TANNER MULLER under/Limelight. Reviewed by Michael Jongen

Tanner Muller’s short stories in under/Limelight explore responses to the 2017 marriage equality plebiscite.

under/Limelight is a suite of seven short pieces set around the marriage equality postal plebiscite. These are micro-stories told from different points of view, with only two directly connected, but we sense that the anonymous narrator of the others could be Tam, who features in two stories. A character identified only as the masculine man features in several stories, and the app FINDR is prominent.

In ‘Validation’ a man ‘leaks tears of joy’ over the news that 61.6 per cent of the population has voted ‘yes’ in the plebiscite, and wonders ‘…if life for my community would be any different now that our love had finally been validated’. He rails against the government and the haters and tells the story of using FINDR to initiate his first sexual experience.

‘Android’ is the story of a young man who has had an upsetting rendezvous in Saigon but is reliant on the man he met through FINDR to drive him back to his hotel. There is a sense of the excitement and potential of sex succumbing to the ennui of an aimless pursuit of sexual gratification.

‘Lavender bush’ and ‘But you’re hurt’ concern Tam and his mother. In the first story, Tam, feeling isolated after his father has left the family, persuades his mother to drive him to see a ‘friend’. In the second story his mother picks up the phone her anxious son has left behind,  reads his FINDR messages and has a realisation. Written in the third person, this nevertheless feels more personal than the anonymous narrators of the previous stories.

‘Flirt 4 free’, about the masculine man, is the outstanding story and also the shortest, a nice piece of flash fiction. ‘Raise the middle finger’ is the last story and the outlier of the collection. Its protagonist, Anarchist, is a genderqueer activist who battles with trolls on FINDR by night and serves in retail by day.

There is purpose and cohesion to this collection and much to like about this attempt to reconcile our responses to the results of the marriage equality vote through fiction. It can be a bleak, uncomfortable read, interspersed with the droll bitter humour of the marginalised. I was not convinced by some of the voices nor impressed by some of the dialogue. The opening paragraphs of ‘Validation’ seem quite didactic and stilted as Muller lays out the reactions of his character to the vote. Yet when these bittersweet sentiments are expressed again in the last story narrated by Anarchist, they feel authentic and give the collection a sense of ending on the reflections of the anonymous young man who celebrated that ‘Love had finally won.’

The dating app FINDR is almost a character and the inclusion of messaging exchanges on the service move the plot along and ring with an authentic voice. This community of isolated young males and older men forms the basis of the narrative. There is almost a sense of the vote being a pyrrhic victory when the young man who goes out to celebrate is treated to trash-talking stereotyping by his anonymous hook-up.

In another of the stories, a jaded older man has his interest piqued by an online exchange, only to realise he is communicating with a bot:

Bot: Nice, I’ve been lifting weights and I’m horny.

Tease: Really? I work out sometimes, but I wouldn’t say it makes me horny. It’s become more of a chore at this point.

Bot: Dude, I have a really huge cock and I love showing it off.

Tease: Wait, I think we may be moving a little fast here.

Bot: I’ll be doing a live show soon. Do you want to follow me on my modelling site?’

Growing up Queer in Australia, the collection edited by Benjamin Law, celebrated diversity and modern Australia. Muller’s stories, with the exception of the last, reflect on the white male experience in this country, seemingly the demographic with most to gain from the removal of the final barrier to hetronormative and bourgeois acceptance. Our lives in the demimonde are over, but what does it mean?

In ‘Raise the middle finger’, Anarchist dismisses the structures of society and its institutions. Anarchist knows that ‘we’re naive to think our community has been rescued by a fucking marriage law’. They rail against the men on FINDR who resent their presence, the men who can now get married, the men who like ‘REAL MEN ONLY’. They despise the customers they serve and that they have to work in retail to survive. They disparage those who think marriage equality is the end, rather than just a step in achieving equality.

‘Fuck you. My body parts are none of your concern. Please don’t tell management though. I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate this sort of behaviour from one of their trusted employees.’

 I choose to read Anarchist as the young narrator from the first story for a satisfying conclusion to the collection.

In under/Limelight politics undermines the personal and questions what has been achieved. It invites the reader to contemplate the impact of the marriage equality vote on the queer community and to consider what next. This is a nice contribution to queer fiction and well worth a read.

Tanner Muller under/Limelight published by Tanner Muller 2020 ebook only $7.99

Michael Jongen is a librarian who tweets as @michael_jongen

The ebook of under/Limelight is available through Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks.

 

Tags: Australian fiction, Australian short stories, queer fiction, Tanner | Muller, under/Limelight