Margot Atwell (Ed.)
The Feminist Press
16 September 2025
272
eBook - PDF
Non-Fiction/Theatre
ARC via Edelweiss
Since its earliest midnight showings at the Waverly Theater in New York City, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been an underground sensation. For five decades, people around the world have dressed up and gathered in dark theaters to dance, yell, mime obscene acts, and forge connections with other queer people and weirdos.
The film shattered expectations and social norms at the time of its release. But how does its presentation of queerness—not to mention its portrayals of murder, manipulation, consent violation, and cannibalism—hold up today? The essays in Absolute Pleasure—by queer writers including Sarah Gailey, Grace Lavery, and Magdalene Visaggio—explore the film's complicated legacy, along with queer and trans joy, sexuality, family, generational understandings of queerness, and what we do with our problematic faves.
Absolute Pleasure was an interesting read but not quite what I had expected. From the blurb, I had envisaged essays really breaking down the problematic elements of the film and considering its place as an artwork and part of queer storytelling history. While there were a couple of pieces that touched on those themes, in actual fact the majority of the essays were stories of peoples' interactions with the show and how it affected their understanding of their sexuality, helped them to accept themselves etc. These were interesting to peruse but I think the blurb could have been better phrased to highlight this focus, as I had picked it up expecting it to be far more 'scholarly' than it actually was. In the end, I am giving this one 3.5 stars. It is a fun read for fans of the show who are keen to hear others' experiences with it and views on it.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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