It’s always gratifying to see sarcasm used masterfully in the press and Nicholas D. Kristof in The NY Times 10/23 gets a blue ribbon for his short history of biblical homosexuality and how the political Right uses it. Sample quotes: ‘So when God made homosexuals who fall deeply, achingly in love with each other, did he goof?’; ‘While homosexuality never made the Top 10 lists of commandments’ [the Book of Leviticus says that male-to-male sex is as bad as] ‘… wearing a polyester-and-cotton shirt’; ‘… Jesus praises those who make themselves enuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, but conservative Christians rarely lead the way with self-castration’; finally in quoting St. Paul who didn’t like marriage at all Kristof says ‘So if we’re going to cherry-pick biblical phrases, and ignore the central message of love, then perhaps we should just ban marriage altogether.’
The NY Times 10/21 also quotes Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the Anglican Communion’s first openly gay bishop in the wake of that church’s global fuss over homosexuality. The Windsor Report issued by the world-wide church recommended a moratorium on gay bishops and blessings of same-sex couples. Robinson points out that ‘… a moratorium comes to an end.’ Meanwhile Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria is spouting fire and brimstone and asking ‘Where is the language of rebuke?’ The –majority– African church is anti-gay.
Michael Jackson was the subject of a two-day academic conference at Yale, according to The NY Times 10/24. Presented were a series of papers such as ‘Didn’t Michael Used To Be Great?’ comments on his admirably ‘queer’ voice; ‘But What About Ricky?’ compares ‘queer-boy-child-stars grown up’ such as Michael and Ricky Martin; ‘Michael As Monster: From Embodying Thriller to Pedophilia’ says his werewolf appearance foreshadows his predilection for young boys. Hmmm.
In a return to sarcasm Anthony Tommasini in The NY Times 10/24 takes on a new book by Nadine Hubbs, The Queer Composition of America’s Sound: Gay Modernists, American Music and National Identity. The book’s thesis is that a group of modern American composers—Leonard Bernstein, Marc Blitzstein, Paul Bowles, Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Aaron Copeland, and David Diamond—not only were gay but their gayness shows in their music. Tommasini agrees that this group heavily influenced American composition but as to homosexuality showing in the music itself? ‘Will we someday speak not only of tonic and dominant chords but also of butch and femme chords?’ He rightly says one can analyze homoerotic yearnings –or not– in music with words such as ‘Billy Budd’ but that pure music that can move us deeply cannot be ‘deconstructed for its expressive content, and thank goodness for that.’