21 classic works of gay lerature - Los Angel Tim

Contents:

• 21 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE
• CLASSIC GAY MALE LERATURE
• GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE
• 20 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE
• EARLY GAY LERATURE BOOKS
• EARLY GAY LERATURE REDISVERED
• HOW THE EARLY ’80S CHANGED GAY WRG FOREVER

21 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE

Forster (A Passage to India, A Room Wh a View, Howards End) wrote the benchmark gay novel Mrice cir 1913, was published posthumoly a lh tale of manners, posn, and sire, the tular character meets and falls for his classmate Clive while at Oxford. The only novel by the great Osr Wil may not be overtly gay, but there's plenty of gay subtext there for the reful rear - about as much gay subtext as a popular thor uld get away wh 's iends Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton exprs tense admiratn for his bety, and passag that show Basil's feelgs for Dorian as more clearly homoerotic were excised by an edor, acrdg to Nicholas Frankel, who eded an edn prentg Wil's origal text the text as origally published has referenc to Dorian's rptn of not only young women but young men: "There was that wretched boy the Guards who mted suici. Integral to the lbian non (spe s beg nsired somewhat problematic) Brish wrer Radclyffe Hall's 1928 novel foc on Stephen Gordon, an upper-class lbian who dons men's clothg and be a novelist who eventually be a part of a lerary salon Paris at a time when there were no overt laws exprsly barrg homosexualy.

Hall's novel was groundbreakg her troductn of the views of "sexologists" Richard von Krafft-Ebg and Havelock Ellis, who posed that homosexualy was an born, unalterable tra that was nsired a ngenal sexual versn that simply meant a "difference" and not a fect. Dalloway, a novel to which Cunngham pays homage; mid-20th-century Los Angel, hoewife Lra Brown, disntented wh her life, nonts her attractn to women; and 1990s New York Cy, Clarissa Vghan, who is lbian, plans a party for her bt iend, wrer Richard Brown, a gay man dyg of AIDS. 21 classic works of gay lerature:Jam Baldw: “Gvanni’s Room” -- a man disvers his sexual inty ParisDjuna Barn: “Nightwood” -- early postmorn fictn of women Paris loveAlison Bechl: “Fun Home: A Fay Tragiic” -- a graphic novel memoir of her troubled gay father and her own g out, recently adapted as a Tony award-wng Broadway showRa Mae Brown: “Rubyu Jungle” -- the 1973 tale of a young woman’s g of ageWilliam S.

Burroughs: “Naked Lunch” -- the landmark experimental novel’s gay sex scen ma the foc of a breakthrough obsceny trialRichard Elmann: “Osr Wil” -- bgraphy of the lively wrer whose gay relatnship got him sent to prison for “gross cency”E. Lynn Harris: “Invisible Life” -- an Ain Amerin law stunt’s sexual disveryAllen Gsberg: “Howl” -- the poem was subject to an obsceny trial part bee of s explic gay themJean Ge: “Our Lady of the Flowers” -- published 1944, portrays sexual adventur Paris’ crimal unrgroundAnthony M.

CLASSIC GAY MALE LERATURE

------------Armistead Mp: “Tal of the Cy” ma character Michael Tolliver’s life portrayed over a seri of novels set gay-iendly San FrancisPl Mote: “Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir” -- a breathtakg yet matter-of-fact, day-by-day acunt of the ath of his longtime partner om AIDSAnnie Proulx: “Brokeback Mounta” a story of wboys love, om the llectn “Close Range, ” which beme the Osr-wng filmJohn Rechy: “Cy of Night” -- a novel of gay street htlers the 1950sSappho: “The Complete Poems” -- women’s love poetry om the 7th century BCHubert Selby Jr. The word “homosexual” was, fact, created the late neteenth century as an English equivalent for German Homosexualtät, which first appeared prt 1869 a pamphlet argug agast the Pssian legal that prcribed punishments for men who engaged same-sex relatns. Adoptg his posn, crics have argued, for example, that Walt Whman and Osr Wil (1854–1900) were not, strictly speakg, homosexuals, at least the sense that medil and psychologil tablishments unrstood that “ndn” or “speci” the twentieth century.

One rells thgs as var as Ernt Hemgway's dismissive attu toward homosexuals his books, the “pansi” played for lghs Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s, and Hart Crane's joyo announcement—havg, he believed, fallen love wh a woman—that he was not homosexual after all.

GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE

Although Amerin lerature the first two-thirds of the twentieth century almost always impli the medi-scientific fn whenever homosexualy enters the text, Whman had his own succsors, om Bliss Carman (1861–1929) and Richard Hovey (1864–1900) to Marsn Hartley (1877–1943) to Langston Hugh (1902–1967) and Gerr Lansg (b. Sedgwick se Jam as a homosexual who rarely alt openly wh male timacy but whose work foc on “homosocial” (her term) suatns that occur when, for example, two men stggle for the attentn of a woman; emotns are directed by each man more strongly toward his petor than toward their shared object of sire. Although Sedgwick nsirs Billy Budd to be suffed wh homosexual sir, she pots out that there is only one homosexual the morn sense the story: Claggart, who has the self-loathg of those who have ternalized homophobia, and who is “praved bee he is, his sir, a pervert, ” or “homosexual” (Sedgwick, 1990, p.

The many homosexual Amerin poets the early twentieth century who were athet clud Amy Lowell (1874–1925), Wilbur Unrwood (1876–1935), Donald Evans (1884–1921), Gee Sylvter Viereck (1884–1962), John Gould Fletcher (1886–1950), Clark Ashton Smh (1893–1961), and Samuel Greenberg (1883–1917), whose poems Hart Crane emulated his own early work.

Public attus toward homosexuals are suggted by an cint the early 1940s when John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974), who had accepted a poem by Robert Dunn (1919–1988) for the Kenyon Review, whdrew his offer after Dunn published an say another journal on homosexualy. Ransom plimented Dunn for havg taken such a bold stand—although actually the say is impartial, argug that homosexualy is no better, if no worse, than any other kd of life—but sisted that the poem schled for the Review might now be read as “homosexual advertisement” (Faas, 1983, p.

20 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE

1928), and William Inge (1913–1973), and highly regard novels wh homosexual them and suatns, such as Two Ser Ladi (1943) by Jane Bowl (1917–1973), The Member of the Weddg (1946) by Carson McCullers (1917–1967), The Cy and the Pillar (1948) by Gore Vidal (b. The so-lled School of Boston, which provid one of the avant-gar's rpons the 1960s to the mastream works of Robert Lowell (1917–1977) and Sylvia Plath (1932–1963), was almost entirely gay, cludg such poets as John Weers (1934–2002), Gerr Lansg, and Stephen Jonas (1920–1970). The gay liberatn movement and the gradual public awarens that homosexualy was not the disease the psychiatric tablishment had claimed led to a luge of “g-out” stori, which the thor narrat her or his progrs om “the closet” to an open life as a gay woman or man.

Numero anthologi of gay wrg—Stephen Coote's The Pengu Book of Homosexual Verse (1983), Carl Morse and Joan Lark's Gay and Lbian Poetry Our Time (1989), and Edmund Whe's Faber Book of Gay Short Fictn (1991), to ce three of the most rpected—prent no evince that “gay wrg” is sentially more than wrg about gay life.

1965), refully documents a range of poetic tradns om the formalist to the highly experimental whout fdg any that grew om a basilly gay athetic: “Of urse there are poems that overtly flnt their sexualy, ” Liu nclus, “but there are so many quieter poems (and poets) who might elu the most fely tuned gaydar [sensivy to others' gay inty]. The thirty-two years that separate Isherwood's and Holleran's books were so fired wh crisis—the gay liberatn movement and then AIDS—that the fundamental flaw homosexual culture, namely, that has been profoundly a culture for and of the young, has not received as much attentn as should. The homophobia wh which early wrers had to battle has certaly not vanished, remag some parts of the untry as vilent and vlent as ever, but elsewhere gay life and valu have been tegrated to so much of the culture at large that they have often ceased to operate as an opposnal force.

EARLY GAY LERATURE BOOKS

20 classic works of gay lerature‘Gvanni’s Room’ by Jam Baldw -- a man disvers his sexual inty Paris’Nightwood’ by Djuna Barn -- early postmorn fictn of women Paris love’Fun Home: A Fay Tragiic’ by Alison Bechl -- a graphic novel memoir of her troubled gay father and her own g out’Rubyu Jungle’ by Ra Mae Brown -- the 1973 tale of a young woman’s g of age’Naked Lunch’ by William S.

