It must seem petulant, obsessive, small-minded and boring to be worried—amid all of the terrible things happening right now—about the minutiae of generation-ago gay literature.
Great post Blake! I don’t know about Today’s Gays (they can speak for themselves) but as one of Yesterday’s Gays, I savor the minutiae of the past. I read most of these authors’ books as they came out, grabbing each novel as it appeared at Unabridged Books in Chicago and A Different Light in San Francisco. The writing was uneven but always revelatory in some way of the new consciousness of what it meant to be gay in those decades. For me White’s and Holleran’s epochal novels were a disappointment — precious and boring. Picano was unreadable. My favorite books from those early years were more obscure: Splendora by Edward Swift; Landscape with Traveler by Barry Gifford; Diary of a Lost Boy by Harry Kondolean, The Revolution of Little Girls by Blanche McCrary Boyd; even the Dave Brandstetter books by Joseph Hansen. None of these are Great Novels but they convey the excitement, humor, grit and incipient doom of those years. The best sex writing could be found in Boyd McDonald’s Straight to Hell zines. And a special mention for The Story of Harold by “Terry Andrews.”
I haven't read Gifford, Kondolean, or Boyd so I look forward to checking them out! McDonald was wonderful and I'm really glad Semiotexte put out his "Cruising the Movies"--I hope all the Straight to Hell issues get a republication too!
I was actually at the Huntington for a few months last year working through Hansen's papers--there is some really good writing in the Brandstetter novels, especially his scene-setting descriptions of places and people. Even his early porn writing (I think as James Colton?) was pretty good.
I need to read more of your writing here. Barry Gifford isn't a gay writer -- he's most famous for Wild at Heart, directed by David Lynch, starring Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe. The book I mentioned is based on the "pillow book" of an old-fashioned homosexual -- so laid back & convincing I'm sure he must have had a model in mind. I found it as charming as Sei Shōnagon. (There is a sequel but it's not very good.)
Hansen would be an interesting topic. I recently bought all the Brandstetter novels when they were republished. (Good cover graphics but not nearly as good as those Owl Book editions.) I read a couple of his novels back in 82 or so, not as good. Curious about the porn, maybe I can find it somewhere.
I would love to see STH published as an anthology. Fantastic smut (I mean anthropology) based on the real stories of guys who were a world apart from the Violet Quill-reading public. I have a few of the originals but they're now impossible to find. Cruising the Movies also a document from another time.
Great post Blake! I don’t know about Today’s Gays (they can speak for themselves) but as one of Yesterday’s Gays, I savor the minutiae of the past. I read most of these authors’ books as they came out, grabbing each novel as it appeared at Unabridged Books in Chicago and A Different Light in San Francisco. The writing was uneven but always revelatory in some way of the new consciousness of what it meant to be gay in those decades. For me White’s and Holleran’s epochal novels were a disappointment — precious and boring. Picano was unreadable. My favorite books from those early years were more obscure: Splendora by Edward Swift; Landscape with Traveler by Barry Gifford; Diary of a Lost Boy by Harry Kondolean, The Revolution of Little Girls by Blanche McCrary Boyd; even the Dave Brandstetter books by Joseph Hansen. None of these are Great Novels but they convey the excitement, humor, grit and incipient doom of those years. The best sex writing could be found in Boyd McDonald’s Straight to Hell zines. And a special mention for The Story of Harold by “Terry Andrews.”
I haven't read Gifford, Kondolean, or Boyd so I look forward to checking them out! McDonald was wonderful and I'm really glad Semiotexte put out his "Cruising the Movies"--I hope all the Straight to Hell issues get a republication too!
I was actually at the Huntington for a few months last year working through Hansen's papers--there is some really good writing in the Brandstetter novels, especially his scene-setting descriptions of places and people. Even his early porn writing (I think as James Colton?) was pretty good.
I need to read more of your writing here. Barry Gifford isn't a gay writer -- he's most famous for Wild at Heart, directed by David Lynch, starring Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe. The book I mentioned is based on the "pillow book" of an old-fashioned homosexual -- so laid back & convincing I'm sure he must have had a model in mind. I found it as charming as Sei Shōnagon. (There is a sequel but it's not very good.)
Hansen would be an interesting topic. I recently bought all the Brandstetter novels when they were republished. (Good cover graphics but not nearly as good as those Owl Book editions.) I read a couple of his novels back in 82 or so, not as good. Curious about the porn, maybe I can find it somewhere.
I would love to see STH published as an anthology. Fantastic smut (I mean anthropology) based on the real stories of guys who were a world apart from the Violet Quill-reading public. I have a few of the originals but they're now impossible to find. Cruising the Movies also a document from another time.
title alone gets a like
No, in fact, it's been the absorption of my day, thanks to this entry of yours. I even ordered Men on Men 4 from the Strand. Thanks!