Author of Orphia And Eurydicius, Elyse John, tells DIVA about bi books
BY ELYSE JOHN
What does bisexual joy look like? When I imagine it, I can’t picture the rainbow glitter of pride parades. I see something like a trace of gold, glinting in the air after the spectators have left.
Some of the biggest names in contemporary fiction, like Melissa Broder and Sally Rooney, have centred bi characters in novels devoured by readers. Yet bisexual joy still feels new, and it still feels scarce. Part of that may be due to how rarely bisexuality is examined in mainstream culture – how little talk there is about how it feels to be bisexual, and the particular marginalizations bi people face.
Bisexual joy grows against a backdrop of pain: the process of repeatedly coming out; being treated as “not straight enough” and “not queer enough” simultaneously; alarming mental health stats, and the heightened risk of domestic violence for bisexual women. Experiencing erasure and hostility from different groups, bi people can feel isolated and voiceless.
In the soil of this pain, narratives of triumph bloom: romance as self-love, success as a signal of hope. If joyous bi novels with contemporary settings explore modern happiness, what do mythic bi stories have to say? Are they mired in the laws of the ancient past? Or might they speak to the present through their relationship dynamics? As my novel Orphia And Eurydicius approaches publication, I reflect that while it shows the barriers hemming in its main characters, it also celebrates a romance between a bisexual man and woman with mythic passion. Pain sings through Orphia’s story, but I hope joy offers a rhythm too, rejecting the song of the active man and passive woman, making its own gender-role-defying myths.
In her poem Bisexuality, Hera Lindsay Bird writes: “They won’t let you out of the closet to get back in again”. Bird’s poem claws its way out of the closet with imagery. Comparing bisexuality to “climbing out of a burning building / into a second identical burning building”, it suggests the compounded stress of bi experience. Maybe that’s why a romance about a poet-storyteller seemed ripe for a bisexual retelling: many of us jump from one fire to another, hoping to put out the conflagration with words, trying to speak ourselves into both visibility and safety. If our real stories can’t be heard, our fictional tales might be.
Perhaps bisexual joy doesn’t look like a rainbow just yet. I still hope for a day when bi authors can step out in the classic pride colours, confident that there will be no questions. No “How is your book queer?” Or “Should you be at Pride?”
Until then, bi books persist as gold glitter, stubbornly rising.
Elyse John is the author of the novel Orphia And Eurydicius, a bi-for-bi retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, coming out from HarperCollins on 28 March (UK) and 2 April (USA/CAN). She studied literature, writing and French at university, completing a PhD. Her poetry nominations include the Pushcart Prize and several major Australian prizes.
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