Equal Partners inAncient Times
To theEditor:
It’s a bit difficult to identifywhether cer-
tain statements inToby Johnson’s review
(
Jan.-Feb. 2014) ofGillesHerrada’s
The
MissingMyth:ANewVisionof Same-Sex
Love
reflectHerrada’s views, which John-
son is perhaps just credulously passingon,
or instead Johnson’s own. One suspects per-
haps both, given the sympathetic tone of the
review.And for all I knowthe bookmay
have some value.
ButHerrada or Johnson (or both) start to
loseme prettyquicklywhen they state fac-
tually false howlers like the claimthat “pre-
modem” gay relationshipswere “always
characterizedby status differences between
the partners.”
Always
?Beware of that ex-
treme term!
One exception is all it takes, so consider
the
EphesianTale
byXenophon of Ephesus,
a novel dating fromthe 2nd centuryAD, in
which themale loversHippothoos andHy-
peranthes appear not tohave any great dif-
ference in age or social status, but simply
fall in love. Hyperanthes is a “lad” andHip-
pothoos “still young”when theymeet. Hip-
pothoos is said tobe from“among themost
distinguished” families inPerinthos, but Hy-
perantheswas also a “sacred citizen” of that
city. Hippothoos couldnot have been very
richbecause anolder competitor forHyper-
anthes’ affections uses hiswealth to bribe
Hyperanthes’ father. Their tragic romance is
plainly
not
depicted as any sort of “mentor-
ing” relationshipon theGreekmodel.
I realize thatHerrada, Johnson, andmany
other theoristswill probably quibble about
my using theword “gay” to refer to rela-
tionships from2,000years ago. But then
why call them“homosexual” either (a neol-
ogisminventedbyGermanpsychologists in
the late 19th century)?Wordsmay change,
but they seek todescribe deeper human
feelings and realities that probablyhaven’t
changed asmuchduring the eye-blink in
time that is recordedhistory.
Keep inmind that novels like the
Eph-
esianTale
represent rare surviving frag-
ments of the literature of their times. How
manyother recordswere lost depicting sim-
ilar gay relationships?And of course, in the
vastmajorityof “pre-modern” societies (un-
like ancientGreece andRome, to a large
extent), inwhich gay sexualitywas fiercely
repressed and condemned, how likely is it
that wewould have any surviving expres-
sions of such love at all?
Gay relationships aswe know themtoday
may not have hadmuch of a chance tode-
velop, survive, or be recorded inmost
human societiesmore than a century ago.
Only “modern homosexuality,” argues
Johnson, “involves love and sex between
equals, where sexual versatility is honored
and long-term, loving relationships—not
just sexual conquest—are valued.”This
kind of relationship, he adds, “can perhaps
be traced as far back asWaltWhitman’s po-
etrybut only comes into its own afterWorld
War II.”
It seems tome farmore likely—as
Boswell andmanyother scholars havemore
sensibly argued—that gaypeople have al-
ways existedwith the same desires and in-
herent identities thatwe have today, but our
ability to express or record suchdesires and
relationships has variedover time and
place, with the differing social context pre-
vailing indifferent societies.
BryanH.Wildenthal
Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson
School of Law, SanDiego, CA
Bernstein’s Boycott of Bayreuth
ToTheEditor:
I enjoyed “Lenny’sLetters onDisplay,”
Irene Javors’ reviewof LeonardBernstein’s
recentlypublished letters, in the current
issue [March-April 2014] of the
GLR
. But a
quick correction: Lenny’s lover, whodied
fromcomplications ofAIDSandwhomI
knewboth at Berkeley andhere inNew
YorkCity, wasTom(Tommy)Cothran, not
Cochran.
Also, Javors states that “when [Bernstein]
conducted atVienna andBayreuth,Germany,
Jews all over theworld felt a sense of pride
inhis triumph.” It ismyunderstanding that
despite invitations fromWolfgangWagner
(Richard’s grandson), Bernsteinnever con-
ducted at Bayreuth.Negotiations for himto
conduct
Tristanund Isolde
there in1970 fell
throughostensiblybecause of scheduling
conflicts.What I recall is that this happened
primarilybecause of Lenny’s discomfort
withWolfgangWagner’s andBayreuth’s still
inadequately addressedNazi past.While
manyquestions aboutNazi collaboration
permeated theViennaPhilharmonic and
otherGermanvenueswhere thewildlypopu-
lar LeonardBernstein conducted,Wolfgang
Wagner andBayreuth seemtohave repre-
sented a greater level of challenge for Lenny
in confronting this history.
LawrenceD.Mass,MD, NewYorkCity
May Sarton’s ‘Political’Writings
To theEditor:
In theNov.-Dec. issue, youpublished a
piece called “AMomentwithMaySarton,”
byDoloresKlaich. The introduction ex-
plains that thewriter hadbeen invited tode-
liver a “tribute speech” inhonor ofMay
Sarton at an awards dinner almost thirty
years ago.
In the speech, whose text is printed in its
entirety, Klaich acknowledges Sarton’s liter-
ary achievements but suggests that she did-
n’t do enough as a feminist or lesbian
activist: “Sometimes, by the standards of
those of uswhohave labored in the lesbian
andgay rights and feministmovements, she
has seemed tobe, on the subject of homo-
sexuality, politically incorrect.”Without of-
fering any specifics, she continues: “I for
one amwilling to forgive artists almost any-
thing, for they sometimes have a hard time
withpolitical correctness.”Klaichwas sur-
prised anddismayedbySarton’s cool reac-
tion to the speech—but howwould any
award recipient react to this smug comment,
surely inappropriate for the occasion?
Onemust remember that Sarton reached
maturity in an agewhen lesbianswere clas-
sified as congenital inverts. Her teenage di-
aries reveal intense andpainful crushes on
women, though she never sawherself as a
man trapped in awoman’s body [i.e., as an
“invert”]. The 1965publicationof
Mrs.
StevensHears theMermaids Singing
, with
its positive portrayal of a lesbian protago-
nist, causedSarton to lose teachingposi-
tions and speech engagements.AsKlaich
acknowledges, thiswas beforeStonewall:
“[W]e sophisticated, politically aware,
openlygay and lesbianpeople, withour
high consciousness ... often forget how
privilegedwe are.” Indeed!
Klaich’s speechquotes fromonly three of
Sarton’sworks:
Journal of aSolitude
,
Mrs.
StevensHears theMermaids Singing
, and
her thenmost recentmemoir,
At Seventy
.
Sarton primarily identified as a poet, but no
poetry is quoted in the speech. The “ln a
DirtyTime” sectionof
The SelectedPoems
ofMay Sarton
wouldhave been a good re-
Correspondence
6
TheGay&LesbianReview
/
WORLDWIDE
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OVER
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HOTOGRAPHS
MarianneMoore at theBronx Zoo. Published in
Life
, September 21, 1953. Esther Bubleyphoto.
(Clockwise fromupper lieft)
GoreVidal with “Caligula,” 1992. GoreVidal 1925-2012Writers Pictures.
GlenwayWescott at “LaCabane”
, 1928. ByGeorge Platt Lynes.
Roger Casement onhisway to Pentonville Prison, 1928. Photo: Getty Images. ByNicholas Shakespeare.
