Under Covers

This review first appeared in Imago #1. To subscribe to Imago subscribe to Locust Review.

Review: Chuck Tingle, Trans Wizard Harriet Porber and the Bad Boy Parasaurolophus (2020); Trans Wizard Harriet Porber and the Theater of Love (2021).

BY NOW, most people on the internet have seen a Chuck Tingle cover. You may be familiar with Pounded in the Butt by My Own Butt, Pounded in the Butt by my Book ‘Pounded in the Butt by My Own Butt’, My Billionaire Triceratops Craves Gay Ass, or Taken by the Gay Unicorn Biker. 

Space Raptor Butt Invasion, probably the most well known cover, is part of a slow-build romance trilogy which explores isolation, homophobia, and social pressures to conform. It cemented his internet fame by attracting the attention of the “Rabid Puppies,” a defunct right-wing online voting bloc attempting to “save” science fiction (SF)  from becoming politicized, when the Rabid Puppies nominated Space Raptor for a Hugo Award. Chuck Tingle denounced Rabid Puppies as “devils.” 

In fact, Tingle argues that his novels prove love, and thus work against “devils” and “The Void.” His fans are called “buckaroos.” When considering who some of the “devils” are (Mike Bence, Domald Tromp, Rabid Puppies, etc), proving love is real to defeat them seems less twee. 

Often short, Tinglers are nevertheless much deeper than their bizarre covers. 

Magic is For Everyone

HARRIET IS a complete person in all her almost 300 pages. She fights for what she believes in, and trusts her partner. To have a romance novel treat any relationship — let alone a relationship between two trans characters — in such a real way is refreshing. There is no cheating or strategic jealousy, even though it’s a romance novel. Snabe Rezmor and Harriet communicate with each other and support each other. They have a healthy relationship and just happen to both be trans. 

I had never read a sex scene between two trans people that didn’t feel dismissive, outright wrong, or one that fetishized trans bodies. In the sequel, where the “bad boy” of the story would likely hurt his partner, or the relationship would otherwise be put in jeopardy, Tingle chooses, instead, to ramp up the sex scenes. 

In the first book, Harriet is a young witch trying to prove she isn’t just a one-hit wonder after her hit spell, Bubulus Morphus, propels her to fame. She eventually creates a spell called Exactus Desirus which gives the caster exactly what they need at the moment they need it. But, during her struggle to write the spell, suffering from a kind of magical writer’s block, she discovers the love of her life, metamagic bard and “bad-boy parasaurolophus,” Snabe Rezmor, along with a wonderful community of people who believe in what she does. 

The second book follows a socially scorned Harriet working against J. K. Recreation, an entertainment corporation that wants to own all magic shows, as she tries to rebuild her career after the implosion of Exactus Desirus (more on this below) by trying to get a magical residency in Las Vegas.

During the performance of a Las Vegas magic show, Harriet refers to all sorts of magic done with all sorts of tools, not just wands. She makes a point of saying everyone is welcome. Harriet takes many opportunities to let us know there is strength in community. And while the ending of the book could be called “hokey,” when Harriet implores people to “stand up and say no” this includes beheading an evil, hypnotic snake doing the work of a massive corporate bully.

 Tingle presents a world without certain limits. Sentient cereal boxes, motorcycles, trans parasaurolophus bad boy musicians, and magic of all types, exist in a world that doesn’t parody as much as it thumbs its nose at J.K. Rowling and her awful ideas about trans people. In other words, this magic is exactly the sort of fiction we need. 

Even at the end of the sequel when J.K. Recreation manages to evade consequences for targeting and attempting to silence Harriet, Tingle provides a narrative caveat that there is always someone willing to stand up against the corporation. In light of the book’s presentation of Harriet’s strong circle of friends and community, this sentiment feels less sentimental.

Metamagic + Exactus Desirus

METAMAGIC — BASED on an awareness of the narrative framework itself — comes into the story both as an interesting plot device, but it also allows Tingle to parody J.K. Rowling and her transphobia. In fact, this aspect of Tingle’s fiction cured my recent bouts with writer’s block; not just because it upends the flow and forces one to examine what is being parodied, but also because it led me to examine the limits I place on my own writing. Why can’t a main character befriend a sentient cereal box who happens to be a master of puppet magic? Why shouldn’t there be sentient motorcycles? Why would anyone want to keep recreating “realistic” universes when there can be magic, sexy dinosaurs, and cathartic beheadings of the awful representations of oppressive corporate monsters? 

 This limitlessness led me to consider how awesome a world would be with Exactus Desirus. Tingle glosses past the wider implication of a spell that gives everyone exactly what they need when they need it, choosing only to say that it was banned for destroying the economy, upending governments, and ruining the game show industry.

Obviously, Harriet’s world is a different reality or universe than ours, to borrow from how Tingle talks about this reality, and the rest of the Tingleverse (as it is called). Massive corporations like J.K. Recreation torment creative people in both our universe and the Tingleverse, so it isn’t that different. But maybe it’s just different enough. 

I would like to see a world drastically changed by poor, trans, POC, homeless, and otherwise oppressed people. In fact, the only time I put the book down was at the explanation of what happened with the Exactus Desirus spell; because I couldn’t help but imagine how drastically different things would look if people were able to manifest exactly what they needed exactly when they needed it.

Tish Turl is a writer, artist, and a founding member of the Locust Arts and Letters Collective. They are the author of the serialized novella, Sound, appearing in Locust Review, as well as an ongoing franken-prose-poetry series, Stink Ape Resurrection Primer. Tish is a co-organizer of the Born Again Labor Museum with Adam Turl. They are also a co-host with Adam Turl of Locust Radio, produced by Drew Franzblau and Alexander Billet.