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Maurice
Author: E. M. Forster
Date Started: April 8, 2007
Date Finished: April 8, 2007
It's embarrassing that as a gay man, most of the stories I've read that have gays as central characters are fanfiction, especially when I was young. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But somewhere in my early twenties I thought that I should be doing something about my lack of familiarity with regards to what everyone and their mother called "gay literature".
Of course, doing that while studying in the Royal, Pontifical, Catholic University of the Philippines is especially tough. The closest I ever got was Anne Rice, and in her novels the characters' gayness is just incidental and not really the focus of the story.
That's a good sign, of course, because that would mean that being gay has ceased to become shocking for that country, at least. However, here on our lovely islands the gay movement is still ridiculously young, and gayness is still considered shocking. I was looking for novels about coming out and early gay experience, ebcause I thought that reflected my situation more.
The first such novel I read was Giovanni's Room,(1956) by James Baldwin, and I only got to read then when I was already working. It's a lovely read, but there's a lot of guilt in it, especially from the main character, which eventually leads to tragedy. It may be dated for the West, but tragically, still true for most parts of this country.
All that rambling leads us to this novel. Maurice predates Giovanni's Room by 42 years, and it is groundbreaking because the gays live happily ever after--an anomaly when most novels of that period that dealt with homosexuality often ended with one or both characters killing themselves.
Of course, there are certain conventions that have to be followed. Maurice feels understandable trepidation at the possibility of him being a cocksucking faggot, but what is refreshing is that he quickly gets over it. He engages in two gay relationship, at two different points in his life, and we get the whole shebang: there's fluff, there's angst, there's even hurt/comfort. The only thing missing is the smut.
Maurice is delightful as a character because he maintains his innocence all thorough out the novel. Each emotional and sexual awakening he undergoes reveals his soft, gooey center: He's just a sweet gay boy looking for love and following his heart.
The novel's subtlety with regards to the buttsex is actually genius, although from what I've read, most of the early critics derided this "prudishness" on the part of Forster. However, in this day and age of Internet porn, making the reader imagine for themselves is a rare and much appreciated occurrence.
What's more, some terms are so dated, they're sure to get a laugh even from the densest of readers. Take, for instance, these sentences taken out of context:
"Maurice took no notice, and came." Or "You're beastly hard." Or "You wanted to get it and you're going to."
Actually, they're still funny even in the proper context. At least to my 12-year old brain.
So, to summarize, Maurice is fabulous. Every gay boy and straight ally should have it in their libraries.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLNLGRzb2rY
Look! Two German emo boys kissing! They only start doing it around the last two minutes or so, though.