It was one of those weird coincidences... I was reading a magazine and they mentioned, "that homophobic 1970 article published in Harpers Magazine." Then a different book talked about the consequences of the article: after being constantly refused a published rebuttal by the editor Willie Morris, a group of gay men staged a very successful sit-in. They brought coffee and donuts to the Harper's office, and spoke to all the staff!
One internet poster said that the article was seminal in his development - that it was the first gay thing he ever read in a public magazine. It led to an interested book by a guy who outed himself in the New York Times the next year, and letters about Joseph Epstein continued to arrive at Harper's ten years later. So, I wanted to read the article myself, and I tracked it down.
I like Harper's... I've had a subscription since the eighties. It has had many wonderful articles through the years. It's also kind of liberal, in a stuffy New York way. But as a gay man, it's sad o be attacked from the left - so I thought this article was important to try and understand what an upper-class academic leftist was thinking about forty years ago. It's so much more puzzling than a religious screed. Parts of Epstein's article make me feel bad for him, the irate, then confused, then mad again.
I hope that the top quote is published on Joseph Epstein's gravestone. I know the guy has written a lot more things. But I think he will be remembered by history - if at all - as the last gasp of homophobia in the twentieth century. A butter confused man whose ideas died out long before he did.
One internet poster said that the article was seminal in his development - that it was the first gay thing he ever read in a public magazine. It led to an interested book by a guy who outed himself in the New York Times the next year, and letters about Joseph Epstein continued to arrive at Harper's ten years later. So, I wanted to read the article myself, and I tracked it down.
I like Harper's... I've had a subscription since the eighties. It has had many wonderful articles through the years. It's also kind of liberal, in a stuffy New York way. But as a gay man, it's sad o be attacked from the left - so I thought this article was important to try and understand what an upper-class academic leftist was thinking about forty years ago. It's so much more puzzling than a religious screed. Parts of Epstein's article make me feel bad for him, the irate, then confused, then mad again.
I hope that the top quote is published on Joseph Epstein's gravestone. I know the guy has written a lot more things. But I think he will be remembered by history - if at all - as the last gasp of homophobia in the twentieth century. A butter confused man whose ideas died out long before he did.
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