automatic chortles), theatrical
"c h
0
r u s boys" (not ballet
dancers - no one more proper
than they) - and so on deep
into the hobgoblin undergrowth.
Meanwhile,
in
the wings of this
social drama there stand embar–
rassing,
self-chosen
"allies"
(Homosexual
Law Reform
Society and so forth) who feel
about queers as liberals do about
"coloreds." (Impatient boredom
greets this kindly interest ill
both cases. The racial and
queer "problems" further have
in common that both are man–
made and totally soluble).
Edging, by now elegantly, his
way into stage center of these
notions is a figure reborn every
time the theme of this essay
is
propounded: Oscar Wilde. Two
films have been released this
year about him,
~d
he con–
tinues to dominate the English
queer scene absolutely, with
most unfortunate results. Wilde
the human person and, in one
great play, the dramatist, can
never be praised enough; but
Wilde the "homosexual hero"
IS
a disaster. No one can blame
him
for not saying out loud and
clear, in 1895, ""Yes, I am one
-and now
justify
your law";
but because he did not
say
this,
he was a victim and no hero.
No one can blame him for a
temperament that felt his whole
life in terms of an ultimate dis–
aster; but this makes
his
fate
151
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F. Scott Fitzgerald
BABYLON REVISITED
AND OTHER STORIES
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George Santayana
THE LAST PURITAN
The New England soul examined
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$1.95
C. P. Snow
THE CONSCIENCE
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One of the novels in the famous
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se–
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SHORT STORY 3
Presenting
Burton Raffel
Matthew Carney
Joseph Slotkin
Robert Creeley
Cloth - $4.50
Paper - $2.45
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