[ilds] Mention of the Alexandria Quartet in an Interesting and Controversial New Book

[James Gifford]

Hi All,

I think this is the link to Bruce's previous post:

https://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/ilds/Week-of-Mon-20110321/005997.html

Just more than three years ago!  Anyone intrepid can find the article in 
the listserv archives as well (search engine is on the right hand side 
of the ILDS website: http://www.lawrencedurrell.org).

I'd only add that Van Norden is also the man in the scene I analyze in 
that article -- the intimacy he shares with Miller is fairly blunt.

I suppose my only addition would be that when we look to the queerness 
of the irruptions of the repressed into the text in the Quartet (and 
much of Durrell's other works) or the uncertainties over orientation or 
the universal perversions of desire, we can either look to the author 
and ask if he was doing this by accident (in other words, 
"symptomatically") or if this is part of the work.  As a reader, I'm 
ultimately not very concerned since I'm more interested in the text. 
With that proviso, I'd cautiously add that I'm fairly sure these are 
designed parts of Durrell's works -- they're too pervasive to be 
accidental, and they're too close to the ideas in his critical writing.

So, was Durrell symptomatically referring to Van Norden?  Or was this by 
design?  I doubt he failed to notice the erastes/eromenos quality of his 
relationship with Miller.  It seems almost explicit.

All best,
James


On 2014-06-01, 10:28 AM, Bruce Redwine wrote:
> Billy,
>
> Thanks for the response and encouragement.  Let me answer your
> questions.  Michael Haag told me he /didn't/ think Durrell was gay.  I
> assume he would also say no to repressed homosexuality.  My guess is
> that Ian MacNiven would agree with Haag on both counts.  I have no idea
> what Eve Cohen thought.  Sappho Jane did not mention her father having
> homosexual tendencies, repressed or not, in the excerpts of her diaries
> and letters published in /Granta./
>
> Joseph A. Boone's article is "Mappings of Male Desire in Durrell's
> /Alexandria Quartet,"/ /South Atlantic Quarterly/ 88 (1989), 73-106.
>   It's good.  James corrected me on attributing repressed homosexuality
> to Boone's argument.  He's right.  My memory was faulty.  Boone doesn't
> explicitly say that — he sticks to the text — but I think this is
> quibbling.  Boone talks about a strange relationship between Durrell and
> Miller, especially as it began in 1935 (p. 75), and the implications of
> the sexual metaphor, "man-size piece."  He should have gone further.  I
> think what we have going on here is something similar to the culture of
> homosexuality in Classical Greece — the older male /(erastes)/ taking on
> a younger male /(eromenos)/ as his partner/beloved.  Initially Miller is
> the dominant partner, later the roles reverse.  The Greek terms are
> Kenneth Dover's in his /Greek Homosexuality/ (1978).  I am a little
> surprised Boone doesn't make the analogy.  Recall that Durrell's
> pseudonym in /Panic Spring/ (1937) is Charles Norden, that his boat on
> Corfu is the Norden, and that Van Norden is Miler's friend in /Tropic of
> Cancer./
> /
> /
> This topic of Durrell's sexuality/homosexuality has been discussed
> before on the List.  Undoubtedly some are bored by it.  For more detail,
> I refer you to the post:  Miller's "Numinous Cock" v. Durrell's
> "Man-size Piece" (24 March 2011).  The exchange was largely between
> James and myself.  Neither of us have changed our positions.  Here's my
> conclusion in 2011:
>
> Am I arguing that Durrell and Miller had a homosexual relationship?  No.
>   Am I arguing that Durrell was in fact homosexual?  No.  I am pointing
> out certain patterns in their relationship, which suggest an erotic
> involvement or attachment.   This homoerotic affinity need not have been
> consummated to be valid.  I am also suggesting the obvious that LGD had
> a very complex personality and that any attempt to characterize him as,
> say, utterly and robustly heterosexual is trite and untrue.  In a
> personal communication, Dr. Anthony Durrell, a practicing psychiatrist,
> has compared LGD's personality to an onion skin of many layers, and
> David Green has aptly noted that the photograph of Durrell as a French
> onion seller fits Dr. Durrell's analogy (see Gordon Bowker, /Through the
> Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell,/ London 1997:  fig. of
> Durrell in London, 1985).  I agree with both of them.
>
>
> Bruce