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| Rocker Mandy Harris finds a new life together with Annabella in Music of the Soul. |
I stared considering the following question:Does there have to be a transformation in a story for it to count as TG fiction?
There are no magical or surgical changes in Music of the Soul, but I could not help reading it as a TG novel.
Maybe it was the fact that the author is a male writing a lesbian love story that made me think this way, or maybe my mind is wired to look for transgender patterns.
I know that our female to male brethren -- the girlfags -- write and read stories that do not include sex changes. They just identify themselves with one of the gay male characters in their yaoi comics.
Whether Schubach is associated with the TG fiction community or not is therefore irrelevant. I read it as a great TG love story, and so can you.
This is the story about Mandy Harris, hard core rocker, who has retired, tired of her old life. She has a lot of unresolved issues, though, and and is no way a happy woman.
Meeting the deaf girl Annabella changes all that. Annabella has her own pain, but she is also an intense, lively and immensely loveable character who manages to drag Mandy out of her shell.
I know that Schubach insists that this is not an erotic novel, due to the lack of purely pornographic scenes. I beg to differ. This is a intensely erotic novel, describing the love between two women in a tender and compassionate way.
I know that there are many people in TG circles who argue that men can never really understand women and their approach to love. I beg to differ, again. I think we all share a common humanity, and that it is probably easier for male to female crossdreamers to empathize with the lives of women than men in general.
Schubach discovered to his own surprise that his book ranked No. 10 in the "Lesbian Romance" category over at Amazon. So if the female bodied lesbians out there love it, I guess the male bodied ones will embrace it too.
If you love TG love stories, this is the book for you.
- Buy it on Amazon for $4.99
- Buy it on Google Play for $4.99
- Buy it on Barnes & Nobel Nook for $4.99
- Buy it on LuLu for $4.99
- Buy it on SmashWords for $4.99
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Well most tg fiction I guess by its nature has to be about transformation m2f f2m. most fiction seems to be on the forced side but that certainly does not have to be the norm, I am sure most tg would only want to be accepted as the gender of their choice with the partner of their orientation and to read fiction about this.
ReplyDeleteits my understanding that TV is more fetish based and different from tg (feel free to correct me}
I think the two genre probably get lumped in together.
I haven't (yet) read this book, but I have downloaded a sample to my Kindle, and I note that it's written in the first person. I wonder if this is essential for you to be able to read it as TG fiction? Reading "I..." you place yourself inside the female protagonist. In other words the transformation takes place in the reader's mind, not, as is more usual, on the page?
ReplyDelete@Ian
ReplyDelete"TV is more fetish based and different from TG"
Yeah, there might be something to this. Stories without the physical transformation will naturally focus more on the symbolic nature of clothing and accessories.
But I am not sure if this means that the readers of TV and TG fiction are fundamentally different. There is much overlap here. The readers of TV clearly dreams about being identified as a woman, while TG fiction may also include symbols of femininity.
@p l richards
The first person narrative certainly makes it easier to identify with the main character, although I do not think this is necessary. Going back to the FTM yaoi comics again: The girlfags reading yaoi tell me that they may identify with any of the two gay male characters.