Comments | johnwesley73: For Queer's Sake

johnwesley73

For Queer's Sake

May 31, 2005 14:38

Okay, I'm feeling a little better now that I've put some Chinese food in my belly ( Read more... )

Comments 5

curiouscliche May 31 2005, 23:08:42 UTC

When I used the word queer for myself, I put a question mark next to it ( ... )

HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU? johnwesley73 January 10 2009, 02:33:40 UTC

just curious. I'm reading this old stuff in my lj journal and realizing I really miss your unique voice. Are you all grown up, now (not completely, I hope?) Damn, it's been almost four years.

johnwesley73 June 1 2005, 13:44:11 UTC

Thanks. That was very helpful. And I really appreciate your serving as a sherpa through some complex and admittedly personal territory, here. First, let me say, there are certainly advantages in having a term that describes the multiplicity of non-standard sexual preferences, the ones that don't get romanticized in novels or on the silver screen. Now, indulge me just a little longer; when you say, "poly" does that mean, like Ninelegyak uses the term, enjoying more than one serious relationship at a time? Or, is it shorthand for the Nobby Brown term, "polymorphous perversity"?

curiouscliche June 1 2005, 22:24:54 UTC

I've heard of neither of those people, but I'd say I aspire more towards the first, even though I don't really know what "polymorphous perversity" means other than in the Freudian sense (in which case, most people could be described by the term).

Everyone Is Queer? johnwesley73 June 1 2005, 23:56:57 UTC

Ah, you're right; I'd forgotten Freud originated the term. But, N.O. Brown ("Nobby" to his friends) re-introduced the phrase "polymorphous perversity" at the height of the 60s whereupon it became one of those phrases that captured the zeitgeist. He was a professor at Wesleyan nearly half a century ago. I believe he taught Classics, but he made his mark with two relatively popular books (for academic works) that blended psychology, Marxism and history into a dense series of essays on the human condition. "Love's Body" is still in print (University of California); "Life Against Death" is still one of Wes Press' best selling titles:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0520071069/102-2140541-8290527?v=glance