Last Letter to Paul Monette

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface: Becoming Real xi
4. Part 1 Morning in Gay America 1970– 1980
5. Introduction 1
6. Christopher Street Magazine 5
7. Dead Souls at The New Yorker: a puzzling case 15
8. Lovers: the Story of two Men 20
9. “Everything Is Only Ten Years Old” a Conversation with Felice Picano 27
10. Decent Passions: real stories about love 45
11. Blue Moves: conversation with a male porn dancer 55
12. Part 2 Beginning to Count Ourselves 1980– 1983
13. Introduction 75
14. Archeologist of the Present: Michel Foucault in New York City 77
15. Gay Politics and Its Premises: sixteen propositions 83
16. Sixteen Propositions: an exchange 105
17. Scaring the Horses; or the Question of Gay Identity 114
18. Who Are We? What Do We Want? How Best Might We Get It? 128
19. Part 3 The State of the Tribe: 1983– 1987
20. Introduction 135
21. Gay Pride and Survival in the Eighties 137
22. The State of Gay Criticism 140
23. Oedipus Revised: David Leavitt’s the lost language of cranes 153
24. Paragraph 175, or How Dark Can It Get? 163
25. A Culture in a Crucible 173
26. Part 4 Workaday Publishing, or Hegel’s Ernst 1985– 1988
27. Introduction 177
28. Further Down the Road 179
29. The Universal Voice of Gay Writers 184
30. A Conversation with Allen Barnett 188
31. How to Review a Gay Novel 202
32. Chasing the Crossover Audience and Other Self- Defeating Strategies 204
33. Editing Fiction and the Question of “Political Correctness” 215
34. Part 5 On the Raft of the Medusa: 1988– 1990
35. Introduction 225
36. The Death of a Generation 227
37. An Intellectual Ambush 230
38. A Quilt of Many Colors: Primary discourse and the creation of a gay culture 235
39. Preaching to the Choir 258
40. The Present Moment 262
41. A Letter to Ed White, 23 December 1990 267
42. Part 6 In the Gathering Darkness an Age of Heroes: 1991– 1996
43. Introduction 271
44. Eulogy for Allen Barnett: 1955– 1991 273
45. Honoring Richard Rouillard 277
46. Eulogy for Randy Shilts 280
47. Necessary Bread: gay writing comes of age 283
48. Stonewall: from event to idea 289
49. Three Takes on John Preston 292
50. Food for Life: a dinner party in two hours 310
51. Turning . . . Turning: the Boys in the Band 313
52. A Mouthful of Air: the case of Larry Kramer 319
53. Key West Seminar 334
54. Part 7 Reconsiderations: 1996– 2014
55. Introduction 339
56. Hymn to the Gym 341
57. AIDS Books: where we’ve Been, where we’re going: a publishing perspective 346
58. Affectionate Men 350
59. Last Letter to Paul Monette 353
60. Afterword: Looking Back 357
61. Appendix A: Out magazine 377
62. Appendix B: A few words about Christopher street’s finances 379
63. Appendix C: The Stonewall Inn Editions Michael Denneny, general editor 382
64. Acknowledgments 387