Ask Me Anything: December 17th

Here’s a transcript of the video: This is the third Ask Me Anything feature we’ve done.So I’ve got some questions here from people who are asking me anything.This is from John Hemm.Oh—hi, John. I know this person from many years ago.“What is yours and Chris’s favorite holiday, and how do you spend it?”Well, we don’t really have favorite holidays. I’ve found that living in England—if you ignore Christmas—it kind of comes to you. Years ago, I asked my cousin John if they did Christmas in England, and he laughed at me. Boy, do they do it here. It’s amazing—and it’s nice. Just driving down the street brings it to you.We also like Thanksgiving, mainly because there’s some good eating involved and we don’t have to do anything except be grateful for what we have. So yeah—those are the two.Dave Taylor-Bocanegra asks: “I hope I’m not too late. Wondering if you believe Mona of the Manor will ever be brought to film. I absolutely adored it.”Well, thank you, Dave. I’m proud of that book, and I’m glad you liked it. I have no idea whether it’s ever going to be a film. I never know. Things happen in my life kind of serendipitously. People call up and say, “What about maybe The Moon?” after years of ignoring it.And that may happen with Mona of the Manor. I would like to think it will. I think it’s a fun story.Neil Sechan says:“I started reading your daily posts in the Chron in 1976 and was active in the campaign against the Briggs Initiative in 1978, where I met my husband of 47-plus years…Oh, that’s sweet.… I would be interested in finding out your thoughts about the politics of that era and how it compares and contrasts with the current difficult political situation.”Well, I think it’s worse now—mainly because of Trump and the sort of fascist regime he’s brought into power. There were ugly things going on back then, like the Briggs Initiative, but I don’t quite know what to tell you except that it’s worse—and better in some ways. A lot of us are speaking out and making our voices heard, and I’m not afraid to do that.It’s surprising how many people were afraid to speak out in those days, even though we had leadership—people like Cleve Jones—who really got people riled up in a good way.Yeah, we’re still going to have to fight the battle. They’re still trying to get trans people, in one way or another, and I’m not going to desert the fight until we’ve dealt with that.Okay, next.Joseph Tay Wee Teck writes:“I was 23 in 1996 in Galway, Ireland, and just out when I encountered the Tales of the City stories and somehow every word, line and chapter felt as real and tangible to me as if I had lived through it all. When you wrote these amazing stories Armistead, could you have known of the timelessness and relevance of your words across the years and generations?”No, I didn’t dream that such a thing would happen. It’s the great joy of my life that it did—and that people still find things to love in the books.You don’t set out to write something that’s going to survive across the ages. When I started writing Tales, I really didn’t know what I was doing. They didn’t know what I was doing at the Chronicle either. It just sort of emerged from me, and suddenly there was a gay character.I knew that I had to allow my own politics to come to the fore, so Michael Tolliver became as vocal as I was in many ways. I couldn’t have dreamed it would last this long, and I’m very happy that it did.You never really know when you start creating something. You just try to live in the moment—which is what I did. And because I did, it had resonance, I think, and still does.Thanks for the question, Joseph Tewi Tek. That must be Irish stuff if you were living in Galway.Beatrice writes:“How big was Rock Hudson’s dick, and was he circumcised? Do not use my name. I have enough problems already.”Oh dear. I just did. You have a good sense of humor, Beatrice. I’ve dealt with this in other places, so you know it was big and kind of gnarly. I honestly don’t remember if he was circumcised—it may have been partial.It’s ridiculous to even be talking about this, but I promised I would answer questions.All right, here’s one from Mike:“I remember every week dropping a quarter into the yellow SF Chronicle newspaper vending machines to see the latest Tales. When the books came out, I bought them all. Read each one. Curious: do the books exactly mirror the Chron installments of Tales? I seem to recall some differences, but I’m not sure of it.”Well, I did have a chance to rewrite and tidy things up. It’s better in the form you’ve read in the books. I don’t think you’re going to find some lost gem by tracking down the old Chronicle copies.I was flying by the seat of my pants back then. I just had to get it on the page while I could.You might like to know that when it came time to compile the episodes into a book, I went down to Palm Springs—where all good things happen. My friend Kirk Frederick became my typist. We had the newspaper clippings spread out on the floor, and he very kindly acted as my stenographer.A doctor friend of my parents actually prescribed me some sort of speed to help me write. I wrote like crazy—but by the end of it, I was suicidal. I was very upset, accusing friends who’d gone off to party of deserting me. I was a mess.This was at Rock Hudson’s house, by the way. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that before. He kindly lent me his Palm Springs house to write the damn thing.So—yeah. What more do you need to know?Jonathan L writes:When you returned to the Tales universe starting with “Michael Tolliver Lives,” do you feel you were influenced in writing the characters by the actors who portrayed the characters onscreen, specifically Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis?Funny you should say that—Laura became Mary Ann for me almost immediately. She understood every nuance of that character, and I began to hear her voice in my head as I wrote. To a lesser degree, Olympia influenced the writing as well.When the producers were casting Tales, they sent me a videotape of Laura reading for another role and asked if she might work as Mary Ann. I took one look and said, “Work for her? She is Mary Ann.”That led to a great professional collaboration and a wonderful friendship. Laura later named her son Bennett Armistead Shower, which still moves me deeply. She’s someone I treasure. She understands me, always has, and we laugh at the same things. Her kindness is one of her greatest qualities—though she also has a wicked little cackle that lets you know you’re really laughing.I’m not being very eloquent here because I’ve never tried to define exactly what I love about Laura. But I do love her with all my heart.Olympia, of course, was a great, great actress. She knew exactly what to do with Anna Madrigal. Today people might say she shouldn’t have played the role because she wasn’t trans—but she owned it, completely. In some scenes she would say, “I’m going to let the man out now,” referring to Anna’s past. She was sensitive, intuitive, and brought real joy to the role.I’ll always be grateful to her for establishing Anna in everyone’s mind—and she did it as a straight woman. Go figure.Olympia was also a close friend. She would call me on my s**t sometimes, which you can imagine. I miss her terribly. She was something primal in my life, not just as Anna but as a person, and I wish I could still spend time with her.So thank you, Jonathan, for letting me celebrate some very special people.And thank you to everyone who tuned in today. I really appreciate it—and I’ll see you next time. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit armisteadmaupin.substack.com/subscribe

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