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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1985)
Stumbling Charleston b y Thom as A Rhodes The best part of Harlan Greene's novel, W hy We Never Danced the Charleston. ($ 12.95, St. Martins/Marek Press) is the title. As titles should, it entices the prospective reader to pick up and quite possibly purchase an otherwise mediocre novel. In this case, it is a plus; becom ing the proverbial carrot on the stick, leading the reader into a world which leaves m any questions unanswered. The world Greene creates is a small hom osexual com m unity in the outskirts of Charleston, South Carolina during the early 1920s. Greene sees Charleston as an island in the stream of social progress. While the rest of the country is searching for new life styles, the residents of Charleston seem happy to maintain a social structure that dis appeared from the rest o f the nation after the Civil War, nearly two generations prior to the era of the novel. Greene particularly enjoys juxtaposing the orderly world of Charleston with the charle ston, which is chaotic and unorganized, and frow ned upon by the local residents. But m any of the residents do want to try a new dance, but have to do it behind closed and locked doors. W ritten in first person, Greene tells his tale as a reminiscence. As a young boy in a city that seems to be dominated by women (not m any girls, either), the young hero needs com panionship from a peer. He eventually is introduced to a boy named Ned Grimke, who seems to be quite strange at first. The de scription o f G rim ke’s entrance seems to war rant concern and intrigue of the narrator. "Because of the angle of the sun, he was half in and half out of the shadows; like a magi GET OUT OF DEBT Chapter 13 or Bankruptcy d a n 's saw, white light sliced him diagonally. ' Depending on one’s viewpoint, that's either rich in sym bolism or merely portentious. It leans towards the latter. Either way. Greene is desperate to let the reader know how im portant Grimke is to the development o f the story. For the two boys, the intrigue leads to a quick friendship. After a while, the two de velop a more intimate relationship which gives the narrator "a shiver as though trans ported to winter." The explicit sexual encounters between the two boys (Greene never gives them ages, which makes the characters more confusing than mysterious), leads to a brief separation. They seem destined to meet again. With a line like, " , . . slim and lovely and blessed, his body looked like a crude medieval crucifix in the m oon light," there seems to be no question. Green picks up the narrative as the char acters become old enough to explore the local homosexual speakeasy. In fact, Greene nicely details the experience of realising one’s sexual preference as being different from just about everyone else's. Those are the better m om ents of the novel. But because the story takes place in a southern town, and Greene seems to have read the same Lillian Heilman and Tennes see W illiams plays that the rest of us have, so his story m ust have jealousies, betrayals and even murder. Greene tries to hold the balance of these with his commentaries. They are ap lenty, and they aren't half as interesting as the narrator’s awareness of being a m em ber of a subculture, or his confusion as to the ram ifi cations of his sexual preference. A love tri angle which formed between the narrator, Ned Grim ke and a powerful man named Hirsch Hess seems to bog the novel down, and the problem is that it takes up half the book. TWENTY-THIRD AVENUE b y K ristan Aspen W om en W ho Loved W omen, by Tee Corinne, is an incredible collection of images from the Lesbian Family tree. Leafing through the pages I met yet another cousin, an aunt, o r grandm other I have not seen before, and some I have never even heard of. Where have these women been all my life? Natalie Clifford Barney, Lorraine Hansberry, Florence Wyle, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sylvia Beach, Qui Jin, Mercedes de Acosta, Frida Kahlo, Mary Edm onia Lewis. Here they are assembled under one cover, the famous and the not so famous, from many countries, cultures, and races, my own herstory, my -------------------. sisters. The W omen W ho Locked W omen. Surely I have known there were lesbians before me, before publication of “ The Lad der." At least I assumed there were. But how close can I feel to women like Eleanor Roosevelt, for example, who is rumored to have been a lesbian? What proof do I have? Last year when I was in New York City I visited the Lesbian Herstory Archives and saw pic tures o f ER that have been banned from pub lic circulation by the Roosevelt Library. They show Eleanor with her lover. Lorena. and their friends, at the beach, in the woods, cam ping, obviously enjoying each other as only lesbians do. These pictures made Eleanor Roosevelt real to me — to my her story. And these pictures are not allowed out of the archive and cannot be reprinted. Gradually, I am beginning to see how m uch has been denied me, even if I am “ out” and accepted by my parents, and friends. As lesbians we have had no access to our past. How can we know who we are without knowl edge of who we were? An im portant visual link to 19th century lesbians has recently been published here in Oregon, by Tee Corinne, pioneering multi- media artist and untiring art historian. Sec uring copyright permission to reproduce actual photographs of all the women in this book under such an explicit title. Women W ho Loved W omen, would have ben pro hibitively expensive, tim e consum ing, and absolutely impossible. So how did Tee do it? First she researched to find paintings or photos of the women who belonged in the book. Then using photocopy enlargements she altered the originals with conte, crayola, oil pastels, nail polish remover, and liquid paper, to create graphics reminiscent of wood block prints or lithographs — Tee's im pressions of oup dyke foremothers in an original way. In addition to the book, 11x17 size poster reproductions of many of the images are available in brown tones, distributed by Pell’s W om ancrafts West in San Francisco. W om en W ho Loved W omen by Tee C orinne is available from Giovanni's Room, 345 S. 12th St., Philadelphia. PA 19107, and also, in Portland, at A W oman's Place Book store. 2349 S.E. Ankeny. Wide Selection of: • L e sb ia n /G a y • B est Sellers, • H a rd c o v e r an d •P a p e r b a c k B o o k s . Personal Services: • S p e cia l O rd ers • G ift W rapp in g • G ift C e rtific a te s 2 2 5 -0 8 8 0 4 2 4 N W 1 9 th A v e . No C harge fo r Initial C onsultation W omen Who Loved Women B O O K S SNYDER & ALTM AN A tto rn e y s at Law Late in the novel, a possible murder is very well handled by Greene, but he quickly drops the event as just another step in the life of the narrator. Only one m ajor (or even m inor) female character can be found in Charleston. Mrs. W ragg is sort of the "Big Daddy" of a halfway hom e for the homosexual com m unity. It's too bad Greene couldn't have developed m ore female characters. His only com m ent on wom en is rather condescending. "The ladies of the confederate home — still clung to them like bridal bouquets, eternal Miss Havershams, they were vestal virgins." Greene’s prose is similar to that of William Styron. Thankfully, Greene controls his language better. As a first novel. W hy We N ever D anced the C harleston, is not a bad effort. Greene shows a great deal of promise. 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