To think the library shouldn't stick rainbow stickers on any book by a GLBT author

[GothAnneGeddes]

I know it is probably well intentioned, but it just seems a really clunky way of doing it.

Do we need a rainbow sticker on Stephen Fry's autobiography? And if you didn't know an author was gay, would it matter if you found out they were?

GM, yes, but the library isn't set up for you as an individual! It is set up for a variety of people.

Gin, no it doesn't always define their writing. But presumably the librarians select books which do reflect the experiences of gay people, not just any old book with some connection to the subject or with a gay author. If they did that, they'd have to put rainbow stickers on books about gardening or GCSE physics or whatever simply because the writer happened to be gay.

The stickers can't be about the Authors they must surely be about the content of the book.

Milly I doubt the libarian is relecting the experiences of gay people - just glancing through the book to see if there are gay sexual acts in it.

I think some one of you are missing the point. Putting a sticker on a book to denote the author's sexuality does nothing to highlight anything other than the author's sexuality. It tells you nothing about the book.

To take the To Kill A Mockingbird example if you wanted to read a book with a theme of race issues then it's a great book to choose. But simply stickering books by non-white authors (perhaps with a brown sticker??) would not tell you anything about the book and you wouldn't even get TKAM because the author is white.

What a series of non sequiturs your posts are. I didn't suggest the library was set up for my personal taste.

Would be interested to know how librarians are placed to understand the experience of gay people, and the books likely to appeal to them. do they have a special book gaydar?

It is about the books content not the authors sexuality - if the two ar the same thats just coincidence.

Presumably librarians are professionals who know how to research books. They would just look up guides to gay literature, and select books accordingly, as they would with any other subject.

Katie, I never suggested they were stickering the books purely based on the author's sexuality. I have never known of such a thing happening, and I don't think there is reason to suggest that is happening based on the Fry autobiography, where the content of the book does concern his sexuality.

The thread title is To think the library shouldn't stick rainbow stickers on any book by a GLBT author

Milly - Fry doesn't describe actual acts of gay sex (the ins and outs so to speak) so hardly a book aimed at gays as such - think librarian might have mis-stickered that one.

Kate, then why are you responding to my post about to Kill a Mocking Bird, when I am clearly not talking about the identity of the author? Harper Lee is white. I'm talking about books reflecting the experiences of different groups. If you are saying my posts are irrelevant to the thread, that's fine.

Rosemary, why would books have to be about gay sex to reflect gay experience? Lots of books about gay experience don't have sex scenes in them.

If we're talking vol 1 of Fry's biography, it does have properly gay stuff in it!

But I hate genre stickers in libraries, they;re invariably crassly done. Malorie Blackman? Multicultural. Unfortunate Events? Um.... adventure and mystery! Jacqueline Wilson... oooh.... ah, bung it in Family Stories.

it's got proper hetero stuff in it too. He has sex with a girl when at college.

Agree with you about genres though. Clunking.

Because this thread is about stickering books based on the gender of the author. You made a few points about stickering books presumably baring some semblance to the discussion on the thread (it's hard to tell mind because they didn't make a huge amount of sense).

If you were actually talking about something else then fair enough but my point still stands in the context of this thread.

baring? Heavens! bearing

yeah, he says he did it with the girl in college and that he was glad he tried it, but also about the prep school lad who stuck his finger up his arse, and the boy at Uppingham who arrived 'with a tub of vaseline and a grim determination to see things through'.

Stephen Fry is a witty articulate writer who just happens to be gay. The OP is right,stickers are clunky & tokenistic.

I don't buy "gay books" I buy interesting well written books, the sexuality of the writer is secondary (actually probably lower than that) & actually is irrelevant.

If however I DO want a specifically LGBT themed topic book I know most decent bookstores/libraries have a selection or I go to Amazon online!

KM, I'll summarise my points then as you find them hard to follow:

1. It is unlikely that they are stickering books based solely on the sexuality of the author.
2. It is likely that they are stickering books based on the content of the books being about gay identity and experience.
3. Many people find gay identity and experience an interesting topic that they want to read about.
4. Gay experience is not all about sex.
5. These books are hopefully chosen based on guides to gay literature and not just on the individual feelings of a librarian.

Thanks Milly but really, no need.

I can see that it could be done usefully and intelligently, but my experience of genre-ing has been pretty much crass. One thing I used to like about Borders was that all books were just in order of author, not 'classics' 'women's books' etc - at least, early on they used to be.

Please excuse my ignorance why does a rainbow signify LGBT?
Think the stickers are ridiculous!

Here peanutbutter: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag_(LGBT_movement)

actually MOAB is in significant part a book about realising you are gay, about what 'camp' is, and about sexual difference.

I'm still not keen on genre-ing books though.

Thankyou katiem

Oh I see, am thinking now the libary did get the Fry sticker correct - had forgotten how much detail was in it.

All sorted then.