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[endure]

"The Charioteer" by Mary Renault. Published in the 1950s - daring for the time. Mary Renault is a weaver of words and a brilliant story-teller. Try and get hold of this if you can.

More blurb:

"After enduring an injury at Dunkirk during World War II, Laurie Odell is sent to a rural veterans’ hospital in England to convalesce. There he befriends the young, bright Andrew, a conscientious objector serving as an orderly. As they find solace and companionship together in the idyllic surroundings of the hospital, their friendship blooms into a discreet, chaste romance. Then one day, Ralph Lanyon, a mentor from Laurie’s schoolboy days, suddenly reappears in Laurie’s life, and draws him into a tight-knit social circle of world-weary gay men. Laurie is forced to choose between the sweet ideals of innocence and the distinct pleasures of experience.

Originally published in the United States in 1959, The Charioteer is a bold, unapologetic portrayal of male homosexuality during World War II that stands with Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar and Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories as a monumental work in gay literature."

[endure]

Once you mention Mary Renault you've got to mention the 'Alexander Trilogy' her historic novels about the life of Alexander the Great

"Fire from Heaven" - Alexander's early life and his friendship with Hephaistion who was reputed to be his lover. Alexander certainly went bonkers when Hephaistion died of fever. His funeral was reckoned to have cost the equivalent of £150M in today's money.

"The Persian Boy" - The Persian Boy is Bagoas, a eunuch and former catamite of Darius III of Persia who Alexander defeated to take the Persian Empire. In the book Bagoas is given to Alexander as a gift and becomes his lover. It's Bagoas who narrates book 2.

"Funeral Games" -  The events following Alexander's death. The break-up of the Empire - Ptolemy moves to Egypt. Bagoas goes with him.


Mary Renault was a truly gifted story-teller and I recommend that you read these books - preferably in the right order. I re-read them on a regular basis and there are passages in them that always make me cry. Well, I'm a poof - I'm allowed to  

[isanbirder]

The Last of the Wine is another book by Mary Renault with a gay theme.  It portrays the late teenage years of Alexias, with his lover Lysis, against the background of Athens v. Sparta in the Peloponesian War.

[LeCharivari]

"HIred to Kill" by John Morris.

The ultimate "don't judge a book by its cover" - John Morris was the controller of the BBC Third Programme (and BBC 3) from 1959 to 1971, but before that he took part in two Everest expeditions, including the first one in 1922, and he served in Third Gurkhas (Indian Army) in the Somme (WWI), in Palestine and in the Third Afghan War. In Hired to Kill he writes mainly about his time in the Indian Army and about his homosexuality in an environment where it was both frowned on and tacitly accepted. I have read the book several times over the last 20 years and find something new to appreciate every time.  My favourite autobiography (although it only covers part of his life).

[tombkk]

isanbirder, on 2011-08-13 09:20:48, said:

You mention E.M.Forster's Maurice.  Anyone expecting something up to the level of his more famous books will be disappointed.  Without Forster's name on it, this book would be deservedly forgotten.

Of course, we can also add a column (or however it is done on ThaiVisa) for critics and comments. I for one loved Maurice and hadn't even heard Forster's name at the time.

[endure]

"Victim" - movie - 1961 -available on DVD

Blurb:

"Victim is quite simply a watershed moment in cinema history. The first mainstream film to portray sympathetically and realistically homosexual society, it did so at a time when homosexuality was still a crime in Britain. Janet Green and John McCormick's screenplay makes Dirk Bogarde's Melville Farr a deeply conflicted man; married and in love with his wife, he also has relationships with men; while as a lawyer he is bound to uphold the law, even as he is compelled to break it. When Jack Barrett (a young Peter McEnery) commits suicide to avoid the consequences of blackmail, Farr sees this as murder, and decides to end the extortion even if it costs him his career. "

[JamesBarnes]

endure, on 2011-08-15 03:25:57, said:

"Victim" - movie - 1961 -available on DVD

Blurb:

"Victim is quite simply a watershed moment in cinema history. The first mainstream film to portray sympathetically and realistically homosexual society, it did so at a time when homosexuality was still a crime in Britain. Janet Green and John McCormick's screenplay makes Dirk Bogarde's Melville Farr a deeply conflicted man; married and in love with his wife, he also has relationships with men; while as a lawyer he is bound to uphold the law, even as he is compelled to break it. When Jack Barrett (a young Peter McEnery) commits suicide to avoid the consequences of blackmail, Farr sees this as murder, and decides to end the extortion even if it costs him his career. "

Sir Dirk Bogarde was a personal favourite long before I knew he was gay. He would have been 90 this year and you can read a tribute to him, written by his friend Brian Baxter in the current issue of OUT in Thailand Magazine. If you don't have the print issue, you can read it online at www.out-in-thailand.com/magazine

Best wishes,

James.

[Ijustwannateach]

Ok, I'm convinced (I'm also a big Mary Renault fan)....  I'll pin this with a slight editing of the name to indicate what it's for.

