Eustace Chisholm...

[Rod Hagen]

Little literature sleuthing help here please? POURED through this fucking book tonight, looking for the charged passage wherein Eustace has a nightmare vision (I never imagined how bad it'd get) of Captain Stadger hissing into Haws's ear something like, "Coal miners use a diamond tip to drill for their treasures. What do you think I'll use to get to yours?" What fucking page is that on. I thought I marked it and I canNOT fucking find it. It held such weight. THANKS

 

-Hagen

[Rod Hagen]

Will? BigGuyPasadena?

[Rod Hagen]

Found it! Page 195

 

"With helpless sick terror he saw the moon face of the officer bent over the soldier, while from a mouth which looked too well-shaped to form such words he heard: Private Haws, burglars use diamond-tipped drills to get at their treasure. Know what I'll use to get mine from you?"

 

Just thought that was remarkable passage, particularly considering how bad things really got. Will, Big Guy, anybody else whose read this, what do you think about the books sad and violent ends? Was it a case of Fags getting what they deserve, or is Paul Binding's defense, in his introduction, correct: "Viewed thus (in strange entireties) human beings may not make a pretty or a seassuring sight. But it is imperative for our wholeness not to shirk from it." Personally I don't buy it</> when authors claim they have no real control over the direction their tales take. What do you think?

[bigguyinpasadena]

Sorry Mr.Hagen,I have only read one book by James Purdy,MALCOLM,which I enjoyed very much.

Are you back from your travels?I want to talk to you about prague when you get a chance-thinking of going there next year,other posters have soaid it is not so great.

If you have not read MALCOLM please do so.I do not know what your political leanings are(I think you are on friendly terms with Mr.Dare-who,at one point,was extolling the virtues of Michael Savage-not the only queer guy to do so might I add-but given your reading habits I think we might be on a more similar path(although your taste are far more refined than mine hee hee)

[Rod Hagen]

Hey Big Guy,

 

Regarding my politics, if Ayn Rand and Bruce Cutler had a child together, it could be me (though I'd be fatherless as I'm sure she was in fact a man-sized praying mantis). I'm liberal, nowhere near a libertarian, however, and yet I'm definitely a "pull yourself up by your OWN bootstraps you lazy bastard" kind of guy. Dan Dare is more conservative than I am, that's for sure.

 

Once I resume reading Gay Lit. I'll definitely take in more James Purdy, so thank you for the recommendation; I recommend "Eustace", just be prepared for darkness and hail. As of now I'm dedicating my time to catching up on lots of nonGay stories, biographies, classics, journals, that I've had on the back burner for some time; a sort of self-education. I'm ashamed to say I've never read something as basic as The Iliad. "Before" I was gay, or gay-acknowledged, my nose was buried, usually, in either a science book, most likely something anti-religion or heavy on evolutionary theory-Richard Dawkins was a favorite-or in some travel anthology in the vein of Paul Theroux or Tim Cahill-David Quanamen writes splendid combinations of Science, wilderness, and travel. But I realized recently, that since I "became" gay less than 7 years ago I've spent too much time absorbing Gay Lit at the expense of my first literary loves, and at the expense of the literary education I should have administered to myself during those early, Travel and Biology obsessed, years. Bullfinch's Mythology is coming along to Montreal and NYC next week (if I finish Joyce Carol Oat's collection of American Short Stories by then), and I'll most likely pack an entire Hawthorn Collection of some sort for the Prague, Munich, Turkey trip in November.

 

Since you asked about my readings I will say that I continue to plug away at gay tales (considering I'm an escort top, I suppose that could be a double entendre) in some small way (given the size of my dick, that's another one). But I do this only on the porcelain throne, so the reading is quick, usually hot, yet still cerebral: "Flesh and the word 1234", "Quickies", Jack Fritscher stories, and also, now, the James White Review and I should be receiving my first copy of the Harrington Gay Men's Fictional Quarterly shortly (why didn't anybody recommend that to me when I was looking for Gay literary Journals?)

 

I've been to Prague before, but had only enough money at the time to take in the free sites as I slalomed through the hordes of tourists. So I can't, yet, recommend any hotels, restaurants, or non-free activities or destinations. We've heard good things about the 4-seasons, our destination. It's probably the most visually stunning of all Eastern European cities. Even more so than Krakow, which is a jewel in the East Side's tarnished crown. It is frustratingly overtouristed and way over Expated, but perhaps the latter complaint was more a factor of WHEN I first visited, 1994, just a few years after the fall of communism when every American with an "Alternate World Plan" dropped into Eastern European cities like so many 21st century paramilitary beatniks.

Additionally, I don't know what effect the flooding has had on tourism. I'll soon find out.

 

Have a wonderful trip, and please do NOT read Arthur Philip's "Prague" in preparation; it's pseudo-intellectual puffery, with 5 too many protagonists. (Plus it actually takes place in Budapest, not Prague). I read a positive NYtimes review of, "The Winter Zoo", and although it takes place, I believe, in Poland, it's still got a nice Eastern European flavor, or so the NYtimes reviewer suggested.

 

-Hagen