34
Q-Living
Q-NOTES • APRIL 24.2004
Top 10 Things
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RE/MAX Executive Realty
6842 Morrison Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28211
careinard@aol.com
(O) 704-509-4798
(M) 704-458-4857
(F) 704-509-4710
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I
ut in print
'Strangers' gay
culture of the 1800s
by J.S. Hall
Popular opinion holds that the nine
teenth century was a terrible time to be a
gay man or lesbian (or an invert or tribade,
as they were called back then). After all,
the “crime” of sodomy could be punished
by death in many countries; its practice
was regarded as an unspeakable sin; and
most people believed that sodomites would
burn in Hell in the afterlife.
Or so we’ve assumed.
In “Strangers,” Graham Robb — cele
brated biographer of Balzac, Hugo and
Rimbaud — has unearthed evidence that a
homosexual culture not only existed but
also flourished back then. What’s more, he
argues, sodomites weren’t prosecuted or
convicted any more vigorously than other
criminals. However since criminal records
are some of the best-kept archives from
this time, they’ve formed the basis of many
of our perceptions of the Victorian age as
“a homophobic bell from which gay people
eventually liberated themselves.”
Poring through journals, diaries, let
ters and other ephemera. Robb has
assembled considerable evidence of peo
ple living happily together as same-sex
couples or unhappily as citizens protest
ing their treatment by Society and the
law. Many hid their true feelings and
meanings in an elaborate doublespeak of
references to ancient mythology and/or
obscure literature; only those in the know
would divine their true message and as
time passed these codes’ meanings were
lost or forgotten.
These cyc-opening accounts make for
absorbing reading. Who knew, for
instance, that “before, 1910, almost every
American city had a community of ‘sexual
inverts’ with its own cafes, dance-halls,
dubs and churches, and ‘certain streets
where, at night, every fifth man is an
invert’?” Or who realized that once medical
doctors began examining the “condition” of
homosexuality, they would never lack gay
patients eager to discuss their true
natures? However, because most doctors’
theories were rubbish and they weren’t
very choosy about their sub
jects, “by sheer force of cir-
■ cumstances, the typical uni
sexual, in the eyes of many
doctors, was a garrulous
transvestite with a hectic sex-
life and a history of mental illness,” Robb
tartly observes.
Knowledgeable but not stuffy, Robb’s
writing style makes a bygone, almost alien
age spring back to life in vivid detail, relat
ing triumphs and tragedies in equal meas
ure. Some might argue that he veers into a
too-academic tone at times, but his dry wit
brings a sparkle to
otherwise dreary
moments. In his
chronicle of Oscar
Wilde’s legendary
trial, he notes that
“Wilde may have
been ‘crucified’ on
the cross of public
morality, but he
supplied the ham
mer and nails” with
his antagonistic testimony and steadfast
refusal to flee England, despite many
opportunities.
Robb illustrates how public ignorance of
homosexuality (something seemingly fos
tered by the government) helped the gay
subculture exist without retaliation, as well
as how police forces’ experience with gay
people occasionally led to greater tolerance
and clemency. He even explores popular
fiction of the time, finding sporadic gay and
lesbian characters, most of whom met
tragic fates even when their authors shared
their sexual orientation.
Well-researched and nicely presented,
“Strangers” turns preconceived notions on
their head by presenting copious amounts
of previously unknown data about the
1800s. By doing so, Robb honors the
memories of pioneers like Dr. Magnus
Hirschfeid and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, as
well as more ordinary folk whose only
“crime” was to love (or at least have sex
with) a person of the same gender. This
book keenly illustrates how far we’ve pro
gressed in some respects, and how far we
still have to go in others.
info:
'Strangers: Homosexual Love in the
Nineteenth Century'
by Graham Robb
W.W. Norton
$26.95
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