Montrealers braved the rain and came out in droves to the Sala Rossa for the launch of Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House!

The evening began with Machado reading from her memoir. A charged and potent reading cast a spell over the crowd, the intensity of the subject matter broken up with good-natured asides and occasional humor. A shout-out to Livejournal ("I miss it every day of my life") drew laughs from the crowd. 

A lively, substantial conversation with Melissa Bull followed the reading, offering insight into the book and how it came into existence.  Heavy yet relatable subject matter was tempered with Machado's wit and humour.  

The concept of the dream house as a site of idealism and utopia was discussed as Machado explained how the title came to enter the lexicon of the book: "Dreaming is a liminal state, with your body in one place and your brain in another".  A dream can also quickly descend into a nightmare...

Writing about trauma in the second person enabled a "gesture of pulling apart that creates an engine" pulling the reader in. "There's a 'you' permanently stuck in a hamster wheel of pain".

The conditionality of love and the surprise of a lover's cruelty was explored within the context of narratives of abuse in queer relationships. A mini-discussion of Star Trek: Next Generation ensued ("Oh Data, he just wants to be human!").

The subject of queer villainy came up, specifically the way queerness and villainy become synonymous with one another within pop culture. The problematic nature of the Disney villain was discussed, with Ursula held up as a (problematic) paragon of evil: "I love Ursula, she's so savvy and wicked!".

After an excellent, thought-provoking conversation Machado graciously answered questions from the audience. 

"Do you remember your dreams?"

"I'm a lucid dreamer. I can manipulate my dreams and I remember them most of the time"

A final thought about the recurring fairy tale motif within the book - "domestic violence for all its terror is actually a deeply clichéd thing. It follows a rigorous structure and that's a really hard thing to realize [...] that's how I got into fairy tales - the way they adapt and morph, but have shared qualities. It's okay that this story echoes other stories." 

Be sure to stop by the shop, where we have a limited number of signed copies of In the Dream House available. The Gay Reads Book Club will also be meeting on February 4th to discuss this engaging book!