Absolute Pleasure : Queer Perspectives on Rocky Horror

A Literary Hub Notable Small Press Book of 2025

Queer writers reflect on the complicated legacy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

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.

Margot Atwell is a writer, editor, publisher, and creative community builder. She is the author of Derby Life: A Crash Course in the Incredible Sport of Roller Derby and coauthor of The Insider’s Guide to Book Publishing Success. Her writing has been published in LitHub, The Creative Independent, Clarkesworld, On the Books—her newsletter about the intersection of creativity and money, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn, and you can find her online @MargotAtwell and www.margotatwell.com.

Magdalene Visaggio is an Eisner-nominated writer known for sharp, stylish stories that blend punk rock attitude with heart. Her work includes Kim & Kim, Quantum Teens Are Go, Eternity Girl, and Vagrant Queen. She also collaborated with Zack Snyder on Rebel Moon: House of the Bloodaxe. She lives in New York City.

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere.

Sarah Gailey is a Hugo Award–winning and bestselling author of speculative fiction, short stories, and essays. Their nonfiction has been published by dozens of venues internationally. Their fiction has been published in over seven different languages. Their most recent novel, Just Like Home, and most recent original comic book series with BOOM! Studios, Know Your Station, are available now. You can find links to their work at sarahgailey.com.