Feeling Pretty and Witty but not Homosexual (was: response to, etc.)

[abigailnus <abigailnus@yahoo.com>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Queer as John <john at q...> wrote: 
> Well, this gets into the question of community dynamics and perceptions.
> Many people believe that the gay community is more than just sex. It's about
> a different way of life resulting from various influences, including shared
> experience of the closeting process, coming out, homophobia, discrimination,
> etc.. Hence the preference to use "gay" instead of "homosexual".

Has anyone here seen Tom Stoppard's wonderful play, The Invention 
of Love?  It's about the life of the poet A.E. Houseman, a deeply 
closeted homosexual (or gay man or however you would prefer me 
to refer to him) who was Oscar Wilde's contemporary.  It's all about 
one of the great dilemmas of life - is it better to play it safe or to take 
risks for a chance at love and happiness.  In this case the dilemma, of 
course, has to do with acting on one's sexual impulses in a time when 
homsexuality dared not speak its name.  (To Stoppard's credit, he 
doesn't give an easy answer, and is careful to show the price that one 
sometimes pays for taking chances.)  Stoppard ties this dilemma into 
the dychotomy of Houseman's life - on one hand he was a poet, a 
man used to expressing his emotions - and on the other hand he was a 
textual scholar, who actually flunked out of Oxford because he was 
more interested in the linguistic origin of the Classics texts he was 
reading then in their content and meaning.

The reason I'm telling you all this, other than that The Invention of 
Love is a brilliant, heartbreaking play which you should try to see if the 
opportunity presents itself, is that there's a beautiful scene in it that 
this discussion has reminded me of.  The elderly Houseman meets a 
friend from his youth (the play is a memory play that takes place 
after Houseman's death, so the friend is still a young man) whom we 
had previously seen trying to chat Houseman up.  The friend tells 
Houseman that he's become a member of a group of like-minded 
individuals, and that they've even come up with a name for
 themselves - homosexuals.  The friend asks him what he thinks of 
the word.

"I think it's an abomination!" Exclaims Houseman, "It's half Latin and 
half Greek!"

Abigail
Now wondering if you don't have to have seen the play to get how 
funny this is - when I saw it this line brought the house down.