Wednesday 15 August 2007

Sexuality in plain view

People sometimes talk about homosexuality as a secret hidden in plain view, such that when it is mooted that Kipling (say) was gay, the revelation is supposed to go something like: "aha! now that this secret fact about him is revealed, we can see that it entirely explains his behaviour, his manners, his art--that indeed all his writing is plainly and evidently that of a gay man ..." But the most we can say about sexuality in plain view is that it is a kind of failure -- it is the dynamic of concealment and revelation that is crucial to sexuality.

No comments: