Archive for the ‘Literature’ Category
With the publication of Henry James: The Mature Master, the second in a two-volume biography by Sheldon Novick, we can expect the coming weeks/months/years to be marked by the usual chorus of naysayers who like to challenge any assertion of same-sex activity by a historical figure — even one like James with such a recognizable […]
Filed under: Gay, History, Literature, The Times, Writers-American | Leave a Comment
Tags: David Leavitt, Gay History, Gay Literature, Henry James, Leon Edel, Sheldon Novick
On the Pleasure of Ruins
We read about the MTA’s proposal to raise subway fares with mixed feelings; on one hand, we would happily pay the extra five or six dollars a month for more frequent trains, but at the same time, as we consider the ruined state of our subway station — regularly cited as one of the dirtiest […]
Filed under: Architecture, Decay, Gay, Infrastructure, Literature, New York City, Subway, Washington Heights, Writers-Hungarian | Leave a Comment
Tags: Art Deco, Book of Memories, Fare Hike, MTA, Peter Nadas, Subway
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
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
Andrew Sullivan expressed the idea (and admittedly, with thoughtfulness) in an essay he wrote a few years ago for the New Republic, while more recently British playwright Mark Ravenhill tackled the same theme (with much less success) for The Guardian. Their collective story goes something like this: in the dark ages of oppression (i.e., approximately […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Gay, Government, History, Literature, Obsession, Pessimism, Writers-British | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Arthur Schopenhauer, Gay Culture, Gay History, Mark Ravenhill, Michel Foucault, Stonewall
On the Gay Voice and Zen Arcade: A Panel Discussion with Four Critics from The New York Times
After yesterday’s post on the gay voice and American literature, we were invited to lead a panel discussion with A.O. Scott, Edward Rothstein, Michael Kimmelman, and Judith Warner, four critics from The Times whose work in recent weeks has been subjected to scrutiny from The Gay Recluse. The focus of our talk was Zen Arcade […]
Filed under: Good Rock, History, Literature, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: A.O. Scott, Bob Mould, Edward Rothstein, Grant Hart, Hüsker Dü, Judith Warner, Michael Kimmelman, The Gay Recluse, Zen Arcade
In a profile included in this month’s Poets & Writers Magazine, Benjamin Percy — a young American genius said to have written the “story of the year” in 2006 — tells us: “I am interested in this new masculinity in today’s society, what distinguishes us as men and as women besides our biology. No longer […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Literature, Sickness, Writers-American, Writers-British | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alan Hollinghurst, Benjamin Percy, Masculinity, Refresh Refresh, Swimming Pool Library
The Gay Recluse 