From the Greek-Week file: The NY Times (8/28) reports that the most prominant homosexual of ancient times, Alexander the Great, has present-day Chicago-bent admirers who want to carve a 240-foot-high portrait of the Macedonian general into a Greek Cliff. There is more than a little bit of controversy from environmentalists, classicists and politicians. Alex was always setting folks off…even in his own time he offended proper society by not giving up old boyfriends even when he was supposed to.
Same file, same paper (8//26), a review of a new translation of “violet-haired, pure honey-smiling Sappho,” the lesbian poet. “If not, Winter” by Ann Carson sticks much closer to the actual words left us only in fragments, but what fragments! Coincidentally, Smithsonian Magazine (9-2002) in an article “Puzzle Master,” highlights Dirk Obbink of Oxford University who is leading in the scrap-by-scrap restoration and translation of a cache of papyrus, from Oxyrhyuchus in Egypt. The connection to today’s lesbigays: These discarded papyrus rolls from the town dump are the only source of the works of the wonderful poet from Lesbos.
Another lesbian writer, a bit more recent, Willa Cather, the early 20th century novelist, is covered in a long complimentary story in the Chicago Tribune (8/29). Cather never came out, but she did live with a female companion the last 40 years of her life. They’re still arguing about her novels and sexuality in Red Cloud, Neb., where she grew up. Cather, as the author indicates, has become the sole (and soul?) business of that small Midwestern town. All of Cather’s novels, from The Song of the Lark to Death Comes to the Archbishop are still in print.
Still sticking to High Culcha, The NY Times (8/29) tells us of a new production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Globe, the open-air theater in London built to duplicate the place of the same name in the playwright’s time. Also, no actresses, all men. The plot of this comedy you may (or may not) remember concerns a woman disguised as a man, so we have a man playing a woman playing a man. Move over, Victor/Victoria! Bill did it first and did it better. “It [the production] is sexy, uncomfortable, and highly disorienting.” (And Shakespeare didn’t forget the ladies. There’s a lesbian hint when Olivia learns the “boy” she fell for, Cesario, who is really Viola, says “Most wonderful!” Of course they’re all … oh, you get it.)
And a dive off a bridge into Low Culcha…The NY Times (8/25) describes the new world wrestling team of Chuck and Billy. Chuck “really likes his tag-team partner…a lot.” The two really hunky and friendly big boys are always accompanied by their mutton-chopped and even hunkier stylist, Rico. Now hear this…all wrestlers of this ilk are cultivated as heroes or villains. These boys are being put out in front of crowds as good guys and gay. In the past, “effeminate” type wrestlers were cast at pure hated villains, set to be destroyed. Good God, Gertie! What’s the world coming to??