He Was A Famous Lesbian Poet
August 12, 2018 6:37 PM Subscribe
We thought we’d heard it all when it came to imposters. Clearly, we hadn’t met Pierre Louÿs. [Note: artistic nudity.]
This whole website is fascinating. It's just a few steps to this article in which I learn the true story of the sculpture "Princess X", a version of which is in the permanent collection of the local Sheldon Museum of Art.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:12 PM on August 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:12 PM on August 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
Every young mezzo-soprano programs Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis on her graduate (or undergraduate) recital. Every young queer mezzo-soprano presumably discovers Bilitis' true identity with a mixture of disappointment, annoyance, and a certain lack of surprise. (The texts Debussy picked are all pretty hetero, though.)
posted by fast ein Maedchen at 7:43 PM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by fast ein Maedchen at 7:43 PM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm fascinated by the website, too. My Markov-clicking led me to Inventing the “Stepford Wives” American Dream Town, and it was eye-opening for me. I get it that White Americana's fetish of suburban domesticity was (is?) a thing, but seeing it manifest in geography and architecture, on the scale shown in the old & new photos, is... well, new for me.
Overall I find it a positive in the editorial nuances in these articles, such as the complicated legacy of Bilitis and how women consciously made it for the better.
posted by runcifex at 8:56 PM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Overall I find it a positive in the editorial nuances in these articles, such as the complicated legacy of Bilitis and how women consciously made it for the better.
posted by runcifex at 8:56 PM on August 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Bilitis is a strange historical fictional figure. I had been reading up on the Daughters of Bilitis for a while before I thought to look up Bilitis. I was pretty disappointed to find out the origin, but given the dearth of lesbian culture that was on the surface in the first half of the 20th Century, Bilitis served a purpose in helping gay women find one another. And because Bilitis wasn’t known to all and sundry, it was mostly invisible to the larger society, which could be a hostile place for gay women.
In Iceland queer women historians have launched a project to find historical records about queer women. There is much better documentation about queer men in historical records, but queer women are largely invisible. The historians made the point that this mirrored how invisible queer women were in the culture, since they were doubly marginalized, queer women weren’t seen by wider society, which also made it more difficult for them to find each other.
Bilitis entered western high culture and, thanks to Debussy more than anyone else, survived for decades. She allowed gay women to send a signal that could be read by other gay women. But oh goodness are the original poems not worth reading.
posted by Kattullus at 2:29 AM on August 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
In Iceland queer women historians have launched a project to find historical records about queer women. There is much better documentation about queer men in historical records, but queer women are largely invisible. The historians made the point that this mirrored how invisible queer women were in the culture, since they were doubly marginalized, queer women weren’t seen by wider society, which also made it more difficult for them to find each other.
Bilitis entered western high culture and, thanks to Debussy more than anyone else, survived for decades. She allowed gay women to send a signal that could be read by other gay women. But oh goodness are the original poems not worth reading.
posted by Kattullus at 2:29 AM on August 13, 2018 [3 favorites]
messynessychic is a treasure and I find lots of intriguing stuff there. Every Monday she lists 13 Things I Found on the Internet Today -- always fun.
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:57 AM on August 13, 2018
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:57 AM on August 13, 2018
Queer women weren’t seen by wider society, which also made it more difficult for them to find each other
The situation in Paris at the turn of the 20th century was a little different. The article in the FPP already mentions Natalie Clifford Barney (whose relationship with Pierre Louÿs is described in detail in this article) and there were a number of high-profile women who were relatively open about their queerness, such as Colette, Mathilde de Morny, or Liane de Pougy. The latter was not only one of the most famous courtesans of the time, having both men and women for clients, but she was also a prolific writer, and the best-selling author of Idylle Saphique, a roman à clef about her love affair with Barney. Of course, there were limits to that openness and it was mostly circumscribed to this particular microcosm of artists and wealthy patrons. Still, outside these literary circles, there was a lively lesbian scene centered on cafés that has been described with a voyeuristic luxury of details by Belle Epoque writers and artists (source paper, in French ).
posted by elgilito at 10:31 AM on August 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
The situation in Paris at the turn of the 20th century was a little different. The article in the FPP already mentions Natalie Clifford Barney (whose relationship with Pierre Louÿs is described in detail in this article) and there were a number of high-profile women who were relatively open about their queerness, such as Colette, Mathilde de Morny, or Liane de Pougy. The latter was not only one of the most famous courtesans of the time, having both men and women for clients, but she was also a prolific writer, and the best-selling author of Idylle Saphique, a roman à clef about her love affair with Barney. Of course, there were limits to that openness and it was mostly circumscribed to this particular microcosm of artists and wealthy patrons. Still, outside these literary circles, there was a lively lesbian scene centered on cafés that has been described with a voyeuristic luxury of details by Belle Epoque writers and artists (source paper, in French ).
posted by elgilito at 10:31 AM on August 13, 2018 [2 favorites]
I have never heard of Bilitis before, which is strange because I love crap like this (this seems like an artsier 19th century version of what I've called toga porn).
But... Kattullus, wow, you are so right. Those poems are mediocre. Sappho is so good in that chills-up-your-spine kind of way. Louÿs's work reminds me of 1980s perfume commercials where Vaseline is smeared over the lens.
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 1:59 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
But... Kattullus, wow, you are so right. Those poems are mediocre. Sappho is so good in that chills-up-your-spine kind of way. Louÿs's work reminds me of 1980s perfume commercials where Vaseline is smeared over the lens.
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 1:59 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
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Oddly enough, I knew about this guy from a reference to a play of his, Aphrodite, in one of Dorothy Parker’s theater reviews. Pretty turgid stuff, apparently; the expense and “obscenity” of the production was the draw.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:59 PM on August 12, 2018 [3 favorites]