"To another interview’s probing question about his sexual orientation, he said, 'I’m neither one thing nor the other particularly.' Later in the interview he added: 'What I am trying to say is that I am a person before I am anything else.' While today’s L.G.B.T.Q. community may read that as a closeted gay man from an earlier generation refusing to come out, 'it’s far more complicated than that,' Mr. Dery said. The few romantic feelings Mr. Gorey confessed to in letters to friends, most of them for other men and best described as infatuations, show him as someone for whom the messiness of human relationships was much too much. Perhaps for that or other reasons he kept himself buttoned up. Mr. Dery honored that. 'I wanted to allow Gorey his self-definition, and his self-definition is essentially not to define himself,' he said. 'I wanted to allow Gorey his mystery.'"
From
"Edward Gorey Was Eerily Prescient/A new biography celebrates his mysterious life and art."
The book, by Mark Dery, has a fantastic title,
"Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey."
On the subject of vague sexuality, I love this Gorey drawing:
The caption is: "When they tried to make love, their strenuous and prolonged efforts came to nothing" (from Gorey's book
"The Loathsome Couple").
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20 comments:
What I am trying to say is that I am a person before I am anything else.' While today’s L.G.B.T.Q. community may read that as a closeted gay man from an earlier generation refusing to come out
What a telling and damning characterization of the "LGBTQ" ideology -- at its essence, in criticizing those who identify as a person, it denigrates human personhood.
Edward Gorey is delightful and weird. Think twice before turning small children loose on his work.
For more than 30 years, a poster of Gore's "Gashlycrumb Tinies" has adorned our spare bedroom, to either the merriment or horror of our house guests.
(It shows little kids named from A to Z meeting grisly and untimely ends.)
MY personal favorite: "N is for Neville, who died of ennui."
https://tinyurl.com/ycyht9nx
Here's a link to the Gashlycrumb Tinies narrated in a proper British accent. Happy Halloween!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg1ezWzktRA
(eaglebeak)
Gorey was one of the greats.The Curious Sofa is unforgettable.
"What I am trying to say is that I am a person before I am anything else"
Before the "identity" upheaval in our society this is how oppressed minorities wanted to be viewed. W.H. Auden took a similar approach. So did Martin Luther King Jr. It was a deeply humane approach that called oppression out for the evil it was without making a fetish out of being oppressed.
"When they tried to make love, their strenuous and prolonged efforts came to nothing"
That happened to me once, back in my drinking days.
I liked the image I had 60 years ago. It was the element of surprise when we got in the bedroom and .......
I'm still delighted when I remember I caught a glimpse of him at the New York City Ballet. For a number of years, I later learned, he bought orchestra seats for Every Single Performance. I had just moved to New York for graduate school and was able to leave my cheap seat practically in the attic for an unoccupied orchestra one in the intermission--and there was a figure straight out of a Gorey drawing, old-fashioned basketball sneakers and all--and it was Gorey.
If your on Cape Cod, visit his house-museum.
I have been enjoying Gorey for years, and once did as suggested above, but with several pages cut from his books and framed, rotating them through the guest bathroom - which has enough wall space for a good 6 or so of the 11 x 15 paperback pages. Ha, poor Neville. Then there was the "lonely sock' or some such. Have to go back and dig in the basement.
A longtime fave. Always thought of Gorey as a wonderful visual artist and literary Clifton Webb.
Thank you john Tuffnell for the link.
I caught a glimpse of him at the New York City Ballet.
That solves it.
Gay.
Now I need that book.
"When they tried to make love, their strenuous and prolonged efforts came to nothing"
And thank goodness for that.
When they tried to make love, their strenuous and prolonged efforts came to nothing
I can proudly say that my love-making has never been described as prolonged.
I can proudly say that my love-making has never been described as prolonged.
Always leave them wanting more. That's my motto.
I, too, have never acknowledged Mr. Gorey's sexuality.
The Doubtful Guest was probably called "doubtful" for a reason.
Just visited my local library's website to check out the book.
I love Gorey's work.
While I collect and write literary gossip, I've grown tired of prying into people's sex life. If they tell you about it, like Henry Miller and Anais Nin, then it's open season. Or if they're perverts, like Marion Zimmer Bradley and her husband.
For anyone else, you should have a darn good reason. I put Gorey into the category.
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