Whimp Out

Dear Diary,

Saw Wainwright's and McIvor's Hadrian. A disappointment. Sabina's aria in Act II was the best part. The ending backed off a possible naming of the gendered nature of Hadrian's love for another man. We were treated to a tedious repetition of "He loved..." (with suspension marks) without the transitive completion of "him."

The opera is confused. Is it a love story? A tale of political intrigue? A search for immortality?

That ending! Apotheosis of the god-emperor, chorus chanting the coming rise of monotheism, the prophecy of to-be-forgotten pagan gods?

Sabina's aria "Why am waiting; what am I waiting for" (I paraphrase from memory) foreshadows the audience waiting for the recognition at the end of a man loving a man. Waiting for the word.

He was loved. But was he loved as a man? No amount of same-sex scene pantomime can substitute for the artistic exploration of the theme of reciprocation. Let alone the saying - the enunciation - that marks a coming to knowledge and action. Who did he love? Who loved him? Who had the courage to speak? Of what? To whom?

And so for day 2291
22.03.2013

Homophobic Impotence

Righteous indignation with a hook. (from Home Coming). Let's set the stage. Don L. Lee in the intro: "are no trees in Harlem or on the westside of Chicago. The only use/beauty she/we see in a tree, at this time in space, is the number of rifle butts it will produce."

Homophobic Trigger

She's come a long way: "You rescued us from the tyranny of racism, sexism, homophobia, class and economic poverty . . . You. Prodigious singer. Of life and actions. And words . . ." Sonia Sanchez introduction to Audre Lorde's A Burst of Light and Other Essays.

In those days we were caught between the Right (pinko commies) and the Left (bourgeois decadence). Why rehearse the wounds? Because in the historical record stand the judgements of critics such as Houston Baker Jr. who is called out by Kristi S. Anderson (Post-Poststructuralism: Gender, Race, Class and Literary Theory) "Rather than critiquing the obvious (hetero)sexism of the particular poems of Sanchez' which he chooses to highlight, Baker celebrates the "heterosexual bonding and collaborative journeying" he claims they represent (334)." Her calling out is in a dissertation not circulating widely. Houston Baker Jr. does shift as did Sanchez. Here is his blurb on Marlon Riggs's last film (Black Is… Black Ain't): "A remarkably courageous work of art...Riggs shows us a rare type of black heroism and it is profoundly moving." Which is now on my viewing list.

Still Sanchez's poem has a bite. Worth remembering the conditions that led to its utterance. We use the weapons at hand. And do well to remember Lorde: the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.

And so for day 2029
03.07.2012

Homophonia

It's arresting. It appears (among other places) on page 66 of The New Yorker February 7, 2005.

It is drawn and captioned by Matthew Diffee.

It's a single panel cartoon. A person sits by a begging cup holding a sign that reads "homeless". Walking by is person carrying a brief case. Below is a single word which we ascribe to the sitting person: "Hobophobe!"

Wicked on so many levels.

And so for day 1274
09.06.2010