Talk:Tales of the City

Pacific Sun
Isn't the Pacific Sun still around? http://www.pacificsun.com/

I've read it from time to time when i'm in Marin.

(trans-)genders
I'm finding the construction (trans-)genders really clumsy - I've changed it to "genders and transgenders". It's a purely aesthetic change, so if you find it politically or personally uncomfortable, please feel free to change it back! (Incidentally, ouch. I'm half-way through the omnibus edition, and wish there had been a spoiler template on this page. I've added one.) Squeezeweasel 00:00, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

POV language, lack of sourcing
The article contained the following breathy, unsourced statement: "This rich tapestry of storytelling with a keen eye on the socio-sexual climate of the era has often been compared to the writings of Honoré de Balzac." The "rich tapestry" and "keen eye" business is subjective and POV. As well, this claim is unsourced. How many times has this been compared to Balzac? Where? By whom? I've toned down this flowerly POV material and added a lack of sourcing tag. 209.179.168.50 05:57, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I am translating this text into German - and registered the comparison with Balzac. A research in the German Web brought the result (via various readers reviews), that it seems the journal "Hamburger Abendblatt" has called Maupin the "Balzac of our time". In the online-archive of the journal I did not find any evidence of this quotation. --82.194.155.135 (talk) 21:23, 28 November 2007 (UTC) - (de:Benutzer:Silmanja)
 * And at the homepage of Armistead Maupin I found the following quotation from a review: It’s the novel as social history, an aesthetic reminiscent of Balzac.” (Los Angeles Times'') (de:Benutzer:Silmanja)--82.194.155.135 (talk) 21:33, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * The review noted above is for Michael Tolliver Lives and the phrase refers to that book; as it isn't technically a Tales book, I don't think it should be used as a reference to the Balzac thing in this article. &mdash; TAnthonyTalk 00:48, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree --82.194.155.135 (talk) 16:12, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

I took out an entire paragraph stating that Tales originated as The Serial in the Pacific Sun. Cyra McFadden is in fact the author of The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County, which did in fact begin in the Pacific Sun, but it did not evolve into Tales as the author of that paragraph stated. The paragraph also implied that Maupin and McFadden are the same person, which is an egregious misstatement of fact. (Jdearnray (talk) 04:23, 2 June 2008 (UTC))


 * Clearly, whoever wrote that was confused, but the two are related works, as explained here: https://archive.is/20130411165940/http://www.pacificsun.com/marin_a_and_e/book_reviews/article_3f9b2c1e-65b4-11e2-9dd9-001a4bcf6878.html Maupin's work was in fact originally serialized in Marin County's Pacific Sun under the title The Serial before he took it to the San Francisco Chronicle and changed the title to Tales of the City. Pacific Sun then offered Cyra McFadden The Serial, and she started a story of her own set in Marin County. Both Maupin and McFadden ended up turning their newspaper serials into successful novels. This info really should be incorporated into the article. Peter G Werner (talk) 20:12, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

WOKE terms
The 70's 80s 90s abd for most of the 21st Century so far your *LEFGPTMNOP* or whatever you call it ( I can never remember) just wasn't a thing. So don't try to shoehorn it in here where it does not belong. I would argue it still isn't a thing. Back when we used WORDS, real words, we called homosexuals homosexuals or gay or those other regular English language words. Give the WOKE agenda a rest. Why so partisan? And yes, I am gay. I just don't support the whole WOKE agenda of the partisan Alphabet People are pushing every time that fake term is used. --2600:1000:A100:8760:F8FC:8152:89DB:FDC4 (talk) 17:30, 30 July 2023 (UTC)
 * What are you even talking about? "LGBT" is used ONCE in the article. "Gay" is used three times. You seem to be mocking "LGBTQIA+" or similar extended terms but NONE OF THOSE ARE USED AT ALL. LGBT has been in use for about 40 years, so if you can't remember that and don't know how to not capitalize "woke", you've got bigger problems than this starter article. — TAnthonyTalk 19:39, 30 July 2023 (UTC)