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Post by Gerard on Feb 20, 2014 1:27:29 GMT -5
Our impression of Christopher Isherwood is that he, like so many Englishmen of his class, rather resembled a rabbit, with a tendency to paw. Although a worthwhile writer, of course. Of his five hundred odd attachments, two stand out. First, Heinz Neddermeyer the little German. In a traumatic confrontation with immigration officials at Harwich, Heinz was refused entry on his second visit to England in 1934, and the couple spent the next three years wandering around the Continent. (Exactly Gerard's experience fifty years later: in a traumatic confronation with immigration oficials at Gatwick, his little HK friend was refused entry on his second visit to England, and they wandered around the Continent.) In the fifties and sixties H and C were finally able to get together properly several times - even in England - although H had in the mean time got married and become a much weightier individual. The second attachment is of course Donald Bachardy the little American. It was Isherwood's custom to toddle down daily to the Cali-fornian sea-side to "check out the talent," and that is how they met. They stuck thereafter together for thirty years! The cinematic film "Christopher and Don," which describes their lives, is fascinating for the first hour or so - I did not wish to watch the sad part towards the end. Oh and after all we had better not omit Otto (above)! So, Members wishing to supply ratings now have four to distribute.
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Post by Aias on Nov 20, 2016 0:39:56 GMT -5
Have you any picture of Francis Turville Petre?
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Post by Gerard on Nov 20, 2016 19:05:45 GMT -5
All I have is this impression of him at work - from the internet:
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Post by Aias on Dec 17, 2016 2:14:21 GMT -5
Thank you very much
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Post by Gerard on Mar 28, 2017 19:06:56 GMT -5
I've just found another photo-graph of the young Francis Turville-Petre which may interest our readers. It appears in a little book that came out in 1998 entitled "Auden and Isherwood - the Berlin Years". The author is one Norman Page, who appears to have produced about twenty similar works, and it was published by the "St. Martin's Press Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010". Of course that is some trans-Atlantic place, and the meaning of the word "scholarly" there is completely different from its meaning in England. Oddly enough though the book was "printed in Great Britain". We must suppose must we not that the true sense of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries lies in the history of the Hilterites versus the Homosexualists such as Turville-Petre, and now at last after two centuries of struggle the Homosexualists are beginning to come out on top. They will fill the history books of the future.
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Post by ahinton on Mar 29, 2017 1:47:51 GMT -5
I've just found another photo-graph of the young Francis Turville-Petre which may interest our readers. It appears in a little book that came out in 1998 entitled "Auden and Isherwood - the Berlin Years". The author is one Norman Page, who appears to have produced about twenty similar works, and it was published by the "St. Martin's Press Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010". Of course that is some trans-Atlantic place, and the meaning of the word "scholarly" there is completely different from its meaning in England. Oddly enough though the book was "printed in Great Britain". Yes, New York City is indeed in America; that fact is quite well known - sufficiently so, in fact, as hardly to merit mention. In what way/s do you regard the meaning of the word "scholarly" to differ in the United States from what it is in England? And what might you consider to be particularly "odd" about a book published in New York being printed in UK? Just curious! We must suppose must we not that the true sense of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries lies in the history of the Hilterites versus the Homosexualists such as Turville-Petre, and now at last after two centuries of struggle the Homosexualists are beginning to come out on top. They will fill the history books of the future. "Hilterites"? "Homosexualists"? "Hitlerites" and "homosexuals", surely? Whilst Hitler and his régime came and went (albeit only during the first part of the 20th century) and, since his demise, attitudes of mind and conduct towards homosexuals (as well as laws acting against their interests and acceptance within society) have mercifully changed for the better in many (though sadly by no means all) parts of the world, I would hardly consider Hitlerian Nazism (which still flares up to this day from time to time in certain places) and male and female homosexuality to be the polar opposites that you appear to suggest them to be in the sense of some kind of inherent historical incompatibility between them, as though two sides of the same coin, as it were. Sexual proclivity is a personal matter for and affecting individuals whereas Nazism and similar kinds of Fascism ("Islamic" fundamentalism, for example) are political diseases that their proponents seek to spread throughout society; the only factor that the two things might be thought to have in common is the notion of setting certain people against certain others - "Aryans" against Jews, or heterosexuals against homosexuals, for example. One of the difficulties that long stood in the way of more general acceptance of homosexuality was, I believe, the habitual encouragement of an unhealthily prurient habit of taking unwarranted interest in the sexual proclivity/ies of others despite the fact that an individual's sexual inclination is his/her business alone; why should anyone assume a particular interest in the homosexual leanings of, for example, Tippett, Szymanowski, Britten, Barber, Henze and others when a far more rewarding and constructive concern would be with what each of them wrote (especially as neuroscientific research has yet to identify beyond doubt that particular music is composed by homosexuals and other music by heterosexuals or to distinguish music written by women from that written by men)? In those senses, then, I don't think that either camp is obviously "coming out on top" except to the extent that homosexuality is better and more widely understood and accepted today than once was the case whereas Fascism in its various forms continues to rear its ever ugly head all over the place from time to time.
