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In a message dated 9/1/01 10:39:28 PM !!!First Boot!!!, [log in to unmask] writes:
> Does anyone else who cares to consider the matter have an opinion as to what
> Julius may have been trying to say here?
>
Sir, my first impulse was to tell you how ignorant you are, to even repeat
such nonsense, but musing upon your ignorance, I recalled an incident that
took place in college. I was in my second or third year and had signed up
for a class on modernist novelists, with an emphasis on Hemingway and
Fitzgerald. A few weeks into the class, the professor, a highly intelligent
and eccentric man who smoked cigarettes in class (he's be arrested these days
for that) demanded that we all go to the college bookstore to buy a book he
had reserved for us. It was a rather thin, plain, paperback, with the title
and author's name on the front cover and then the text. No information about
the story or author was on the inside covers. I had not until the moment of
looking at that book heard of the author of the book. The professor demanded
that we read the book and informed us that we would then discuss it with us.
It was a novel and the story concerned an American in Paris, who had nothing
to do while waiting for his fiance to join him so he hung out with this old
friend he knew, an older, wealthy man, a homosexual, but who could get into
real cool cool clubs and paid the way. This American ended up falling in
love with a young bartender he met at one of these clubs, another male and
they had an affair, while the readers learn through the character's
flashbacks of his long struggle with his feelings of attraction to men. The
fiance finally came back but he could not. Anyway, I remember being very
taken with this book, as I had never read anything serious about this subject
matter and certainly not anything this powerful. After a discussion with the
professor in which certain aspects of the book were discussed such as the
flamboyant and amoral lives the characters led as compared to Fitzgerald's
characters and other such matters, he said to us - Would it surprise any of
you to know that this book was written by a black man? I have to admit that
it did surprise me, because the characters in my mind were definitely white.
But were they?
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<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>In a message dated 9/1/01 10:39:28 PM !!!First Boot!!!, [log in to unmask] writes:
<BR>
<BR>
<BR><BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Does anyone else who cares to consider the matter have an opinion as to what
<BR>Julius may have been trying to say here?
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">
<BR>Sir, my first impulse was to tell you how ignorant you are, to even repeat
<BR>such nonsense, but musing upon your ignorance, I recalled an incident that
<BR>took place in college. I was in my second or third year and had signed up
<BR>for a class on modernist novelists, with an emphasis on Hemingway and
<BR>Fitzgerald. A few weeks into the class, the professor, a highly intelligent
<BR>and eccentric man who smoked cigarettes in class (he's be arrested these days
<BR>for that) demanded that we all go to the college bookstore to buy a book he
<BR>had reserved for us. It was a rather thin, plain, paperback, with the title
<BR>and author's name on the front cover and then the text. No information about
<BR>the story or author was on the inside covers. I had not until the moment of
<BR>looking at that book heard of the author of the book. The professor demanded
<BR>that we read the book and informed us that we would then discuss it with us.
<BR>It was a novel and the story concerned an American in Paris, who had nothing
<BR>to do while waiting for his fiance to join him so he hung out with this old
<BR>friend he knew, an older, wealthy man, a homosexual, but who could get into
<BR>real cool cool clubs and paid the way. This American ended up falling in
<BR>love with a young bartender he met at one of these clubs, another male and
<BR>they had an affair, while the readers learn through the character's
<BR>flashbacks of his long struggle with his feelings of attraction to men. The
<BR>fiance finally came back but he could not. Anyway, I remember being very
<BR>taken with this book, as I had never read anything serious about this subject
<BR>matter and certainly not anything this powerful. After a discussion with the
<BR>professor in which certain aspects of the book were discussed such as the
<BR>flamboyant and amoral lives the characters led as compared to Fitzgerald's
<BR>characters and other such matters, he said to us - Would it surprise any of
<BR>you to know that this book was written by a black man? I have to admit that
<BR>it did surprise me, because the characters in my mind were definitely white.
<BR>But were they?
<BR>
<BR>
<BR></FONT></HTML>
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