When the world gets me down...I think to myself, "What would Dolly Do" and I try to do it. When I feel myself being consumed with anger or jealousy or self doubt I look to Dolly. I know that if I met her, I would come away with so much more than a celebrity encounter. Dolly is an example of how people should treat one another...with love, kindness, understanding, and respect. No matter what package you might happen to come in.
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, Myra Breckenridge by Vidal, The Official Dolly Parton Scrapbook, Tennessee Williams Collected Plays, The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon, Aphrodite by Louis, The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste, Truman Capote's collected works, Valley of the Dolls by Susann, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Gone With the Wind by Mitchell, My Name is Asher Lev by Potok, Southern Gothic novels such as those by Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers, Oscar Wilde was a fabulous, pretentious, fop of a genius, Me Talk Pretty One Day by Sedaris, I love celebrity bios and Auto-bios such as My Life and other Unfinished Business by Parton, Mommie Dearest by Crawford, Lettin' All Hang Out by Rupaul. I love books about twisted people with questionable sanity hence my love of the Southern Gothic Genre (shame on my English teaching cousin Laura for not knowing what that is. And people let you teach their children?). I feel I relate to them as the outside world threatens to topple the world of dreams inside their heads, as the dismal and tragic minutia of daily living encroaches on their delusions of grandeur. It says a lot about me I'm afraid. If you love A Streetcar Named Desire, read the play, there is a lot more going on than the movie could show. But thank God for Marlon Brando. Now all I need is a someone who will ruin their clothes while screaming Minerva! Oh wait...never mind...it already happens.
Me, Dolly Parton, Me, Jayne Mansfield, Me, Joanne Davis, Me, my mother, Me. Growing up in rural Idaho as an out drag queen going to high school with tits, blue eyeshadow, and Blair Warner Cascading Curls you have to be your own hero because no one else is going to do it for you. I learned young that most people just don't give a damn about anyone else but themselves, which is really difficult to handle on a daily basis when, like me, you care about other people's feelings and wellbeing.