A double play

With rare exceptions (such as a new translation of a foreign-language work), the rule we've followed with BookMen selections throughout our history is that any edition of the book is fine. The main purpose of that policy is to spare members the trouble and expense of acquiring a second copy of a book, but it also has a secondary benefit. Sometimes a different edition contains an introduction or other scholarly apparatus that resolves a question about the book that isn't addressed in the edition most of us are using.

That said, the edition of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I selected from Amazon.com for tomorrow night's discussion is different from the original: Edward Albee's own 2006 revision of his 1962 play. (Take a moment, by the way, to consider how remarkable it is that the play has remained popular enough to be revived repeatedly, and that the playwright lived long enough to revisit an early work.) So I thought it would be useful to post some additional info about that, courtesy of Wikipedia.

"The play was revived on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre, opening on 12 March 2005, in previews and closing on 4 September 2005, after 8 previews and 177 performances. Directed by Anthony Page, it starred Kathleen Turner as Martha and Bill Irwin as George, with Mireille Enos as Honey and David Harbour as Nick. Irwin won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his role. The production transferred to London's West End at the Apollo Theatre with the entire original cast, running from 31 January to 13 May 2006. In January 2007, the production played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, for one month. On 6 February 2007, the production began a six-week run at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

"Notably, it was this 2005 production that led to the publication of a revised script – one that has been used ever since – although many of its revisions were introduced in earlier productions. Among the revisions was the removal of early references to George and Martha's son, as well as the reference to the fact that George felt that he helped cause his parents' death, which was originally the subject of his failed novel. A roughly seven-page scene with George and Honey at the end of Act II has also been removed completely. These and other changes seem to be there to clarify plot points, but arguably rob the play of some of its ambiguity and tenuous relationship with realism."

And here's one more tidbit about the play from the same Wikipedia entry: "In 1970, Henry Fonda and Richard Burton attempted to recruit Warren Beatty and Jon Voight for an all-male production, but Albee refused permission." I would love to hear more about that!

Some Albee appetizers...

Next Wednesday, Sept. 2, we'll be discussing Edward Albee's play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. In preparation for that, Mike Mazza has compiled several short TV parodies of the play he found on YouTube:

Second City Television

Saturday Night Live

Benny Hill

Mike wonders where there are even more like these online, and says: "I suppose folks could view these either as appetizers (with possible spoiler warnings) before reading the play, or as palate cleansers post-reading!".

A Queerty quiz

Queerty, an LGBTQ website that bills itself as "Free of an agenda (except that gay one)," recently published an article asking: "How many of these classic queer books have you actually read?"

Our group has discussed a very respectable six out of 10, and I've read two others. See how you score!

As a bonus, here's a link to another Queerty article on gay literature, "Gay guys share their favorite books by queer men." Many of these will be familiar, but there are some intriguing suggestions in the mix.

Classic LGBTQ literature

Our friend Bruce Dunne recently shared the following info with me:

"I just came across a list of 21 LGBTQ+ books in the section of the New York Review of Books website where one can look up books by theme. It surprises me how few I am familiar with (other than J.R. Ackerly and Jan Morris), and it occurred to me that some may be of interest to the group. Cheers, Bruce."

Our merry band has read both Ackerly titles in the compilation--We Think the World of You (in 2015) and My Father and Myself (in 2013)--as well as John Horne Burns' The Gallery (in 2015) and a different book by Jean Genet than the one recommended here. As the time for our annual process of nominating books for next year's reading list approaches (stay tuned for details!), I invite you to take a look at this list to see whether any of these titles intrigue you enough to propose them.

Encouragement, not clutter

Writing for The Conversation, a site dedicated to "analysis from scientists and medical doctors," Michelle Spear, an anatomy professor at the University of Bristol, explains "Why you keep buying books you don't read--and why it feels so good."

"Some might call this clutter," she acknowledges. But "the Japanese have a far more elegant word for it: tsundoku. The term describes the habit of acquiring books and allowing them to accumulate unread. It combines the idea of stacking things up (tsunde), leaving something for later (oku) and reading (doku). The result is a concept that captures the quiet optimism of a pile of books."

Prof. Spear elaborates on the phenomenon in her essay, and after reading it, I feel a lot better as a proud practitioner of tsundoku than a mere hoarder. Hopefully, you will, too.

Funny because it's true

From a recent New Yorker:

Mike M.'s Kiss for the Spider Woman

The 11 of us who attended last week's discussion of Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman enjoyed a lively discussion of the novel. That prompted Mike Mazza to look up the review he posted on Amazon 25 years ago of Kiss of the Spider Woman and Two Other Plays.

Spoiler alert: Mike was (and is) a fan of Puig's work. Perhaps it might be worth our taking a look at the other two plays in that volume at some point?