[isanbirder]

Something to dip into... Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse, ed. Stephen Coote (1983).  From Homer to modern limericks, from Sappho to New York leather bars.

A titbit from the Greek Anthology (things don't change much):-

Time was when once upon a time, such toys
As balls or pet birds won a boy, or dice.
Now it's best china, or cash.  Lovers of boys
Try something else next time.  Toys cut no ice.

(For best china, read gold;  otherwise it's Pattaya  foreseen.)

[rickthailand]

movie i liked is  torch song trillogy with matthew broderick i think from 1985???
book  the frontrunner 1&2

rick

[Ijustwannateach]

Pinned, and title edited from a question to a description.

[endure]

Obvious TV series.

Queer as Folk - both the UK and the US versions.

The UK version ran over two series. The first series was good and was a showcase of the behaviour of a certain portion of the gay crowd in the UK at the time (or so I'm told   ). The second series degenerated into fairy-tale nonsense. What was quite surprising was that during the showing on UK TV (C4) one of the characters performed a particularly lewd (for TV) act on another whereas on the subsequent DVD release that act is not shown. Pity - the look on Charlie Hunnam's face was the highlight of that particular episode  

The US version ran over five series and was produced by Showtime. It was slickly done and it took a look at some serious issues along the way. Some of the cast were actually gay from the off and some came out during the making of the show. Good stuff - recommended.

All available on DVD. Worth watching.

Edited by endure, 2011-08-17 03:41:16.

[endure]

"Paragraph 175" - a documentary made in 2000 about the fate of homosexuals in the concentration camps in WWII.

'Paragraph 175' is that part of the German Penal Code which deals with homosexuality as a crime. It was used to imprison gay folks in the concentration camps. This documentary has interviews with the few (less than 10) who were still alive in 2000. They include Pierre Seel, who at the age of 16 was forced along with the other inhabitants of Schirmeck camp to watch the camp dogs eat his boyfriend alive.

Here's a bit from Wiki:

"While the Nazi persecution of homosexuals is reasonably well-known today, far less attention had been given to the continuation of this persecution in post-war Germany. In 1945, when concentration camps were liberated, homosexual prisoners were not freed but were instead made to serve out their sentence under Paragraph 175. In 1950, East Germany abolished Nazi amendments to Paragraph 175, whereas West Germany kept them and even had them confirmed by its Constitutional Court. About 100,000 men were implicated in legal proceedings from 1945 to 1969, and about 50,000 were convicted (if they had not committed suicide before, as many did). In 1969, the government eased Paragraph 175 to an age of consent of 21. It was lowered to 18 in 1973, and finally the paragraph was repealed and the age of consent lowered to 14, the same that is in force for heterosexual acts, in 1994. East Germany had already reformed its more lenient version of the paragraph in 1968, and repealed it in 1988."

Shameful.

You'll need a strong stomach to watch this and you may not be able to sit through it at one go.

[endure]

"My Own Private Idaho" starring Keanu Reeves and the late River Phoenix. Directed by Gus Van Sant.

The story of two hustlers in Portland - one the Mayor's son, the other a narcoleptic

[isanbirder]

One of England's major post-war novelists who was gay was Sir Angus Wilson.  Some of his books are fairly outspoken for their period, e.g. Hemlock and After (1952), Anglo-Saxon Attitudes  (1956), No Laughing Matter (1967) and As If By Magic (1973).  Other books of his often have a gay sub-theme.

Australian Patrick White wrote freely about his relationship with his Greek lover Manolis in his two-volume autobiography (sorry, I don't have the title), but I can't remember any of his novels being gay-themed.

[tombkk]

endure, on 2011-08-21 07:05:48, said:

"My Own Private Idaho" starring Keanu Reeves and the late River Phoenix. Directed by Gus Van Sant.

The story of two hustlers in Portland - one the Mayor's son, the other a narcoleptic

I loved the movie.

[endure]

'Swimming in the Monsoon Sea' by Shyam Selvadurai - a story of self-realisation set in Sri Lanka in 1980. Amrith's world is turned upside down when his cousin Niresh visits from Canada.

[endure]

'The Green Carnation' published anonymously in 1894 but written by Robert Hichens. A novel whose lead characters were based on on Oscar Wilde and Bosie. A scandalous success. It was used against Wilde in his subsequent prosecutions.

Available for download from Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg...9-h/24499-h.htm

[oed86]

To me 'Midnight Cowboy' is the most touchingly felt. Mostly because, unlike films with theme of homosexuality nowadays, there is nothing saucy or explicit in it. (Which can ruin the film in my opinion.) It's the art of understatement. A Journey from innocence to disillusionment. 'My Own Private Idaho' is good too, but it is full of unlikely lines, something you wouldn't hear from real people talking. I can appreciate it as a performance, but not as realistically felt though.

As far as books go, 'Maurice' is good. I never forget when I read it for the first time. It's like trespassing into someone's young manhood, not younger than myself (was then). But comparing to all other Forster's works, I agree 'Maurice' is not really that great. 'Howards End' 'A Room with a View' are more to my liking.