Times Square Red

Summary: Times Square Red is the second half of Delany’s essay that speaks of the differing meanings of “contact” and “networking” through his various encounters with people which explains the downfall of the pornographic theaters in the first half of his essay.

Register: The second half of his essay, Times Square Red, is completely different from the first part of his essay, Times Square Blue. This essay differs in tone, language and content from the first essay which makes the whole experience of reading it a different one. In Times Square Blue, Chip explained the many men he encountered at the porn theaters and, with explicit detail, where their contact would go from there. He would encounter the same men time after time and actually formed friendships with them, friendships he kept for many years. However, in the second portion of his essay, Times Square Red, he speaks of contacts suffering from the closure of these porn theaters.

“This is a rhetorical change that may well adhere to an extremely important discursive intervention in the legal contouring of social practices whose ramifications, depending on the development and the establishment of new social practices promote communication between the classes (specifically social and sex related), are hard to foresee in any detail” (120).

He expresses with great concern about the contacts, “social and sexual”, suffering from these closures and speaks a questions of “where do we go from here?”. The theaters were a place for men to come and mingle socially and sexually among one another forming contacts that would provide themselves, and their partner, with pleasure.

The shift in his tone in this second essay also comes with the shift in contacts. The majority of the contacts he describes in Times Square Red are not only just one time encounters but are also not social or sexual. Even though these contacts can be beneficial to his life, and his case his career, they were never contacts that occurred more than once.

He compared and contrasted two different types of social networks – one made of a chain and one of a net. “In a net situation information comes from several directions and crosses various power boundaries, so that various processes can compensate for the inevitable reductions that occur along the constitutive chains. Considered as information dispersal processes, nets are far more efficient than chains” (122).

I saw the “chains” relating more to the contacts he described in Times Square Red  and the “nets” referring to the contacts he had in Times Square Blue while at the porn theaters. These “nets” were a type of network that taught, engaged and interacted on a whole different level than the “chains” – which were very superficial relationships. The “nets” were a type of social practice that men practiced by “crossing various power boundaries” which would often give them pleasure. The relationships made within these social “nets” are ones that could last a lifetime and become strong networks.

I believe human contact is essential for all people to be satisfied and healthy beings and also to be successful in life. Some contacts may give a person more gratification and success, while other contacts can stay on the surface and accomplish nothing. The point is all humans need contacts and whether they go about finding these contacts through the “net” or “chain” networks will all result in their success and pleasure of life.

Giovanni’s Room

Summary: James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room is a story of a man named David who travels to Paris to meet  a strapping young barman named Giovanni who encourages  him to reveal his intense and lustful feelings for men he has been shamefully hiding away for years.

Register: Before I began reading this book I was unsure of what “the room” meant. However, now having read the book I could see the room symbolized a sort of “safe haven” for David and a place to store his shameful feelings. David always had feelings towards men that he never knew how to explain. Prior to traveling to Paris and meeting Giovanni, he had a fiance, Hella. However, there seemed to always be something missing for David. The book opened up with the relationship he had with the young boy named Joey. The two men grew closer to one another and once they finally symbolized what they felt behind closed doors, David immediately showed regret and shame. On page 9 he says,

“I was afraid. I could have cried, cried for shame, and terror, cried for not understanding how this could have happened to me, how this could have happened in me” (9).

David was so shameful about his actions he committed with Joey and describes it as something happening in him- like his attraction towards men was some sort of disease. He then remembers his night with Joey later on in the book when speaking of his father and states,

“This was certainly my decision made so long ago in Joey’s bed..I had decided to allow no room in the universe for something which shamed and frightened me” (20).

The fact that he felt so embarrassed by his actions with Joey and his feelings towards men shows a lack in character in David. I believe a  man who is truly proud of who he is, regardless of what the times were, stands up for what he believes in. This shame and embarrassment also comes about when he meets Giovanni in the bar in Paris the first night he was there with Jacques.  After him and Giovanni innocently flirted at the bar he once again was overcome with dishonor knowing Jacques witnessed the whole thing. He said,

“Jacques had been a witness. He made me ashamed. I hated him because he had now seen all that he had waited, often scarcely hoping, so many months to see” (42).