Lynn Harris -- an Ain Amerin law stunt’s sexual disvery’Howl’ by Allen Gsberg -- the poem was subject to an obsceny trial part bee of s explic gay them ‘Our Lady of the Flowers’ by Jean Ge -- published 1944, sexual adventur Paris’ crimal unrground’Amerin Studi’ by Mark Marlis -- an agg man looks back; won the LA Tim book prize for first fictn ‘Tal of the Cy’ by Armistead Mp -- San Francis, the stori about Michael Tolliver ntued five sequels’Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir’ by Pl Mote. ’Brokeback Mounta’ by Annie Proulx -- a story of wboys love, om the llectn ‘Close Range’’Cy of Night’ by John Rechy -- a novel of gay street htlers the 1950s ‘The Complete Poems’ by Sappho -- a woman’s love poetry om the seventh century BC’The Queen Is Dead’ by Hubert Selby Jr.

EARLY GAY LERATURE REDISVERED

The specific impet for startg the prs me when I was dog rearch on the Gothic novelist Francis Lathom (1774-1832), who was mored to be gay, and disvered that the only place North Ameri where you uld fd his books was on microfiche Lln, Nebraska. More recently, late 2012, we disvered -- to our surprise -- that there was a ton of great lerature om the 20th century, sometim even as recent as the 1970s or 1980s, that was out of prt and almost impossible to fd librari or sendhand pi, so we've begun republishg a lot of neglected morn works, most of them eher of gay tert or horror/supernatural (though, of urse, the two often overlap! )TH: I've worked as a volunteer at ONE Natnal Gay & Lbian Archiv, and what I loved about workg there was the thrill of disverg some amazg old gay novels -- books like John Horne Burns's early gay classic, The Gallery, om 1947, and Luis Zapata's Adonis Garcia.

I also worked wh Wston Leyland and Gay Sunshe Prs for a few years San Francis before he shut down and I was imprsed wh all the obscure early queer l he'd published and kept prt: Charl Warren Stoddard's Cisg the South Seas, Adolfo Camha's Bom Crulo, Osr Wil's Teleny, the Gay Roots seri, etc. JJ: It's tertg you mentn gay people and horror - 's a nnectn not a lot of people make (probably some rears are perplexed at why we foc on two seemgly such different areas as gay fictn and horror), but actually go back a long way, all the way back to the old Gothic novels of the 1790s and early 1800s, which is what we first began wh publishg.

A lot of those Gothic thors, like Lewis, William Beckford, Francis Lathom, were homosexual, and I thk the tradnal explanatn for the gay/horror nnectn is that was impossible for them to wre openly about gay them back then (or even perhaps exprs them, sce words like "gay" and "homosexual" didn't exist), so they sublimated them and exprsed them more acceptable forms, g the medium of a transgrsive genre like horror fictn. Gay subtexts are somethg that n through horror fictn om that pot all the way to the prent day -- Victorian tim, of urse, there's Bram Stoker's votn to Sir Henry Irvg, reflected the homoerotic aspects of Dracula (Dracula's le "This man belongs to me! Those earlier tim (I love that your "gay tl" hear bar is a boy playg a flute) You're right, the do show up often -- both gay and horror fictn (Arthur Machen's really wonrful The Great God Pan beg the obv example of the latter group).

HOW THE EARLY ’80S CHANGED GAY WRG FOREVER

It was pretty mon olr gay works to clu referenc to Greek or Roman them, sce gay men then monly unrstood ancient Greece and Rome to be societi where homosexual relatnships were tolerated and even enuraged -- often allns to Greek mythologil characters sentially functned as that gay rears would regnize, a way of intifyg an thor or book's sympathy wh gay rears and gay them that would probably be overlooked by straight rears. )TH: Gay men often thk that 's the olr generatns who value books and that younger queers read ls or perhaps don't feel the need for gay lerature sce the movement has, a sense, been a victim of s own succs and there are now lots of voic/stori out there on TV and the movi and media.

Though I thk most of our books have somethg to offer to rears of all ag, I do thk our dience for some of the gay classics of the 1940s, 50s, 60s, tends to be a ltle olr, while our horror books appeal to all ag, but particularly perhaps to a slightly younger mographic. Texas 2003, the spread of gay marriage startg wh Massachetts 2004, and more recently so many stat' gay marriage bans fallg one after the other, have pletely changed life for gay people this untry -- to the pot where future generatns of young gay people will never really have lived a time where beg gay was illegal, where you uld be fired or evicted for beg gay, where gay people uldn't marry, etc. Though dated, the story is still a page-turner, and as Neil Bartlett not his troductn, 's pretty amg when the thor, all earntns, tri to expla to heterosexual 1950s rears what "mp, " "butch" and other siar terms In disverg out-of-prt gay classics that clearly will have great tert today, have you found any gay novels by people of lor?