Coming out of the Closet for Air.
Paul Sebastianelli
khaki uniforms . . ."
-Marrakech
"...Yet where's the pink that would have thought it odd of me/
to write a shelf of books in praise of sodomy?"
- 18 June 1943.
". . .In gazing on his battered face
purer than any woman's"
-Looking Back on the Spanish War
"They really do look like iron - hammered iron statues -
under the smooth coat of coal dust which clings to
them from head to foot. It is only when you see them
stripped naked that you realize what splendid men they
are . . . wide shoulders tapering to slender supple
waists, and small pronounced buttocks and sinewy
thighs, with not an ounce of waste flesh anywhere."
- Road to Wigan Pier.
Happy Pride Day, George!
paul.
Martha Bridegam
Paul Sebastianelli wrote:
"...You and I and the editor of the __Times Lit. Supp.__, and the Nancy
poets and the Archbishop of Canterbury and Comrade X, author of
__Marxism for Infants__-- all of us really owe the comparative decency
of our lives to poor drudges underground, blackened up to the eyes, with
their throats full of coal dust, driving their shovels forward with arms
and belly muscles of steel...
....To a Southerner, new to the mining districts, the spectacle of a
shift of several hundred miners streaming out of the pit is strange and
slightly sinister. Their exhausted faces, with the grime clinging in all
the hollows, have a fierce, wild look. At other times, when their faces
are clean, there is not much to distinguish them from the rest of the
population. They have a very upright square-shouldered walk, a reaction
from the constant bending underground, but most of them are shortish men
and their thick ill-fitting clothes hide the splendour of their
bodies..."
/MAB
Joe Fineman
to call another man beautiful.
--- Joe Fineman j...@world.std.com
||: The people who do the work have to be paid, and the people :||
||: who let them do it have to be paid off. :||
tom .
> Only in America, I believe, does it compromise a man's heterosexuality
> to call another man beautiful.
this might be true. look at poor walt whitman. but heck, in america even
something
like being british compromises a man's heterosexuality. unless you're
sean connery. wait, isn't he scotch or something less british like that?
ROBBIE
tom . <blin...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3B35FDBA...@hotmail.com...
>
>
> > Only in America, I believe, does it compromise a man's heterosexuality
> > to call another man beautiful.
>
> this might be true. look at poor walt whitman. but heck, in america even
> something
> like being british compromises a man's heterosexuality.
Senor, senore can you tell me where we heading? Lincoln county road or
armageddon?
Bayle
ROBBIE <poolhallREMOVE_...@hotmail.com> wrote in article
<9h7q44$ckct5$1...@ID-88989.news.dfncis.de>...
>
> Senor, senore can you tell me where we heading? Lincoln county road or
> armageddon?
Are you THAT Bob, Zimmie?
Martha Bridegam
>
>From Orwell's outline for his unwritten novel "A Smoking-Room Story":
There are 30 paragraphs under "To be brought in-" The first several
discuss some scenes from a bachelor life in Burma and passengers
apparently on a boat back to England, including "The overheard remark:
'That's the boy that's being sent home.'"
Starting with Para. 20:
"...Coming away from the Mission. Sudden turning aside at the road
leading to the plantation. The planters offended if one was still sober
at 11. Breakfast next morning. Ma Yi. The sandals. Vague feeling of
something distasteful. [No, the preceding bits are no help in figuring
out what he means by this/MAB]
21. His feeling towards the Mission. Chief feeling, boredom. Shrinking
from the austerity. But constant feeling that it had something his life
lacked. Change of habits. Visits of girls ceased. Reading instead of
gramophone. Vague classification of phenomena into two schools. On the
one hand B.J., the Rangoon Library (also, curiously, Ma Yi.) On the
other, the dust & squalor of his house, the worn gramophone records, the
piled-up whisky bottles, the whores.
22. The planters talking about B.J. 'What about women?' Suggested he had
boys instead -- prompt indignation of P. Like all men addicted to
whoring, he professed to be revolted by homosexuality. (NB. Important
question whether to make C. remember the incident of the picture only in
[connection with this]? this context?)[Those square brackets were
Orwell's just now, not mine/MAB]
23. The other ship of the same line passing. The exchange of greetings,
& the shout 'You're going the wrong way!' C's sudden dread of getting
home. Sudden looming-up of the word 'unemployment.' (This would do to
introduce a chapter.)
24. The incident with the picture. C's complete theological vagueness.
The flash of blue (deeper blue than in the picture) catching the corner
of his eye. Make clear that owing to similarity of garments it is
sometimes possible to mistake one sex for the other in the case of
*young* Burmese. As he falls asleep, thought detaching itself: blue is
an unusual colour it must have been a girl. From this no further
inference drawn. It is just one of the innumerable unanswered &
uninteresting questions in his mind, along with the question of why the
picture was put on top of the almirah.
25. C's general inefficiency. Emphasize that *sometimes* he can get
along very well, lounge against a bar & shake the poker dice in just the
right manner, dance elegantly, chip in when everybody bursts out
singing, etc. At other times overwhelmed with gaucherie & shyness.
Emphasise also that in his mind his inability to shine socially among
people of his own age is indistinguishable from his lack of 'grit' &
consequent failure to get on. It is not what you do but what you
*are*..."
The paragraphs that follow mention an incident involving C.'s
squeamishness on being offered a too-young prostitute, followed by "C's
revulsion of feeling & vague perception that B.J. stands for something
better." Then "The occasion of C. telling the story," which is not
explained. The story about the prostitute doesn't at least seem to be
"the story." Finally "Throwing the book out of the porthole. NB. to make
C. *completely unconscious* of any symbolical significance in this."
This is the shortest of three outlines for the book as a whole:
"The ship. Establish C.'s situation & general hopelessness.
The mission.
The ship. C's yearning to adjust himself.
Second thoughts on the Mission.
Uncertainty of C.'s position.
The opportunity. Finale."
/MAB
Jean-Francois Paradis
Yeah... he's Scot... he was born in Edinburgh in 1930...
Jean-Francois Paradis
Jack Cerf
Reads like the benefits of an Eton education c. 1919 to me. See
Fussell's Great War and Modern Memory.