Adam Kirsch wrote a fantastic review of two new books about a writer whom I have a shameful relationship to: E.M. Forster. Shameful because I have never read any Forster, but absolutely love three films based on his novels: the immaculate, deeply emotional Merchant-Ivory productions of A Room with a View and Howards End, and Sir David Lean's final movie, the not-as-faithful but daring and hallucinatory A Passage to India. What attracts me to these films, beyond Ivory and Lean's technical perfection as directors and the fantastic screenplays, is the take on relationships Forster offers. This refers to both the sexual passions which end in marriage and the more basic same-sex (have to tread carefully there) friendships. Forster's vision of human interpersonality is one of equality, mutual respect, and give-and-take: a sort of libertarian bond. Love, sex, and marriage are possible because two people enter into such perfect knowledge of each other that they find a harmonious equality, which is why Lucy and George end up together and Miss Quested leaves Ronnie.
This is of course a bit of an idealization…maybe more than a bit. But it resonates with me more strongly now because of the decades of biographical research. It's no secret now that Forster was gay, but his new biographer Wendy Moffat explored a "Sex Diary" he kept where he admitted that he didn't even know how sex worked until he was 30! As a fellow (though heterosexual) late bloomer and still-virgin, Forster's ideas about the nature of the human connection can be understood as an emotional construction from an individual who did not fully appreciate the physicality of connection, the intensity of touch, and the nerves and whole new gauntlet of emotion raised by a failure to feel on your or someone else's part. Equality and respect have little to do there.
Yet I still suggest in this entry that Forster was ahead of his time…as a recent and proud regular contributor to the Equal Rights Campaign, the organization's mailings keep sending home how many taboos are still in place on homosexuality and sexual freedom and expression. Forster's day was unimaginatively more restrictive, but according to Moffat and others, he enjoyed…really enjoyed…an active sex life altering between cruisings through Central Park and some true, long-term relationships, much like any human being, straight or gay. Kirsch suggests this is why the posthumously-published Maurice was his weakest novel: so anxious to argue for and present homosexuality as a norm of the same kind as heterosexuality, Forster jettisoned his art in favor of ethical polemic. But the idea that Forster was able to live a long, influential life and write some of the greatest novels of the century while embracing himself is one which I think could be made more of by the current gay-rights groups. Especially in the recent uproar over gay actors playing straight…naïve or not, E. M. Forster proves that to think about relationships, to portray relationships, you just need to be emotionally connected. The orientation is an afterthought.
http://www.tnr.com/article/76235/the-prose-and-the-passion?passthru=MmU0NDlhMjNlMDI0NTJhMjM2OTg5MGI2OTY2NDc5YmQ
OTHER MAGNIFICENCE
Yesterday would have been Ingmar Bergman's birthday. Cries and Whispers is forever in my top-ten, and I need to rewatch it soon. I'll never forget Professor Methot calling it "a ninety-minute film-school education," then being stunned to see how much it resonated with a passage from my own life…the lesbianism and really nerve-wracking new use found for broken wineglasses notwithstanding. And Fanny and Alexander is another masterpiece. Give yourself time for Persona.
It's overcast, humid, and I didn't sleep well. Thank God I'm seeing my friends today and going home tomorrow.
The radio played Neil Diamond's "Shilo" this morning, which is one of the two or three best songs of his entire career. Yes, it's better than "Sweet Caroline."
And the painting is by Dora Carrington...my favorite female artist who had the bad luck to fall in devoted love with a gay man.
No comments:
Post a Comment