It seems David is putting all of his effort towards hiding his feelings from everyone else rather than living in the moment and loving the person he is with. Giovanni is obviously attracted to him as well and is also not ashamed to admit it. I wonder what inside David makes him so afraid to make the leap with Giovanni. Jacques eventually gives him great and  honest advice, “you play it safe long enough and you’ll end up trapped in your own dirty body, forever and forever and forever-like me” (57). This gave the reader a sense of “seize the day” and to forget what other people think- live for yourself.

Once Giovanni and David began “dating”, if you will, he referred to Giovanni’s room quite often. This is when the whole concept of the “safe haven” came to mind. The room was a place for Giovanni and David to be themselves, a place to keep all of their “shameful” feelings. However, throughout the book you could sense David’s shameful feelings building up and becoming overwhelming. He hated himself for loving Giovanni, but was also deeply and hopelessly in love with him. The quote on page 84 sums up his feelings,

“With the fearful intimations there opened in me a hatred for Giovanni which was as powerful as my love and which was nourished by the same roots” (84).

This quote was very interesting to me because David could not control his shameful feelings which eventually wound up to be conveyed as hatred towards Giovanni. I find it very interesting that David could build hatred for a person he cared about- hatred caused by his own actions.

The main idea I captured from this reading was the insecurity of homosexuality and the demise it led to. David could not handle his shameful feelings he felt towards Giovanni and actually began resenting him for it. The book ends in David leaving Giovanni and Giovanni’s life going into turmoil. I think it is amazing how the room can convey such strong imagery and symbolize such a powerful place.

Death In Venice

Summary: Death In Venice is a book that follows the downfall of a man named Gustav Von Ashenbach who falls in love with a young man named Tadzio and stays in Venice to obsess over the young man’s beauty.

Register: At the beginning of the book you can get a great sense of Gustav’s low self-esteem because of his old age. There was a very ominous feeling to the way he described his life on page 7, “my life was on the decline” (7).  Gustav seems to be upset with the restrained life he has led and wishes he could make changes to his past and is yearning for some kind of adventure.

I feel his negative attitude toward himself and his age, and perhaps his “wasted” life, shows when the old man boards the ship he is on.  He describes this old man with such detail in a way that it seems his old age is bothersome to him. He states,

“He was old, there was no doubting it: he had wrinkles around his eyes and mouth: the matt crimson of his cheeks was rouge..the neck-scrawny, emaciated; the stuck-on mustache and imperial oh his chin- dyed; the full complement of yellow teeth – a cheap denature and the hands with signet rings on both forefingers, those of an old man” (29).

The fact that he took so much time to observe this old man shows the reader the actual disgust he has for people of old age. The words “scrawny”, “dyed”, “cheap” all portray a negative feeling toward this man and the age he resembles. However, on the other hand when Gustav encounters the young man he displays the complete opposite opinion. He obviously has a more positive outlook towards younger people and definitely shows more of a liking to the young man, Tadzio. He states,

“His face – pale and charmingly reticent, ringed by honey-colored hair, with a straight nose, lovely mouth, and an expression of gravity sweet and divine – recalled Greek statuary of the noblest period” (45).

Gustav is observing this young man in the same ways he previously observed the older man, however, he uses words such as “sweet” and “divine” to describe him instead of “scrawny” and “cheap” which shows a higher respect for younger age.  Also, the fact that he compared the young man’s beauty to “Greek statuary of the noblest period” shows the highest respect.  Previously in this class we have discussed how beauty is so highly valued and can be looked upon as representing nobility, which also concludes he thinks highly of this young man.  I find this interesting because usually respect comes with age and wisdom and you respect your elders – however, in this case it seems he holds a higher respect for the younger man.

Gustav’s infatuation with the younger man could have to do with the fact that he is upset with his old age, as previously stated.  Perhaps he is trying to live through the young man because he regrets how he has spent his life and where it is now – or perhaps I interpreted it wrong. I think this could really open the doors for some interesting class discussions.