UC Merced UC Merced Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Act of Reading John Rechy: Transnational Intertexts and Readers Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9412s8fb Author Hernandez-Jason, Beth Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED The Act of Reading John Rechy: Transnational and Transcultural Intertexts and Readers A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in World Cultures by Beth Hernandez-Jason Committee in Charge: Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez, Chair Virginia M. Adán-Lifante Gregg Camfield Ellen McCracken 2014 Portion of Chapter 3 © 2013 Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa Portion of Chapter 1 © 2014 Instituto Franklin-UAH All other chapters © 2014 Beth Hernandez-Jason The Dissertation of Beth Hernandez-Jason is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Virginia M. Adán-Lifante Gregg Camfield Ellen McCracken Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez, Chair University of California, Merced 2014 iii DEDICATION To John Rechy and his readers iv TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................. V LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... VI LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... VIII CURRICULUM VITAE .............................................................................................................. IX ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. XI INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................... 1 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................... 5 Theoretical Framework: Reader Response and Reception Theories ...................................... 6 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................. 10 CHAPTER ONE: THE CULTIVATION OF READERS IN THE NOVELS OF JOHN RECHY ...................................................................................... 31 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...................................................................................................... 31 THE FORMATION OF CITY OF NIGHT AND ITS READERS ............................................................ 34 INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES AND THE RECEPTION OF CITY OF NIGHT .................................... 44 NUMBERS (1967) ........................................................................................................................ 47 MARILYN’S DAUGHTER (1988) .................................................................................................... 51 BODIES AND SOULS (1983) ......................................................................................................... 55 CHAPTER TWO: FAN MAIL, BLOGS, AND GOODREADS REVIEWS: THE EVERYDAY READER’S RESPONSE TO JOHN RECHY’S WORK ........................ 61 LETTERS FROM READERS ........................................................................................................... 63 Encounters with Rechy’s Work ............................................................................................. 69 The Impact of Reading Rechy ............................................................................................... 71 Re-Reading Rechy ................................................................................................................. 74 ONLINE READER RESPONSES: BLOGS ....................................................................................... 76 Genre-Specific Blogs ............................................................................................................. 78 GLBTQ Blogs ........................................................................................................................ 80 Chicano/a Bloggers ............................................................................................................... 84 Review Blogs ......................................................................................................................... 87 ONLINE READER RESPONSES: GOODREADS REVIEWS ............................................................... 90 CHAPTER THREE: WRITERS READING RECHY: INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES TO JOHN RECHY AND HIS NOVELS .................... 102 CITY OF NIGHT AND BORDERLANDS/LA FRONTERA: AN ALTERNATIVE LITERARY GENEALOGY ............................................................................. 103 OTHER CHICANO/A READERS .................................................................................................. 110 OTHER U.S. AUTHORS ............................................................................................................. 123 INTERNATIONAL OUTLAWS: GUY HOCQUENGHEM AND CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS ...................... 129 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................... 136 WORKS CITED ......................................................................................................................... 139 v List of Tables TABLE 1: STATE AND COUNTRY OF LETTERS ..................................................................... 66 TABLE 2: GENDER AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION OF LETTER WRITERS ................................ 67 TABLE 3: BOOKS BY RECHY IN LETTERS ........................................................................... 68 TABLE 4: GOODREADS STATISTICS FOR EACH BOOK (AS OF OCTOBER 2013) ...................... 93 TABLE 5: DEMOGRAPHICS OF GOODREADS REVIEWERS OF RECHY'S BOOKS ....................... 94 TABLE 6: DEMOGRAPHICS OF READER RESPONSES (LETTERS AND ONLINE) ..................... 98 TABLE 7: FREQUENCY OF BOOKS MENTIONED IN READER RESPONSES ............................. 99 vi List of Figures FIGURE 1: COVER OF FIRST U.S. EDITION OF CITY OF NIGHT .............................................. 38 FIGURE 2: GAY SUNSHINE 23, 1974. PHOTO BY R. MICHAEL KELLEY, 1970. ...................... 40 FIGURE 3: COVER OF FIRST U.S. EDITION OF NUMBERS ...................................................... 48 FIGURE 4: MISS DESTINY ON THE COVER OF ONE: THE HOMOSEXUAL VIEWPOINT (1964) .... 48 FIGURE 5: THE COVER OF THE FIRST U.S. EDITION OF BODIES AND SOULS .......................... 59 FIGURE 6: "READ BY END OF '63" .................................................................................... 106 FIGURE 7: "CALL NUMBERS" ........................................................................................... 107 FIGURE 8: "DIRTY BOOK???" ........................................................................................... 107 FIGURE 9: THE COVER OF THE AIR-CONDITIONED APOLLO ............................................... 114 vii Acknowledgements First I would like to thank the following publishers for allowing me to include articles that I have published in this dissertation: The Instituto Franklin in Alcalá, Spain, “The Cultivation of Readers in John Rechy’s Novels,” which appears in part of Chapter One. It was originally published in Crossing the Borders of Imagination. Alcalá: Instituto Franklin, 2014. I would also like to thank the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa for allowing me to include “An Alternative Literary Genealogy? John Rechy, Gloria Anzaldúa and Gregg Barrios,” which forms part of Chapter Three, and was published in El Mundo Zurdo 3: Selected Works from the 2012 Meeting of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. Eds. Larissa M. Mercado-López, Sonia Saldívar-Hull and Antonia Castañeda. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2013. 23-38. I am the sole author of these two articles. Grove Press has provided me with permission to use images of the book covers of Rechy’s novels City of Night and Numbers, and the Perseus Book Group has granted me permission to include the cover of Bodies and Souls. Gloria Anzaldúa’s words and images from her archives (© Gloria E. Anzaldúa) are used by permission of the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Literary Trust. Donald Allen’s literary executor, Michael Williams, has given me permission to quote from Donald Allen’s letters, and Gregg Barrios has permitted me to include an image of the cover of The Air-Conditioned Apollo. I would also like to thank the UC Merced Graduate Research Council and World Cultures Graduate Group for research and travel grants, which allowed me to visit archives and conduct interviews. The UC President’s Dissertation Year Award also provided financial support for research. I have had the pleasure of corresponding with or interviewing Honora (Lynch) Finkelstein, Gregg Barrios, Michael Nava, Lucas Crown, Wanda Giles, Jack Fritscher, and John Rechy for this project, all of whom have been very kind and helpful. I would also like to thank Denice Sawatzky at the University of California, Merced for her assistance with locating some texts from different libraries, and archivists Heather Smedberg with the Mandeville Special