Archive for December, 2007
As anyone who has read Cormac McCarthy knows, the best (which is to say, the truest) stories of the American West — although like pretty much anywhere, once you peel back enough layers — are filled with unfathomable extremes of violence and oppression; this was more than confirmed for us recently when we read (as […]
Filed under: Gay, History, Literature, Pessimism, Writers-American | Leave a Comment
Tags: Colorado Springs, Cormac McCarthy, Matthew Murray, Mormons, New Life Church, Tom Spanbauer
To the brave soul who trapped a mouse in a gluetrap and left it in the hallway, bravo! We would like to commend you for digging so deep and summoning the courage to carry such a ferocious beast — did you use your bare hands? — to the elevator, where we and countless others were […]
Filed under: Government, History, Philosophers, Resignation, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Compassion, Courage, George W. Bush, GOP, Karma, Mice, Mouse, Schopenhauer
On The Weekend
Once again with a thought to dip into the backlist of American fiction written in a “gay voice,” we turn our attention to The Weekend, Peter Cameron’s deceptively bitter 1994 novel about two couples — one straight and one gay — who spend a weekend at the straight couple’s house in upstate New York. This […]
Filed under: Literature, The Gay Recluse, Writers-American | Leave a Comment
Tags: Gay Literature, Gay Writers, Peter Cameron, The Weekend
On Memories of Paris
Perhaps it was the broken signal of the closing subway door — so that the usual New York City tones were reversed, with the low one first — that dislodged us from our usual evening commute and sent us reeling toward the city of light; or maybe it was the pair of women speaking French; […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Gay, Memory, New York City, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Chatelet, Dubuffet, Les Halles, Metro, MTA, Paris, Place St. Michel
On the Blue Atlas Cedar in Snow
The first snow of the season in our Washington Heights garden, and naturally we are drawn to that most unnatural of colors: the electric slate blue of the atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica). Suddenly — are you with us? — we are on a train in northern Italy, watching the countryside drift past; here, it seems […]
Filed under: Communism, Landscape, The Gay Recluse, The Russian Blue, The Winter Garden, Travel, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Blue Atlas Cedar, Cedrus atlantica, Columnar, Fastigiata, Saturnine, Snow, Turin, Venice
We were recently inspired to pick up Dancer from the Dance, Andrew Holleran’s 1978 work, with a thought to (re)assess the backlist of post-war “gay” American literature, a topic that has been very much at the fore since we posted some preliminary thoughts on the subject a few weeks ago. First the good news: Dancer […]
Filed under: History | Leave a Comment
On Putting the Garden To Sleep
We sweep the walk one last time, gathering up the birch leaves — a deep yellow — and the beech leaves — a magnificent, burned orange — before tossing all of them over the wall into the vacant lot next door. The wrought-iron table and chairs we place under a tarp; we bring the candles […]
Filed under: New York City, Subway, The Autumn Garden, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Candles, Copper Beech, Garden, Garden Furniture, Leaves, Terra Cotta, White Birch, Winter Tarps, Wrought Iron
The bright and cool December air brings us back to the years we spent in Brooklyn, when each weekend we walked up Third Street to the park, and there on one of the inner fields — away from the strollers and the “ultimate” Frisbee players — met for a game of soccer. As ex-athletes and […]
Filed under: Brooklyn, Dream, Memory, New York City | Leave a Comment
Tags: Brooklyn, Nethermead, Pickup Soccer, Prospect Park, Saturnine
The Gay Recluse 