Where Everyone Knows You're...

My thanks to Octavio Roca for sharing this Hazlitt.net interview with Jeremy Atherton Lin, author of the brand-new book, Gay Bar: Why We Went Out. I found myself nodding in agreement with some of Lin's comments, then shaking my head in vigorous disagreement with others, so I'm not sure how much I'd like his book. But I'm glad I read the interview, at least.

Another Perspective on "The Color Purple"

Today's New York Times contains a thought-provoking essay by Salamishah Tillet titled "Can an Abuser Make Amends? 'The Color Purple' Points the Way." Ms. Tillet weaves together several threads, but the heart of her thesis is the journey that Celie's husband Albert (M___) takes from abusing her (because he is beaten down by his father and by Jim Crow) to loving her and accepting her love in return. I seem to recall that a couple of participants in our discussion of Alice Walker's novel this past Wednesday touched on that transformation, so they may find this analysis particularly congenial.

Beware the Velvet Mafia!

A tip of the hat to Octavio Roca for alerting me to this Guardian review of a new book: The Velvet Mafia: The Gay Men Who Ran the Swinging Sixties, by Darrell W. Bullock. It tells the story of the people who shaped and advised the stars who sang the songs, spun the solos or thrashed the drums--many of whom were gay men. Most of us already know about Brian Epstein's role in managing the Beatles, but this book (which will be released on Feb. 25) shares the story of many others, too.

Remembering Yukio Mishima

Back in April 2009, we discussed Yukio Mishima's novel, Confessions of a Mask. While catching up on back issues of The Economist, I discovered that the Dec. 5 issue included an article reflecting on the 50th anniversary of Mishima's Nov. 25, 1970, death by seppuku (ritual suicide). It rightly traces his choice to die in such a public manner to Mishima's "obsession with pleasure, pain and homoeroticism," and observes that in one of his greatest novels, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, "a monk burns a temple because it is too beautiful. Mishima, in turn, was building his body for a final sacrifice." On a related note, there is a new documentary about the novelist's appearance before a hall of left-wing students the year before his death: "Mishima: The Last Debate." 

Happy 125th Anniversary, NYTimes Book Review

The New York Times Book Review was born on Oct. 10, 1896. To kick off its yearlong 125th-anniversary celebration, the newspaper has compiled "25 Great Book Reviews from the Past 125 Years." Well worth reading in its own right, the compilation features quite a few LGBTQ authors, both as reviewers and subjects for book reviews; impressively, James Baldwin is there in both capacities. Not that any member of BookMen should be surprised, of course!  😎

"Tea and Sympathy"--The Movie

My thanks to Patrick Flynn for passing along this commentary from Turner Classic Movies about the making of the cinematic version of Robert Anderson's 1953 play, Tea and Sympathy, which a dozen of us  (stout and true...:-) discussed tonight. As this excerpt explains, the screenwriters made many changes, which helps explain why the film didn't come out until 1956.

"The final version differed from the play in that it removed the suggestion that Tom or Bill held any latent homosexual tendencies, and it did not include a scene in which Tom swims in the nude with a gay music teacher [David Harris]. In addition, the film adds a flashback framing structure, in which Tom returns to a school reunion and, after reminiscing about the past, reads the letter from Laura expressing her remorse at having slept with him, an act that destroyed her marriage. The play ends with Laura's famous line, 'Years from now, when you talk about this--and you will--be kind.' In the film, the line ends the flashback."

Michael Cunningham on Virginia Woolf

Almost precisely 21 years ago this week (Jan. 11, 2000), BookMen discussed Michael Cunningham's The Hours, his adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway. (I didn't join our group until the fall of 2000, so I'm sorry to say I missed out on that session.) In the Dec. 27 New York Times, Cunningham reflected on Woolf's novel, which he lauds as "revolutionary." As he observes, "Woolf was among the first writers to understand that there are no insignificant lives, only inadequate ways of looking at them." It's been a long time since I've read either novel, but Cunningham's inspiring essay has persuaded me that it's time for me to revisit them both.