Taking Liberties: Gay Men's Essays on Politics, Culture, and Sex (Richard Kasak Books) [Paperback]

Michael Bronski (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1563334569 | ISBN-13: 978-1563334566 | Publication Date: September 1996 | Edition: 1st Richard Kasak book ed

Taking Liberties brings together some of the most divergent views published in recent years on the state of contemporary gay male culture. Michael Bronski, himself a widely published and respected gay cultural critic, here presents some of the community's foremost essayists, who weigh in on such slippery topics as outing, masculine identity, pornography, the pedophile movement, community definition, political strategy and much more. By steadfastly shunning easy answers, Taking Liberties testifies to the intellectual vitality of a community that is stronger and more seriously challenged than ever before.

Contributors include: Bill Andriette, Allen Barnett, Bruce Bawer, Ron Caldwell, Larry Chua, Jesse Green, Larry Gross, Craig G. Harris, Craig Hickman, Christopher J. Hogan, Tony Kushner, Michael Lassell, Michael Lowenthal, Vestal McIntyre, Lawrence Mass, Rondo Mieczkowski, Mitzel, John Preston, Charlie Shively, Andrew Sullivan, Scott Tucker, John Weir, Reed Woodhouse

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In assembling this anthology of 25 essays, speeches, and performance pieces, cultural critic/writer/activist Bronski rejects the notion of a single gay perspective by including work from such disparate voices as Bruce Bawer ("Notes on Stonewall"), Andrew Sullivan ("The Politics of Homosexuality"), Tony Kushner ("On Pretentiousness"), John Preston ("What You Learn After Thirty Years of S/M"), Lawrence Mass ("Musical Closets"), and Jesse Green ("The Men from the Boys"). Passionately and provocatively arguing their positions, the contributors investigate aspects of politics, sex, literature, AIDS, and identity: their points of view juxtaposed to create a lively dialog in which the participants frequently agree to disagree. Combining original pieces with previously published works drawn from sources like the New Republic, Out magazine, and Wrestling with the Angel (Riverhead: Putnam, 1995), this anthology contains writing of a uniformly high quality. The compilation of so many leading contemporary queer thinkers makes this an important addition to most public and academic collections.?Jim Van Buskirk, San Francisco P.L.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American

Powerful. Filled with the witty, cantankerous, brave, smug, generous, and downright brilliant writing of gay men.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 469 pages
• Publisher: Masquerade Books; 1st Richard Kasak book ed edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563334569
• ISBN-13: 978-1563334566
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,958,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Up, down and all around the lives of gay men., January 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Taking Liberties: Gay Men's Essays on Politics, Culture, and Sex (Richard Kasak Books) (Paperback)

Michael Bronski came out of the Gay Community News group in Boston. I'll never forget his article about the Hardy Boys in GCN, titled "Franklin W. Dixon Made Me Queer." His smart, brash style is apparent not only in his own writing but his editing as well (although he does do a general introduction, and section intros for this book). Issued in 1996, the collection hasn't dated. Granted, we have seen changes in AIDS protocols, issues related to outing, man/boy love, S/M, gay fiction, political correctness, the new gay right wing, and other matters this book deals with--but the contributions are (with one exception) excellent. The themes covered, with four to six articles for each, are these: politics, sex, literature, AIDS, identity. These aren't firm divisions, but blur in various directions. AIDS isn't far from the minds of any of these writers, no matter what their actual subjects. I'll note the most striking material here. Andrew Sullivan's "The Politics of Homosexuality" shows why he's the posterboy of the gay right; he has the intellect to argue his views effectively, and he's not uptight while doing it. Tony Kushner's "A Socialism of the Skin (Liberation, Honey!)" gives a bracing reply from the left (in his case, far left). The counterpoints on man/boy love are by Jesse Green ("The Men from the Boys"--anti) and Bill Andriette ("Dumbed Down and Played Out"--pro, bitterly so). To balance the sometimes hysterical assumptions about sexual predators, I'll note that several men in my reading group for this book said they'd had sexual experience in their teens with older men and did not feel harmed by it. (I'm not suggesting that sexual predators of children don't exist.) Christopher J. Hogan, who reviews gay adult videos, has a striking article about doing just that in "What We Write about When We Write about Porn" (he doesn't offer apologies to Raymond Carver for the title and should). Reed Woodhouse's treatment of different strands of post-Stonewall fiction, "Five Houses of Gay Fiction," names Andrew Holleran's The Dancer from the Dance (1978) as the best of the lot. The material directly about AIDS is the most powerful material in the book, because it is so personal and honest. Writer Allen Barnett is remembered with excerpts from his diary ("The Reluctant Journal") and a sophisticated memoir of his last days, "Love with the Light On," by Ron Caldwell. Caldwell's piece is the best thing in the book, in fact. He does a triptych on Barnett, starting with a diary of hospital caretaking when Barnett was near death, then shifting to a fictionalization of Barnett's birth and early childhood, and ending with a eulogy at the memorial service for him. It's stunning. Charley Shively's "Malcolm X's Wild Side" offers a fascinating rejoinder to the de-gaying of Malcolm's life by Spike Lee. There is little question that Malcolm hustled gay men extensively before converting to Islam; Shively's case that Malcolm was gay himself is shaky, though, since many straight men hustle gay men to this day. Rondo Mieczkowski's "Danny" recounts a personal relationship that may have saved him from drinking himself to death. It's a beautiful piece. Craig G. Harris's "I'm Going Out Like a F---- Meteor," written a year before his death of AIDS-related causes, gives an Aframerican face to the conditions under which persons with AIDS live. (His title comes from Audre Lorde, a black lesbian poet who died of breast cancer.) I'm saving the worst for last. Lawrence D. Mass's "Musical Closets" was rejected by two other publications before seeing print here. His subject is the uncloseting of anyone in the world of classical music he thinks ought to come out. In order to make these people (some of them ex-friends) face the music of their gayness, he quotes from personal conversations and letters clearly not meant to be shared. He also attacks the people who opposed publication of his essay with a lengthy afterward and interminable notes. This is the ugly side of outing; like Robert Bork, Mass doesn't believe in anyone's right to privacy. One misstep isn't enough to deter me from giving a wholehearted recommendation to this eclectic, wonderful collection. Kudos to Richard Kasak for issuing it.