E M Forster – On Cambridge University, ‘A Passage to India’ and Travel

I was listening this morning to a talk give by E M Forster on 21^st December 1958 for the BBC.

The author reflects on the experience of Cambridge University and how his own undergraduate years at Kings College affected his outlook on life and his writing.

He suggests such a university is ‘place for the very young and for the very old’ and that middle aged people should go away and get out into the world and have experiences. He considers some of the special qualities of the place – such as the relatively easy mixing of ages and classes, though for the latter, he adds that it’s a limited profile of ‘mostly selected intellectuals’.

Forster then reflects on the success and motivations for ‘A Passage to India’ and about his own travels in general.

And as I listened, I began to think about the influence of universities time on my life. This led me to consider whether and how I’d changed as I grew older. And I came to the somewhat unsettling view that, in essentials, I am probably much the same now as then. Lots of strategies to deal with antisocial traits and personal inadequacies but the central core seems the mostly the same. The ‘7 Up’ experience to a tee!

Here is the talk …

… for you to be able take a similar journey – if it’s your pleasure to do so!

The Tango - Man-On-Man Action

I've been long long much addicted to the tango and naturally very open to the men-on-men histories of the dance that developed first in working-class port neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires in Argentina from the mid 19th century.

Good to first sort myth from fact though. So we don't get too carried away!

The hottest and most seductive fantasy, for me, was that men, while waiting to be attended to in bordellos ('prostibulos'), would dance the tango to pass the time. Raging hormones momentarily re-channelled.

However, there seem to be two strands of fact that better work together.

Being a dance of the poor, the tango tended to be performed in the streets. As a result of European migration in the early C19, there was an increasing social disapproval of women in free contact with men, such that outdoor dancing drifted into men-on-men action.

And with men far out-numbering women in Argentina in the early C20, men would practise dancing with each other in males-only prácticas in preparation for the time with women. At these prácticas, a man would first watch, then be taught by an older and more experienced dancer to follow and only finally would learn to lead. When proficient, would finally be taken by an experienced dancer to a milonga for an arranged dance with a woman.

Now what lead me on this little detour into the history of  the tango was this totally charming, sweet and teasing video of the De Fazio brothers, Enrique and Guillermo, executing the 'Reliquias Portenas' ...

 ... much to the delight and appreciation of their audience.

A Sense of Family Past

 

Art Mariano ('The Meaning of Art') put a powerful and moving video my way yesterday - '"Secretly" - A Vintage Montage Of Guys Together' (LINK).

As the title suggests, it's a compilation of photographs of gay couples from I guess the Edwardian period up to the end of World War Two - an era when we were much less visible and 'kissing secretly'.

Set to the song 'Secretly', I had the strongest feeling of family past - gays from a broad range of ages and social classes in their (mostly) just being themselves in their everyday lives.

I felt as though I was flicking through an album of small-scale gay social/domestic history - a real pleasure as there is so little of this readily available. The images range from often staid-ish studio portraits to casual snap shots where the subjects and their interactions almost jump out of the photographs.

In no particular order and given that not absolutely all of those in the archive are our brothers ...

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I had a great feeling of brotherhood browsing over this family album of our ancestors - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Did you end up having any favourites?