Subject
Re: Boyd's Pale Fire & homophobia (fwd)
Date
Body
Brian Boyd writes:
> If Pale Fire were homophobic, how could it be the favorite novel of Edmund
> White...?
While this thread deserves (and no doubt will receive) many carefully
considered responses, let me say that Edmund White, whatever his virtues may
be, may also, like Aldo Alvarez, admire the book in spite of its use of
homosexuality. I, too, find this extremely troubling, and, like Aldo, admire
it (and love it passionately) in spite of this, in my opinion, lapse from
Nabokov's own standards of tolerance (Boyd's "generosity") of an entire class
of humanity -- in other words, its prejudice. Certainly (for once) Nabokov's
standards seem unusually consistent with those of "society in general" of his
time, but somehow one expects the man, like his art, to rise above his time's
petty prejudices. That, here, he does not is deeply disappointing. Political
"correctness" (in my view a very stupid and damaging idea) is not at issue
here: the author's compassion is.
Mr. White, by the way, in his own writing, is not entirely free of (surely
culturally conditioned) stereotyping gay men as depressed, suicidal losers. I
mention this only to question his credentials as a "spokesperson" for the
current-day "gay community." (So many quote marks -- but all necessary, as
concepts that I'm not sure really exist, but work as shorthand we all, on
some level, understand -- if only as highly dubious cultural constructs.)
Christopher Berg
Tentender@aol.com
> If Pale Fire were homophobic, how could it be the favorite novel of Edmund
> White...?
While this thread deserves (and no doubt will receive) many carefully
considered responses, let me say that Edmund White, whatever his virtues may
be, may also, like Aldo Alvarez, admire the book in spite of its use of
homosexuality. I, too, find this extremely troubling, and, like Aldo, admire
it (and love it passionately) in spite of this, in my opinion, lapse from
Nabokov's own standards of tolerance (Boyd's "generosity") of an entire class
of humanity -- in other words, its prejudice. Certainly (for once) Nabokov's
standards seem unusually consistent with those of "society in general" of his
time, but somehow one expects the man, like his art, to rise above his time's
petty prejudices. That, here, he does not is deeply disappointing. Political
"correctness" (in my view a very stupid and damaging idea) is not at issue
here: the author's compassion is.
Mr. White, by the way, in his own writing, is not entirely free of (surely
culturally conditioned) stereotyping gay men as depressed, suicidal losers. I
mention this only to question his credentials as a "spokesperson" for the
current-day "gay community." (So many quote marks -- but all necessary, as
concepts that I'm not sure really exist, but work as shorthand we all, on
some level, understand -- if only as highly dubious cultural constructs.)
Christopher Berg
Tentender@aol.com