A Queer Quote
I was reading Morris Berman's The Twilight of American Culture and ran across this quote from E. M. Forster:
I believe in aristocracy ... Not an aristocracy of power, based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and all classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos ... On they go -- an invincible army, yet not a victorious one. The aristocrats, the elect, the chosen, the Best People -- all the words that describe them are false, and all attempts to organize them fail. Again and again, Authority, seeing their value, has tried to net them and to utilize them as the Egyptian Priesthood or the Christian Church or the Chinese Civil Service or the Group Movement, or some other worthy stunt. But they slip through the net and are gone; when the door is shut, they are no longer in the room; their temple ... is the Holiness of the Heart's Imagination, and their kingdom, though they never possess it, is the wide-open world.
What I Believe 1939
My response when reading it contained small reservations, a sense of little pink noses turned up to the air, but adjusting for time and cultural context, and looking at my own, I have to say I am amazed at and appreciative of the standard's being planted.
I believe in aristocracy ... Not an aristocracy of power, based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and all classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos ... On they go -- an invincible army, yet not a victorious one. The aristocrats, the elect, the chosen, the Best People -- all the words that describe them are false, and all attempts to organize them fail. Again and again, Authority, seeing their value, has tried to net them and to utilize them as the Egyptian Priesthood or the Christian Church or the Chinese Civil Service or the Group Movement, or some other worthy stunt. But they slip through the net and are gone; when the door is shut, they are no longer in the room; their temple ... is the Holiness of the Heart's Imagination, and their kingdom, though they never possess it, is the wide-open world.
What I Believe 1939
My response when reading it contained small reservations, a sense of little pink noses turned up to the air, but adjusting for time and cultural context, and looking at my own, I have to say I am amazed at and appreciative of the standard's being planted.