(Gay) Theater?

A recent article in the New York Times describes what, to my mind, is a long overdue shift in gay theater away from storylines which address only the political concerns of a particular group, toward more universal themes of love, family, and general tragedy—only gay.

Tony Kushner, author of the very politicized “Angels in America”, which dealt largely with the AIDS epidemic, describes the trend thus:

“The gay community today is definitely in a post-Act Up period, and the theater has begun to reflect some of that.”

This shift is part of an ongoing discussion in gay political circles on whether to “continue fighting at the ballot box and in the courts for gay rights immediately or instead to take a longer view that involves building alliances and giving time for more Americans to come around on issues like gay marriage.” In order to achieve true equality and social acceptance, I think it will probably require both approaches. But speaking on behalf of the Arts, I must say I am pleased with this new direction.

I think the struggle that (for lack of a better word) minority art typically faces is its tendency to utilize artistic mediums solely as soapboxes for social change. Whether or not that is a valid approach to artistic engagement is another argument altogether, but personally—and this is me speaking as a white, straight, gentile male—I find that I often feel excluded from such works. I think that’s because more often than not they are preoccupied with representing gay, black, Jewish, etc., experience, and less so with representing the human experience. Obviously there is no single unified human experience, and all of our experiences are colored by our particular vantages on society and the world at large, but to me a great work of art is capable of acknowledging those ‘peculiarities’ while at the same time digging deeper, and tapping into the collective experience that resonates with gays and straights, blacks and whites (and all the other colors out there!), Jews and gentiles, men and women, and so on and so forth.

I think this is a project the new wave of gay theater is trying to address. Oppression and AIDS and prejudice and discrimination are all still very much present, but as sort of a backdrop to the human drama taking place between characters. To me, political preoccupation in art is a trick. And I am glad to see the theatrical community moving past it.

Check out the article in full here. It is very interesting.

Some Notes on Hemingway's Toughness

Nearly every reference I've heard to Ernest Hemingway in modern literature smacks of parody. Somehow he has become this paradigm for a failed masculinity we just love to hate. When I was in high school, or maybe it was in college, my teachers would talk about his prose style as being like an iceberg: only a very little bit shows on the surface, but beneath the surface, it is vast. And despite what you may think of the metaphor, it is undoubtedly true. The problem is that, today, we have little respect for that kind of posturing. If Hemingway's prose is an iceberg, so too are his characters. The arch of their development is almost entirely sub-textual, and much of their internal dialogue consists of talking themselves out of one feeling or another. "Don't feel this way," they say. "Concentrate on this." "It is your own fault, really." Excuses are the scourge of each and every one of Hemingway's heroes; a mind set not very compatible with our modern one, which wants to blame all our problems on media and advertising.

I wonder what David Foster Wallace and Ernest Hemingway would think of one another?

RIP, RIP

Personally I enjoy the voice much of Hemingway's fiction is told in. There is something dignified about it. Feircely honest. Like he's just daring others to judge him. Though the fiercness of it I think masks another aspect of the human experience. In truth, I identify more with the neurotic/existential paranoia of DFW. There is dignity in both.

One thing though that I am really enjoying about Hemingway right now is how much craft figures in to his writing. Reading a novel by Ernest Hemingway can often feel like a master class, particularly Garden of Eden, and obviously, A Moveable Feast. An idea of his that I am trying to emphasize in my own process is the clear break one makes with a work-in-progress when one is finished writing for the day.

"It was in that room that I learned not to think about anything that I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious would be working on it and at the same time I would be listening to other people and noticing everything, I hoped; learning, I hoped; and I would read so that I would not think about my work and make myself impotent to do it.... It was necessary to get exercise, to be tired in the body, and it was very good to make love with whom you loved. That was better than anything. But afterwards, when you were empty, it was necessary to read..."

-A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway

Muy bien.

Reorientation

Recent News:

1)Yesterday I received my first rejection notice from the University of Texas at Austin.

2) Today I began work on the new novel I have been planning.

As far as I'm concerned, that is the best way to meet the closing of one door: use its momentum to send you full tilt off in another direction. Not that the relationship between these two events is quite so well-defined. I've been planning this new work for some time--doing my research, naming characters, organizing and reorganizing notecards on the giant tables an my girlfriend's shop. I'm excited. I remember in high school, when I was training to be a wrestling champion, how I would sit in class and in my notebook I would create training regiments, even in the off-season, balancing diet, exercise, and sport specific training. I've begun doing that again, only now its more like:

8:00 am - 8:30 Meditation
8:30 am - 12 New Scenes
12 Lunch
12:30 - 2 pm Exercise (exercise is still a vital part of even my creative process)
2 pm Get ready for work
7 pm "Lunch" Break - Revise Old Scenes

To make a long story short, I am feeling organized, inspired, and ready to get in the zone. One thing that I have found over the past week, as I've been corresponding with an old--shall I say collegue?--from college, is that it really helps my focus to have a forum in which to talk about writing. About new work, about process, about publishing. It helps both to keep me focused and to lift my confidence level. I begin to realize, "Hey, I've been at this a while. I actually sort of know what I'm talking about." And for young writers, just having cause to feel as though you are legitimate can be a huge help and inspiration. So I would also like to step up my posting here, as a way of keeping that momentum going.

One of the best ways, I am learning, to move past rejection is to just keep writing. "It's alright," you can then tell yourself. "It's just 'cause they haven't seen what I'm working on now."