The World Keeps on Turning

24-ISFP-he/him-trans and queer. I’m a social history major focusing on WWI. Feel free to send me messages/asks! @ease-for-nothing is where I put other misc. things I like.

[macaronis-telegraph]

Queer WWI Literature

This is a very niche and limited category, so I’ve been trying to throw together a list of what I can find out there for anyone else who might also be interested. What follows are all books that contain LGBTQ+ rep of any kind, that also involve the First World War as a central theme.

Titles with an asterisk* are the ones I have personally read, and would be more than happy to talk about/answer any questions about their content/rep!

Written in the 20th Century

Alf, by Bruno Vogel (1929)

Despised and Rejected, by Rose Allatini (pseud. A.T. Fitzroy) (1918)*

Lads: Love Poetry of the Trenches, edited by Martin Taylor (1989)

The Memorial, by Christopher Isherwood (1932)

My Father and Myself, by J.R. Ackerley (1968)

The Prisoners of War: A Play in Three Acts, by J.R. Ackerley (1925)*

The Regeneration Trilogy (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road), by Pat Barker (1991, 1993, 1995)*

A Scarlet Pansy, by Robert Scully (1932)*

Strange Meeting, by Susan Hill (1976)

Written in the 21st Century

The Absolutist, by John Boyne (2011)

Across Your Dreams, by Jay Lewis Taylor (2016)

Alec, by William di Canzio (2021)

Ashthorne, by April Yates (2022)

Awfully Glad, by Charlie Cochrane (2014)

Bonds of Earth, by G.N. Chevalier (2012)*

The Boy I Love, by Marion Husband (2005)*

The Daughters of Mars, Thomas Keneally (2012)

Eleventh Hour, by Elin Gregory (2016)

The Fallen Snow, by John J. Kelley (2012)

Fighting Proud: The Untold Story of the Gay Men Who Served in Two World Wars, by Stephen Bourne (2017) – (I know I said fiction, but I’m going to leave this one here anyhow)

Flower of Iowa, by Lance Ringel (2014)*

The Great Swindle, by Pierre Lemaitre (2013)*

The Indian Clerk, by David Leavitt (2007)

The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing, by Mary Paulson-Ellis (2019) *

In Memoriam, by Alice Winn (2023)

The Lie, by Helen Dunmore (2014)

The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters (2014)

A Pride of Poppies, short story collection published by Manifold Press (2015)

Promises Made Under Fire, by Charlie Cochrane (2013)

The Shell House, by Linda Newbery (2002)*

Spectred Isle, by K.J. Charles (2017)

The Stranger’s Child, by Alan Hollinghurst (2011)

The Warm Hands of Ghosts, by Katherine Arden (2024)

Whistling in the Dark, by Tamara Allen (2008)*

Wild with All Regrets, by Emma Deards (2023)

The World and All that it Holds, by Aleksandar Hemon (2023)

This is a dynamic list, which I will continue to update whenever I find something new. If you know of anything that isn’t on this list and needs to be, please let me know!

[luthienne]

José Saramago, Cain (tr. Margaret Jull Costa)

Roland Barthes, Mythologies (tr. Annette Lavers)

[fawnvelveteen]

1920’s gentleman with top hats.

[shadovvlurking]

[boy-gender]

To all the trans people who see this tonight, no matter what happens, we will survive. Trans people will still be here 4 years from now and 10 years from now and 100 years from now and tomorrow. We have always existed and we always will. The world cannot unlearn about us; we are too public, too loud, too beloved, too present. Ill be here tomorrow. Please stay here with me.

[adz]

airport xray machine deep fried my photos from amsterdam, 1

[carrotcakecrumble]

I HATE THIS BUT ITS ALREADY THREE DAYS LATE AND I CAN’T TRY AND FIX RALPHS STIFF SILLY LITTLE SHOULDERS ANYMORE but anyway yay a modern Charioteer AU for day one of the prompt week🧎🏻‍♀️ that for some reason i only drew Ralph, Bunny and Nurse Adrian for🧎🏻‍♀️🧎🏻‍♀️

[liivn]

[girlwithakiwi]

one thing that keeps getting lost in the talks of hubris and the memes that have popped up in the past 48 hours is that the vast majority of the people who died in the actual Titanic disaster were not the millionaires.

no, the vast majority of the people who died in the Titanic disaster were the poor third-class passengers (528 lost, including whole families) and the working class crew (696 lost, many who stayed at their posts to the end). more first-class men were saved than third-class children. the city of Southampton, where so many of the crew came from, was devastated by the disaster—entire streets were in mourning. if you take a look at the names of the victims, you’ll see a wide variety of ages and nationalities and socioeconomic backgrounds—this was not solely a rich people’s pleasure cruise

the Titanic disaster was a goddamned tragedy that shocked the world because it affected people from all across the spectrum of Edwardian society, from the richest business tycoon to the poorest immigrant seeking a new, better life in America

it is not a 1:1 comparison to what is happening now

[ltwilliammowett]

A collection of Whaling tools, 19th century

Comprising two steel harpoons, one with maker's mark and cordage; one flensing knife with turned wooden shaft; and a bronze grappling/securing anchor, the longest -- 34in. (86cm.)

[macaronis-telegraph]

I promise you I see all of the additions to the queer WWI lit list and I will soon have the brain space to go through them all and update it! 🫡

[prokopetz]

One of my favourite bits of media history trivia is that back in the Elizabethan period, people used to publish unauthorised copies of plays by sending someone who was good with shorthand to discretely write down all of the play's dialogue while they watched it, then reconstructing the play by combining those notes with audience interviews to recover the stage directions; in some cases, these unauthorised copies are the only record of a given play that survives to the present day. It's one of my favourites for two reasons:

It demonstrates that piracy has always lay at the heart of media preservation; and

Imagine being the 1603 equivalent of the guy with the cell phone camera in the movie theatre, furtively scribbling down notes in a little book and hoping Shakespeare himself doesn't catch you.

