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Informing myself


Guest allansmith63
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Holy smokes! I only half like Don Johnson but a couple of those pics made me swoon. The brutality of the play sparked something of a prison reform movement, but I'm thinking jail never looked so good.

 

The images are from Johnson's run in the L.A. stage production, yes? In the video, which is still available, Wendell Burton plays the role of Smitty.

 

Tons of pics of Sal Mineo at:

 

http://www.salmineo.com

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Guest EvilSwine

Just a week ago or so, Biography on A and E had a show about Sal Mineo. Very interesting. You probably would want to watch out for it if they run it again.

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Not to swipe this thread, but in re prison reform movements, I just got something today that there is an ex-convict taking a state prison system to court right now for the guards knowingly assigning him to a cell mate whom they knew would rape him to pay him back for having kicked a guard. The lawyers feel that the evidence is so good on this one that if he looses it will set prison reform back a good long time.

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Guest jizzdepapi

boy, this is a great thread. i had forgotten how much of this literature i had read over the years and how much gay literature of the late 1970s helped me in my coming out process. i, too, will print this thread at one point for future reading.

 

don't forget Martin Duberman and John Boswell, professors of history respectively (Duberman at either NYU or Colombia) and (Boswell) Yale University. Duberman wrote/edited several gay-themed titles following his coming out in the early 1980s and Boswell several titles regarding homosexuality and the early church. they were both highly regarded in their fields.

 

an unmentioned fiction writer is Gordon Merrick, who did much to mainstream the use of explicit sexual scenes in gay literature. His books, of dubious literary merit--sometimes predictable story lines, poor characterization--were still a good read and lots of fun. Merrick is especially valuable, I think, for readers just coming out of the closet or those expanding their sexual horizons. he also is very bisexual friendly--unusual even in many gay circles.

 

in spite of amazon.com's and Barnes & Noble's supremacy--most of the local bookshops many of us patronized when younger have been wiped out by B&N--I like to buy from gay bookshops, especially those that are involved in their communities. In NYC, the Oscar Wilde Bookshop (Christopher Street) is a great source. I was lucky enough more than 20 years ago to know the founder--since deceased--Craig Rodwell, a major player in the Stonewall Revolution and Greenwich Village gay politics in the 1960s and 1970s, and who ran his shop as much for spreading gay revolution as for making a living. there are other dedicated gay shops throughout the United States and they are a lot of fun to visit.

 

thanks for the thread, guys

jizz de papi

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  • 3 weeks later...

The latest issue of Unzipped came this week and has a very small review of a new gay romantic novel by Patricia Nell Warren, the author of The Front Runner. The new one, The Wild Man, sounds a bit sad and got 5 stars.

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LAST EDITED ON May-05-01 AT 00:15AM (EST)[p]Great Gay Literature in no particular order:

 

Simon Levay's "Queer Science": An incredibly well researched book on the use and misuse of sceince in the study of what it is to be GAY.

 

Dean Hammer's "Science of Desire": Read this amazingly well constructed study and you wont be able to poo poo the notion of a "gay gene" quite so easily (That is if you understand it, it's a bit technical).

 

"Straight Science?": Gets at the question of whether or not Homosexuality is actually anti-Darwinian.

 

Fred Kaplan's biography on "Gore Vidal': All the fabulous people are here: Tennesse, Sommerset, Newman, Asshole-I mean Mailer-Forster, Buckley, Isherwood. The description of Vidal screwing Kerouac in the Chelsea Hotel is one of the most lucid bits of literature I have ever 'cum' across. A great life, a great Man.

 

"Becoming a Man" is incredible, I must agree.

 

Any Ethan Mordden book is a fun distraction.

 

Edmund White's "A boy's Own Story" is very well written (but I did not find it terribley compeling; sorry Richard).

 

Holleran is a great Gay writer.

 

"Biological Exuberance" is fascinating.

 

If you come from a rural background (or if you don't) "Farm Boys" is very very intersting.

 

Sedaris is a genius, and "Holiday's on Ice" might make you piss yourself.

 

"That's MR. Faggot To You" is a good read too.

 

Stay away from Advocate, Out, and Genre and Felice Picano. They are all fluff.

 

Happy reading.

 

-Hagen

 

 

http://www.rodhagen.com

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>Any Ethan Mordden book is a

>fun distraction.

 

I thought about this and decided that Ethan's books are simutaneously distracting AND disturbing. Is that possible? Well, it's how I react to them. They are quite silly, but here and there he will insert some DARK non-consensual S&M scene, or write in characters who are more slaves than "kept boys". Hot? Hell yes, but still a bit creepy, I find myself thinking "Is this shit REALLY going on in NYC and is it this common?"

