Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan

Katha,

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Sorry I'm late. I spent the weekend in Chicago burning several candles down to the wick and just got in. Yes, of course, you're right about different cultural identities; and yes, plenty of charming homosexuals know an awful lot about opera; and, heaven knows, I don't want to deny that many upper middle class interiors would be a lot poorer without a certain homosexual influence. I've been known to watch the odd bit of figure-skating myself. But I think we should be careful not to celebrate cultural niches which are niches because many other places to live and breathe openly are denied gay men. There are, after all, far more gay accountants than opera buffs; far more gay construction workers than literary critics; and far more gay men who've never listened to a single Barbra Streisand album (count me in on that one) than those who have turned her into an icon. And a lot of the culture of camp Rudnick celebrates is, at root, an artifact of pain, not celebration--the pain of being treated like women when we're men (and vice-versa) and of being denied any cultural presence which isn't defined by subversion, irony, or wit. For a long, long time, gay men made wonderful virtue out of necessity. But that's no reason to perpetuate the necessity. Your comments reminded me of Philip Larkin's remark that he was opposed to the civil rights movement because he thought it would ruin jazz. It certainly presaged the decline of jazz (IMHO). But there is surely no doubt as to the worthiness of the trade-off. Ditto archaic gay culture and equality. With any luck, the gay civil rights movement will eventually make Rudnick look like the anachronistic stereotype-artist he is. Let him stick to Addams Family Values, and leave the homos alone.

As for Sinatra, I'm amazed there wasn't a squeak about his Mafia connections, his criminal background, and his notoriously violent streak. I love the music, too, but the macho, woman-abusing culture he lived in was truly horrifying. After a suitable interval (I'd wait a week) will someone please commission an op-ed from Kitty Kelley?

So sorry this is my last public e-mail to you. It's been huge fun, and a great incentive to get up before 11. I hope next time to write you in private. It will be far less indiscreet, of course, but I'll do what I can.

Can you believe Arianna and Shearer are replacing us?

so long,
Andrew

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