[macaronis-telegraph]

Queer WWI Literature

This is a very niche and limited category, so I’ve been trying to throw together a list of what I can find out there for anyone else who might also be interested. What follows are all books that contain LGBTQ+ rep of any kind, that also involve the First World War as a central theme.

Titles with an asterisk* are the ones I have personally read, and would be more than happy to talk about/answer any questions about their content/rep!

Written in the 20th Century

Alf, by Bruno Vogel (1929)

Despised and Rejected, by Rose Allatini (pseud. A.T. Fitzroy) (1918)*

Lads: Love Poetry of the Trenches, edited by Martin Taylor (1989)

The Memorial, by Christopher Isherwood (1932)

My Father and Myself, by J.R. Ackerley (1968)

The Prisoners of War: A Play in Three Acts, by J.R. Ackerley (1925)*

The Regeneration Trilogy (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road), by Pat Barker (1991, 1993, 1995)*

A Scarlet Pansy, by Robert Scully (1932)*

Strange Meeting, by Susan Hill (1976)

Written in the 21st Century

The Absolutist, by John Boyne (2011)

Across Your Dreams, by Jay Lewis Taylor (2016)

Alec, by William di Canzio (2021)

Ashthorne, by April Yates (2022)

Awfully Glad, by Charlie Cochrane (2014)

Bonds of Earth, by G.N. Chevalier (2012)*

The Boy I Love, by Marion Husband (2005)*

The Daughters of Mars, Thomas Keneally (2012)

Eleventh Hour, by Elin Gregory (2016)

The Fallen Snow, by John J. Kelley (2012)

Fighting Proud: The Untold Story of the Gay Men Who Served in Two World Wars, by Stephen Bourne (2017) – (I know I said fiction, but I’m going to leave this one here anyhow)

Flower of Iowa, by Lance Ringel (2014)*

The Great Swindle, by Pierre Lemaitre (2013)*

The Indian Clerk, by David Leavitt (2007)

The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing, by Mary Paulson-Ellis (2019) *

In Memoriam, by Alice Winn (2023)

The Lie, by Helen Dunmore (2014)

The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters (2014)

A Pride of Poppies, short story collection published by Manifold Press (2015)

Promises Made Under Fire, by Charlie Cochrane (2013)

The Shell House, by Linda Newbery (2002)*

Spectred Isle, by K.J. Charles (2017)

The Stranger’s Child, by Alan Hollinghurst (2011)

The Warm Hands of Ghosts, by Katherine Arden (2024)

Whistling in the Dark, by Tamara Allen (2008)*

Wild with All Regrets, by Emma Deards (2023)

The World and All that it Holds, by Aleksandar Hemon (2023)

This is a dynamic list, which I will continue to update whenever I find something new. If you know of anything that isn’t on this list and needs to be, please let me know!

[sidneyellwoods]

some i, as a Queer WWI Lit Connossieur would like to add:

Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey by Kathleen Rooney

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue (dublin during the war)

The Will Darling Adventures series by K.J. Charles (1920s, but protagonist is a WWI veteran)

All the White Spaces (a reach, maybe, but the war is definitely present)

These Old Lies by Larrie Barton

The Last Kiss by Sally Malcolm

The Great War series by Renee Dahlia

While My Heart Beats by Erin McKenzie

nonfiction but its worth checking out:

Soldiers Don't Go Mad by Charles Glass (history about Sassoon and Owen)

Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest (a reach but you will not believe how many upper class british men who served in the first world war were fairly openly queer) (including george mallory)

[macaronis-telegraph]

I believe it is officially confirmed that Katherine Arden’s new book coming out in Feb, The Warm Hands of Ghosts does have a m/m relationship/queer characters. I’m super excited to get a Great War novel from this author!

!!!

Always love to hear stuff like this.

[scrapironflotilla]

Vital information in the 18th Division intelligence summary for December 1915.

Dec. 22nd. A white ferret was seen running about in front of parapet F.3.a.5.3.

[nick--knack]

hey anyone want to hang out with me and we can sit in the Hole together

[madnessofmen]

this could be us

[a-french-guardsman]

There is a downside to the popularisation of Remembrance Day, and it is the way it completely neglects the reason why we must remember the dead in the first place.

Armistice Day is not a contest of who shall wear the most poppies, or who shall comment “lest we forget” the most on social media, or even how many WWI photos you can view in a hour. It’s not simply about reminding yourself once a year that millions of men died more than a hundred years ago.

It’s about remembering that peace is NEVER granted.

The lessons learned in the last century matter because at every moment, every minute, every second, right as I write, conflicts over the world still kill thousands of innocents and political leaders will start new ones every time they get the chance.

While we should remember their faces, the dead of WWI are what they are: dead. And we must remember why; because if you promote violence, if you promote rejection, if you promote xenophobia, if you promote hatred, you are yourself stepping a little closer to seeing War ring the bell of your doorstep in much the same way it did in 1914.

The dead of WWI are no longer here. They will not rise or talk to us ever again. But what killed them in the first place still exists and will always exist.

You must strive to promote peace not just on the 11th of November, but every day of your life. Because, since hatred is always an easier instinct than compassion, anyone who does not oppose escalation in violence is condemning, a little bit more everyday, young people to forced conscription, civilians to mindless bombings, humans to human cruelty.