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Post by Glazoonoff on Mar 31, 2017 4:45:23 GMT -5
In search of a little more about Norman Page and his activity, we find that he was for a time Head of English at Nottingham University: Professor Norman Page (Head of English 1987-1990). We may on this page examine his likeness. www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/about/history.aspxBut the real shock comes when we scroll ten years further forward down that same page and see . . . Professor Thorlac Turville-Petre (Head of English 1997-2001)Well! You may read about his famous mother here (she was a Blomfield from Colchester). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Turville-PetreThe relationship is expounded here - they were of course landed gentry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Turville-PetreHere one may read about the history of Bosworth Hall, and how the name Turville-Petre came into being.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosworth_Hall_(Husbands_Bosworth)This is not the first time I have met with a curious co-incidence at Nottingham University. In 1978 or thereabouts I went to Nottingham University to speak (on scholarly subjects) to a Caucasian professor based for the time in Japan but briefly visiting Nottingham. I knew nothing about his personal life or proclivities. A few months later I myself arrived in Japan, knowing exactly two people in the whole country: that professor and a young fellow whose acquaintance I had made by correspondence, quite separately. To my startlement I discovered that the two were lovers!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2017 12:19:29 GMT -5
Small world, Glazoonoff!
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Post by ahinton on Apr 1, 2017 12:42:04 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2017 7:31:58 GMT -5
If I may address your question directly, ahinton: It is. I suspect that 'Sydney Grew' quit his membership of this particular forum because I compromised his anonymity. Naturally, I subsequently deleted the offending posting, but any textual analysis of our new guest, Glazoonoff, would suggest that he is the same poster as Sydney. I can only offer Sydney and everyone reading The Third my unreserved apologies for my indiscretion.
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Post by Albert Pausation on Apr 2, 2017 8:31:49 GMT -5
If I may address your question directly, ahinton: It is. I suspect that 'Sydney Grew' quit his membership of this particular forum because I compromised his anonymity. Naturally, I subsequently deleted the offending posting, but any textual analysis of our new guest, Glazoonoff, would suggest that he is the same poster as Sydney. I can only offer Sydney and everyone reading The Third my unreserved apologies for my indiscretion. No not at all kc, it's nothing you did at all. We just thought that the way to encourage our members to write about the what (i.e. facts and their own ideas) rather than about the whom (i.e. others' individual characteristics of no importance to any one), would of course be altogether to remove the whom (all individual nomenclature). Thus at a stroke the baby-hands of another member who so curiously loves nothing but to play with such toys will no longer find any such toys to play with and our serious members will be free! .
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Post by Otto on Apr 2, 2017 11:37:45 GMT -5
Thank you for your clarification, Albert Pausation, but it is confusing for everyone if I post under a guest name like Otto, is it not?
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Post by ahinton on Apr 2, 2017 12:37:42 GMT -5
If I may address your question directly, ahinton: It is. I suspect that 'Sydney Grew' quit his membership of this particular forum because I compromised his anonymity. Naturally, I subsequently deleted the offending posting, but any textual analysis of our new guest, Glazoonoff, would suggest that he is the same poster as Sydney. I can only offer Sydney and everyone reading The Third my unreserved apologies for my indiscretion. No not at all kc, it's nothing you did at all. We just thought that the way to encourage our members to write about the what (i.e. facts and their own ideas) rather than about the whom (i.e. others' individual characteristics of no importance to any one), would of course be altogether to remove the whom (all individual nomenclature). Thus at a stroke the baby-hands of another member who so curiously loves nothing but to play with such toys will no longer find any such toys to play with and our serious members will be free! Out of mere curiosity (and you may not be able to answer this anyway as I appreciate that you are a guest here) one might wonder which member, which "baby-hands" and which "toys" are being referred to here, especially the last of these, since no such "toys" have otherwise been mentioned, as far as I am aware. I also wonder which members are being referred to as "serious", not least because I would have assumed each one of this forum's still tiny membership to be "serious" rather than frivolous in his/her contributions thereto - not to mention what it might be that such members would be considered to be "free" from and through what means. All very curious!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2017 12:42:57 GMT -5
I would claim that my postings are the most frivolous, ahinton, although all three of us have our own unique style. I doubt that anyone else could be bothered to post here anymore! I have arranged a French holiday for my family during Holy Week, and our cooking could potentially be much improved by Easter. We shall see! Drôme - Cooking classes in Anne-Sophie Pic's school
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Post by ahinton on Apr 3, 2017 1:02:27 GMT -5
I would claim that my postings are the most frivolous, ahinton, although all three of us have our own unique style. I doubt that anyone else could be bothered to post here anymore! I have arranged a French holiday for my family during Holy Week, and our cooking could potentially be much improved by Easter. We shall see! Drôme - Cooking classes in Anne-Sophie Pic's schoolEnjoy! (although it would surely be difficult not to!)...
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