 

Ann Rice wrote an AMAZING gay novel called "Cry to Heaven". All her novels are homoerotic to some extent, however this book is really powerful. It's not her usual shallow horror story.

 

Enjoy.

 

Hagen

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Is Gore Vidal's book the only one where the ending has been changed officially away from the old neoShakespearean one where a major gay character dies or commits suicide or both?

 

And, considering the thread on Broadway lyrics, has anyone read "Original Story By" by Arthur Laurents, yet? So far I've just enjoyed the pictures while "Ender's Shadow" and now "The Skies of Pern" play through.

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Guest Joey Ciccone

>I want to second BostonGuy's nominating Gore Vidal's THE CITY AND THE PILLAR, a Must Read. But also, and even earlier, is James Purdy's masterpiece, EUSTACE CHISOLM AND THE WORKS<

 

I'm so glad someone else on earth knows James Purdy. I just finished reading 63: Dream Palace. What a hauntingly beautiful story, despite it's root tragedy. A novella, and certainly not a definitive 'gay' read (in spite of it's homoerotic subtext), yet it's everything that Catcher in the Rye strove to be, and in half the space.

I would third The City And The Pillar, and also add Vidals' Live From Golgotha. More theo-centric than homo-centric, a fictional account of the televising of the crucifixion by corporate interests from the future, as told by St. Paul the Apostles' own personal twink. It's a hoot.

 

>Fred Kaplan's biography on "Gore Vidal': All the fabulous people are here: Tennesse, Sommerset, Newman, Asshole-I mean Mailer-Forster, Buckley, Isherwood. The description of Vidal screwing Kerouac in the Chelsea Hotel is one of the most lucid bits of literature I have ever 'cum' across. A great life, a great Man<

 

This I must find and devour.

 

>Mary Renault - particularly "The Mask of Apollo" and "The Bull from the Sea"<

 

These are great suggestions. Did she also write The Persian Boy? (An account of the life and times of Alexander the Great as told by his personal 'escort'). I read it a very long time ago and must say, it was partially instrumental in helping me to rationalize 'street hustling', a profession I had newly become involved in at the time.

 

Nice resurrection Bilbo!

 

J. Ciccone

rentjoey@hotmail.com

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Guest Joey Ciccone

I almost forgot my own "Cream Filled Fun with Butch and Joey". (Anyone ever visit that site when it was still in existance?) I suppose it's far removed from anything with true literary import, but a gritty, sensational, and semi autobiographical account of gay/bi friendship/love nonetheless. The original site ran complete with photos and was presented as a series of episodes, with each installment culminating in an explosive sexual zenith. I wrote the text and, of course, performed as one of the two featured characters for the camera. But more than cheap thrills (which is all it was ever intended to be), it wound up generating a bit of a positive critical buzz. I believe that's due to the fact that by being comprised of short stories about two good friends discovering gay sex, when viewed as a whole, the entire site became a single unified tale of friendship, period.

The site was long ago dismantled (once it stopped generating revenue). Although I doubt if I know where any of the pics are anymore (in spite of the fact that I own the copyrights), I do still have the full text handy. If anyone is curious about it (namely the three or four people who've said they like my writing style), send me an email and I'll send you the stories. It's a bargain, because people used to pay twenty bucks a pop to get into that site. Of course they also got pics and some other goodies which are no longer available.

Sorry for the blatant self promo, but it's as a writer, not an escort. Geez, guess I'm a whore no matter which career I choose.

 

JC

rentjoey@hotmail.com

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Guest Nice Guy

Hi sweet cakes

It is about time for our monthly news notes. My advise is start with..."Conversations with God"

ng

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Guest Thacher Cate

Publishing Triangle 100

 

In June 1999, The Publishing Triangle, the association of lesbians and gay men in publishing, came up with the queer answer to every boring straight book list that's ever been selected.

 

The books were chosen by an all-star panel of lesbian and gay writers, including Dorothy Allison, David Bergman, Christopher Bram, Michael Bronski, Samuel Delany, Lillian Faderman, Mariana Romo-Carmona, Sarah Schulman, and Barbara Smith.

