely moves through the extent the sexual orientation of artists has a process of a lesbian couple getting pregnant as bearing, inherent or otherwise, upon the cre smooth as a baby through the birth canal. Up »» ation of their work. and down the roller coaster of “sexual science, There is no final, all-encompassing answer the ride is as unexpected as it is intimate as to that query, but Triihin uses it as a spring Aizley and her partner, aptly named Faith, take board to delve into various lives and ideas. baby steps toward motherhood. The reader indifference to the homosexuality As it starts off with the basics, I felt like 1 present in the personal experiences and pub was in sitting on a facing couch with Ellen lished works of Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann, DeGeneres and Sharon Stone. But as Aizley James Baldwin, Francis Bacon or Elizabeth moves into private anecdotes and details, it Bishop may not be so certain after reading the becomes more like you’ve been let in on a big author’s well-reasoned explorations, while secret. “Part of me wishes there had been can those who pick up the btxik exclusively for its dles, more ritual, not Faith leaving me splayed gay interest will be treated to a fresh, informa with a syringe poking out of my vagina while tive reminder that no one easily generalized she flossed and brushed her teeth.” gay experience has ever existed. Not only is Aizley candid in a way only “Soon in the Western world being gay will hormones could induce, but she lets it all hang no longer involve difficulty and discrimina out. From revealing her fears of motherhixxl, tion," To i bin writes in the intnxJuctory piece. uncontrollable gas and seeing friends fight over idyllic sperm donors, to letting the reader “Therefore, how we read the past, and read into the past, and judge the past are likely to see the human side of her relationship, Aizley become matters of more open debate. The is first honest, then informative. temptation to make anachronistic judgments Beyond the entertaining, neurotic madness and ask anachronistic questions is hard to of the narrator’s voice, this book is a bit of a avoid.” learning journey for those of us who’ve always Toibin manages it; in fact, his meaty com wondered how two vaginas can create a baby. mentaries on the forbearing Baldwin, the An interesting nugget culled from the Fxx>k: near-mas<Khistic Wilde and the detached There are two ways for lesbian couples to get Mann are more interesting than his worthy pregnant—ICI (intracervical) and IU1 treatments of painter Francis Bacon, filmmak (intrauterine). Translation: ICI=turkey baster, er Pedro Almoddvar and poet Mark Doty— lUI=doctor inserted. Who knew? more contemporary gay artists for whom there To complement the dry humor and blunt was little to no need for double lives or cre honesty about buying a dad is the other ative solutions. painfully ironic parallel story of Aizley s moth Triibin writes of Franz Kafka, “This is not er dying of cancer, which adds a rich element to suggest that gay readers want Kafka to be to the book. read as a gay writer only.. .but as a figure It’s no surprise that Aizley does, whose work was sufficiently indeed, get pregnant. (She probably affected by his homo- would’ve had a harder time selling her sexuality.. .to be read as we-threw-in-the-towel manuscript.) But a parable about a gay fortunately for her (and for eager man in a hostile city, as mother readers) the baby not only well as a nonbelieving turned out great, so did Buying Dad. Jewish man, as well as a —Gina Daggett 20th century man.” These contradictory, L ove in a D ark T ime : A nd elusive artists require the O ther E xplorations of most thoroughness and dis G ay L ives and L iterature ipline from queer would-be by Colm Toibih; McClelland & reclaimers, and Toibin sees Stewart, 2002; $24.99 softcover the complex and delicate operation of reading their he best thing about Irish nov works as “gay literature" not elist Colm Toibin's collection as a sticky chore, but a provo of essays, Love m a Dark Time, is the way his cation to increased subtlety and deeper knowledgeable, opinionated and insatiably understanding. engaged prose reveals he wrote the book for —Christopher McQuam JM the same reason most of its audience is reading T T ■ Pizza, Salad, Sandwiches and Oregon Microbrews sold here Free Delivery (60fh-Rivcr, Gliun-Woodstock) Caci» 3701 SE Hawthorne 503-231-0901 i ~ Casual Dining ~ Lounge ~ Game Room ~ Open 4:00 Daily ~ ~ ~ ~ 120 NW Third Avenue, Portland, OR 97209 • (503) 224-3285 Parking Validated Smart Park Davis & Front www hobos.citysearch.com Çonjesil M en S eeking M en Hey. fellas! 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