VENUS VALLEY: Prologue

This book is a social experiment. Being queer means questioning the philosophies of sex, politics & religion of those around us, or having ours questioned by them, on a daily basis. So my fellow rainbow flag flyers, let's philosophise together: Debate, discuss, question, contribute, as I release my philosophy study writing chapter by chapter online, & you'll all be my editors, your edits feeding into my final published product - so our readers will know it's not just me having one of my rants, but your voices, queerly beloveds, among & alongside it. Welcome, Gentles & Lady-Men, to Venus Valley: Queer Philosophers' Forum.

Jumping straight in the deep end (with a philosopher that even other philosophers struggle to understand!), the exchange below is a fairly mild example of Hegelian (as in, based on the philosopher Hegel) Dialectics. Answering your own questions by questioning your own answers. Admitting the things we're "for" or "against" in others around us are a reflection of the things we're "for" or "against" inside ourselves.

Anyone of us who's lived in the closet, or experienced gender dysphoria, has had a Hegelian Dialectic of our own.

Old Me, a moderate middle-class Christian, loved quoting C.S. Lewis, who loved quoting Rev. George McDonald:

"The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His." Unspoken Sermons, First Series.

New Me, a queer rebellious leftie, has questions! Why do Christians like Old Christian Me try to get the message across by quoting what they heard in church, or picked from bible reading, instead of saying their own thing? Old Christian Me (OCM from now on, or this'll get long & repetitive!), honestly, would be afraid to admit the answer.

You see, New Queer Me, (can I call you NQM?), the truth is, it's like posting anonymously online - a soundbite works on its own, but I'd feel wrong claiming I knew about big questions of the world like suffering first hand, and I'm scared to admit that and be called on it. I hide behind big names who said big words.

I get it, OCM. I know now that you're an amateur, a layperson, when it comes to big things like suffering, compared to everyday lives in the queer community. If you're going to use a soundbite, a more honest one would be this, from medieval mystic Walter Hilton:

“I feel myself so far from true feeling of that I speak, that I can naught else but cry mercy and desire after it as I may.”

(Did you notice I called you lay"person", not lay"man"? That weird feeling when you see your reflection, not sure you're the same as others who are your definition of Male/Masculine? Yeah... Spoilers!)

I know that, deep down, NQM. I know I'm judging people like you by thinking I have the answers to big questions like suffering, because I've got the Bible... But all I ever really find there is, "have patience, have faith, you wouldn't understand the answer anyway, you're not designed to ask those kinds of questions, God loves you, stop asking."

If I can use a quippy quote of my own, OCM, looking back, LGBTQIA+ people who hear that probably feel like Romeo saying to Mercutio, "he jests at scars, who never felt a wound"! To tellthe truth, OCM, I don't really like you. But the truth I'm avoiding myself, is I need you with me on this. I need to feel like I'm the result of you having the courage to finally ask questions and explore the answers.

To tell the truth myself, NQM, I'm a bit afraid of turning into you if I do that, it's not exactly what I had planned for myself!

Spoilers, OCM. Spoilers! Look, we don't like each other. But we do both like philosophy. And we both need to explore the answers to the big questions, like suffering, for our own sake. I'm loathe to admit I used to be you, and you're loathe to admit you might turn into me. But it makes no sense for us to try and escape each other - we'll spend so much time doing that, we'll never get to the end of doing this. Truce?

Alright, truce. For now.

~*~

To join the Venus Valley Queer Philosophers' Forum group on bookface, so you can debate, discuss, question, contribute there, click Here