 

1. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

2. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

3. Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet

4. Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust

5. The Immoralist by Andre Gide

6. Orlando by Virginia Woolf

7. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

8. Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig

9. The Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar

10. Zami by Audre Lorde

11. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

12. Nightwood by Djuna Barnes

13. Billy Budd by Herman Melville

14. A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White

15. Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran

16. Maurice by E. M. Forster

17. The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal

18. Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

19. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

20. Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima

21. The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers

22. City of Night by John Rechy

23. Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal

24. Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller

25. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein

26. Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote

27. The Bostonians by Henry James

28. Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles

29. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

30. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

31. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

32. The Persian Boy by Mary Renault

33. A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

34. The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst

35. Olivia by Dorothy Bussy

36. The Price of Salt (Carol) by Patricia Highsmith

37. Aquamarine by Carol Anshaw

38. Another Country by James Baldwin

39. Cheri by Colette

40. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

41. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

42. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence

43. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

44. The Friendly Young Ladies (The Middle Mist) by Mary Renault

45. Young Tšrless by Robert Musil

46. Eustace Chisholm and the Works by James Purdy

47. The Story of Harold by Terry Andrews

48. The Gallery by John Horne Burns

49. Sister Gin by June Arnold

50. Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall by Neil Bartlett

51. Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram

52. Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

53. The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood

54. The Young and Evil by Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler

55. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

56. A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan

57. Three Lives by Gertrude Stein

58. Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli by Ronald Firbank

59. Rat Bohemia by Sarah Schulman

60. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

61. The Counterfeiters by AndrŽ Gide

62. The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

63. Lover by Bertha Harris

64. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

65. La Batarde by Violette Leduc

66. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

67. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

68. The Satyricon by Petronius

69. The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell

70. Special Friendships by Roger Peyrefitte

71. The Changelings by Jo Sinclair

72. Paradiso by Jose Lezama Lima

73. Sheeper by Irving Rosenthal

74. Les Guerilleres by Monique Wittig

75. The Child Manuela (Madchen in Uniform) by Christa Winsloe

76. An Arrow's Flight by Mark Merlis

77. The Gaudy Image by William Talsman

78. The Exquisite Corpse by Alfred Chester

79. Was by Geoff Ryman

80. Therese and Isabelle by Violette Leduc

81. Gemini by Michel Tournier

82. The Beautiful Room Is Empty by Edmund White

83. The Children's Crusade by Rebecca Brown

84. The Story of the Night by Colm Toibin

85. The Holy Terrors (Les Enfants Terribles) by Jean Cocteau

86. Hell Has No Limits by JosŽ Donoso

87. Riverfinger Women by Elana Nachman (Dykewomon)

88. The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon by Tom Spanbauer

89. Closer by Dennis Cooper

90. Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac

91. Miss Peabody's Inheritance by Elizabeth Jolley

92. Rene's Flesh by Virgilio Pinera

93. Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai

94. Wasteland by Jo Sinclair

95. Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing by May Sarton

96. Sea of Tranquillity by Paul Russell

97. Autobiography of a Family Photo by Jacqueline Woodson

98. In Thrall by Jane DeLynn

99. On Strike Against God by Joanna Russ

100. Sita by Kate Millett

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RE: Publishing Triangle 100

 

Woh, Thacher! What an auspicious first posting! Don't think that all of that typing is going unappreciated. I for one think there will be fodder here for many a posting and might lead to a couple of new threads! Congratulations!

I am surprised that Au Recherche du Temps Perdu made number four. I remember when I was young and had gone to an underwear contest, where I didn't win but felt like an audience favorite, partly because I got everybody to give me a sip of his drink. I came down with hepatitus and was on my back in bed for 10 days. Thankfully, I was able to do it at home with my Mama taking care of me. (She was a librarian, remember?) She knew I had to read something or go nuts and she knew I couldn't read long at a time or I'd hurt my eyes. So we both agreed that it was time for Proust. Wonderful writer, but if you can go more than a chapter without falling asleep, you have my envy. I suppose maybe Will or Regulation could, but I am a bit more lightweight, as you know.

 

#45 looks like a very interesting title. Or is it a typo? Has anyone read this book?

 

I read #66, Death Comes for the Archbishop at a very young age, perhaps, junior high and I am not much for rereading even the best of books, there's always too much "new water" to explore. I remember that it was very strong into male bonding and that I absolutely adored it, but I don't remember noticing the gay content?

 

Love, Bilbo

http://rainbowprod.com/bilbo

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Guest Joey Ciccone

RE: Publishing Triangle 100

 

What a list! Thankyou, Thacher Cate (TheCatcher? Hope I didn't offend by dissing 'The Rye above) And thanks for the link below. - jc -

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can't Buy Me Love

 

I was in my favorite gay bookstore today, shopping for a card since my bookcase headboard is full to overflowing with books I haven't read yet, already, when I saw a delightful looking new book entitled "Can't Buy Me Love" by Chris Kenry. According to the jacket it is a romantic comedy about this absolutely drop dead gorgeous young man whose sugar daddy dies leaving him nothing in the decade old will. He goes on an odyssey through gay America trying to find a way to support himself in the way to which he has become accustomed when he sorta falls into running an escort agency and falls head over heals for one of the other escorts. Sounds delicious! Has anyone read it yet?

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