“This homosexual dream of perfect metaphysical union is not so much a reflected heterosexual ideal as it is the compensation for having wept in the darkness.” (Thomas Yingling, Hart Crane and the Homosexual Text, quoted in Heather Love, Feeling Backward) Long, long ago, Leo Bersnai formulated a theory of the impossibility of queer desire: queer … Continue reading
Category Archives: How to Be Gay
I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it: Queering Deaf Utopia
THANK YOU, NEXT Full disclosure: I am gleefully out of touch with pop music. In fact, I decided to swear it off forever when that whole autotune phenomenon made Cher unlistenable. When all those queens lifted up their index fingers and pranced towards the center of the dance floor as Cher’s autotuned voice … Continue reading
Eat Your Heart Out, Robert Johnson! Filthy Dreams’ Deal With the Devil (or, a poetic invocation)
“He that loves pleasure must for pleasure fall.” … Continue reading
Forever in Transition: Cruising Through Queer Space with David Wojnarowicz
Delving deeper into David Wojnarowicz’s fluid, transitory movement in his writing and art not only further enlightens his artistic style, but also his articulation of his queer sexuality, corresponding to and sometimes directly confronting the focus on queer spaces in queer theory. Continue reading
So Many Ways to Be Gay: Nihilism and André Gide
One of my projects right here at Filthy Dreams is to explore genealogies of aesthetic discourses and how they provide ways for people to “be” gay. I have been turning back time (with subtle reference to that leather daddy queen herself, Cher) for a while now by going all the way back to the 19th century … Continue reading