a gay friend of mine, a successful writer has been moaning in print about the demise of the small gay press. in order to survive he has been forced to take up the gentle art of porn. yes! porn!
"Have you ever thought of writing porn?" he asked. "It's easy to get published, and you sell a lot of books." As these are the only words that a writer ever really wants to hear, I rushed home and embarked without much thought on a filthy homosexual rewrite of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, entitled The Low Road.
"As these are the only words that a writer ever really wants to hear!"
This of course strikes us as funny. why? because it is very clever. the writer in saying this is acknowledging that there is a choice. he could retain his integrity in remaining a 'serious' writer, but that's it's a choice no intelligent person would make, in a world, culture, that does not encourage, honor or value integrity, and we laugh at the casual effrontery of admitting this, our craven nature, without a blush or the slightest guilt. we also laugh as it's a release of tension for we ourselves feel guilty that we do not make this choice to have more integrity and so our tension is released when someone brazenly admits it with no guilt at all! yes. the thing is deuced clever, what-ho.
but hang on a mo. where did we begin? oh yes. the demise of the small gay press. which our writer never explains he merely laments. but i can offer a tentative explanation. the current trend or direction is to dumb down. this in effect means everything becomes more mainstream. life has less quirky corners. and what quirkier corner could there be but the gay world?! so this issue of the gay press really just shows that dumbing down has spread even here! a place you really wouldn't expect to fall prey to this as the gay world is, god bless them, anti intellectual, anti heavy stuff, is an antidote to the serious stuff the dumbers down would dumb down! incredible. but it seems dumbing down knows no limit. it is unprejudiced. across the board.
which means what? well think. it ain't rocket science. it means our gay writer is responsible for the thing he bewails. if we accept dumbing down to be about a lack of integrity and our writer shows a lack of integrity in turning so quickly to mindless porn, then then, he is responsible for the thing he bemoans. he is hoist on his own petunias, as bill would say. it's this self helpy thing of creating your world with your own thoughts. we are responsible. no one else is.
but why? i know this chap. he ain't a bad person. he is intelligent. why does he automatically make this kind of choice? well. what i'd say is, it a product of the seductive nature of cleverness!!! cleverness or being sharp is the ulimate siren intoxicating our senses with her beautiful charms! it is seductive because it appeals to, or flatters our vanity. it says look how wonderful we are. how clever and superior. look at us! sophisticated clever beings who have a clever answer for everything. is this the Faust story, or isn't it? but in reality our cleverness is self defeating, for now our gay writer no longer has outlet for what he really wants to write. i.e. 'serious' gay fiction, and not, mindless porn AND AND AND! so the quality of his life has diminished, for, that thing we really want to do, express, be; that thing which is 'us' and we want to scream from the rooftops; makes us feel good.
FEEL GOOOD!
it is our soul urge. our passion. our reason de atra!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
let's face it. we can be clever, or we can be honest. if we were honest we'd admit cleverness ain't never helped us. 'if'. but between those two small insignificant letters lies a vast unbridgeable gulf, and, for the vast vast majority, that is a bridge too far; so let us go on bemoaning things we have no control over. let's.
amen.
