The Opposite of Shutting Up

The Guardian in the UK has this compelling piece about (and interview with) Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home. The book is a graphic novel-memoir about growing up with a closeted father who ran a funeral parlor:

The acknowledgments at the back of Fun Home thank her family for "not trying to stop me from writing this book", but Bechdel says she didn't ask their permission, either. "Somehow I assumed I had their tacit permission ... but that wasn't true. You can't get someone's permission if you don't ask for it, and I didn't want to ask for it because I was afraid they wouldn't give it." For a moment she looks absolutely downcast. "My mother comes from a different generation. She really believes that people should shut up."