The writer, playwright & theatre-maker C.E. Gatchalian discusses his memoir Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty, and the Making of a Brown Queer Man (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019), with Joseph Planta.

Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty, and the Making of a Brown Queer Man by C.E. Gatchalian (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Double Melancholy

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

C.E. Gatchalian is a writer and theatre-maker in Vancouver, known for his acclaimed plays Falling in Time, Broken, Motifs & Repetitions, Claire, and People Like Vince. These are works that have been staged nationally and internationally, and on radio and television. He has just published a new memoir, Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty, and the Making of a Brown Queer Man. It’s a fascinating book that looks at his childhood in Vancouver, the people around him, and the works of music and literature that shaped him, and not just intellectually, but emotionally. The book is a memoir that has portions of his journal entries, some from childhood. And while he offers often scathing critiques of himself, the book serves as a commentary of those works—Anne of Green Gables, A Room with A View, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death in Venice, Queer as Folk, the writing of Camille Paglia and Susan Sontag, and the music of Maria Callas—that were largely heteronormative and white. These were works that had the effect of invisibilising him as a queer person of colour. He also takes on the culture itself with discussions of art and the discourse, not to mention colonisation. There’s a lot in this book and a lot worth pondering. I’ll get the author, who joins me now to talk about this book and more. C.E. Gatchalian is a two-time finalist of the Lambda Literary Award, and the 2013 recipient of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize. He is the former artistic producer of the frank theatre company, receiving two Jessie Awards for his work as a theatre artist and producer. He has been writer-in-residence at Berton House Writers’ Retreat and Kogawa House, and playwright-in-residence at the Firehall Arts Centre, and the Vancouver Playhouse. His website is at www.cegatchalian.com. This book is published by Arsenal Pulp Press. There will be two events in Vancouver: 7.00pm 30 May 2019 at Pumpjack Pub, 1167 Davie Street; and Wednesday, 24 July 2019 at the Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch, 7.00pm—a reading with Aaron Chan, the author of the memoir This City is a Minefield. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, C.E. Gatchalian; Mr. Gatchalian, good morning.

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