Dennis Cooper on Ronald Firbank

During last night's discussion—ably facilitated by Robert Muir—of Ronald Firbank's 1926 novella, Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli, several of us tried to identify modern LGBTQ writers Firbank has influenced. Philip Clark helpfully cited Dennis Cooper and pointed us to the author's blog, where Cooper posted the following essay in November 2017.

Wide-ranging, thorough and delightful, including a comparison of Firbank with James Joyce (!), the piece is well worth perusing even if you're not a fan of Firbank's purple prose. Which, honesty compels me to say, none of us was, though most of us were glad for the opportunity to read this work.

That said, I do subscribe to Cooper's assessment:

"Firbank is with doubt a minor writer (whether Joyce, for all his present 'reclame', is a major one, is a question which can only be settled by posterity), but one who, for the most part, achieved precisely what he set out to do."

scattershot or anatomizing?

In his last chapter "Descent into Hades" (i.e. Straight to Hell) William E. Jones not only places Boyd McDonald in the tradition of Cynic philosophers but also his work as a whole (and implicitly Jones' own book too) into Northrop Frye's fourth genre of literary prose—the Anatomy:

The intellectual structure built up from the story makes for violent dislocations in the customary logic of narrative, though the appear-ance of carelessness that results reflects only the carelessness of the reader or his tendency to judge by a novel-centered conception of fiction.

(Jones quoting Frey on page 194 of his True Homosexual Experiences). I regret having been unable to attend the discussion of this book, thereby learning perhaps how well discussants took this point into account.

Meanwhile, however, I want to highlight what any reader of Holleran's review will have noticed (and thanks to Steve for posting it), namely
Charles Hefling's wonderful caricature of the Reverend Boyd,

bringing to mind Sméagol's own moment in his turn to Golem.
(Hobbits are such dirty creatures!)

Holleran reviews "True Homosexual Experiences"

A tip of the hat to Tim Walton for sharing Andrew Holleran's review of William E. Jones' True Homosexual Experiences: Boyd McDonald and Straight to Hell (which we discussed last night) in the Nov. 2016 Gay and Lesbian Review. As Tim notes, "There is nothing particularly revelatory here, but a nice summary with a few observations (and, of course, very well written)."

While most of those present at our discussion were not big fans of Jones' scattershot approach to his subject, I would still recommend the book to anyone curious about STH. Of course, there's no substitute for perusing the actual magazine, which I hope to do myself one day.