Most of the film adaptations of E.M. Forster’s work are 1st rate films, & faithful in style & spirit to the great Edwardian writer, but A Room With A View is simply my #1 favorite movie of all time & the film adapatation of his great posthumous novel- Maurice is way up on my list also.
No other piece of contemporary gay fiction paints a more authentic picture of how a coming-of-age gay man is torn between his sexuality & the need to assimilate to social & cultural constructions of what is "normal" than E. M. Forster’s Maurice . Perhaps the fact that it was written prior to any gay activism & social awareness makes it more important. Forster does not offer any explanation nor attempts any effort to justify his protagonist’s queerness. The result is an honest, often heart breaking & at times poignant map of emotions, inner-working of a tortured mind.
E.M. Forster was a writer who might be said to have been simultaneously ahead of his time or at least better suited to take on certain topics like homosexuality that couldn’t be treated frankly during his own era. Although he always remained a true Edwardian, E. M. Forster embodied more fully than any other writer of his generation a modern gay perspective.
As England's most thoughtful exponent of liberal humanism, Forster in his later years became a significant moral presence, a liberal conscience, especially for young gay writers in the 1930s like Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden, & J. R. Ackerley.
He summed up his beliefs in What I Believe (1938), in which he explained his faith in personal relations & individualism. Forster "if I had to choose between betraying my country & betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country." He also declared his belief in "an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate & the plucky," who, he insisted, "represent the true human condition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty & chaos."
Forster deserves a special place in the gay & lesbian literary heritage. He was not only one of the finest English novelists of 20th century but also a tireless defender of humane values.
• Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905)
• The Longest Journey (1907)
• A Room with a View (1908)
• Howards End (1910)
• A Passage to India (1924)
• Maurice (written in 1913–14, published posthumously in 1971)
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If you don’t know or understand Joe Orton’s place in Theatre History, use the briiliant Stephen Frear’s film bio- Prick Up Your Ears, with an eerie portrait of Orton by Gary Oldman, as a jumping off place. The gay British playwright Joe Orton is an important figure of the queer literary movement, is perhaps the finest writer of farce in the 20th century.
After joining several local theatrical companies, mostly playing insignificant roles, Orton took elocution lessons to get rid of both a slight lisp & his Northern accent. He had been a student at a business college but was admitted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts after auditioning in 1951.
His move to London was a pivotal moment in his life, serving as the beginning of his real career as a performer & writer & as his introduction to fellow RADA student Kenneth Halliwell, who would become his mentor & lover. Halliwell encouraged Orton to read & study literature & had a great impact on the development of Orton's creative abilities.
Orton worked variously as an actor & stage manager for several years. He & Halliwell collaborated on an unpublished novel, The Boy Hairdresser (1960). They were arrested & charged with defacing books borrowed from public libraries. They used plates from art books to decorate their flat & altered a number of books to make them obscene. They were sent to prison for six months in 1962.
After their release from jail, Orton began to write in earnest, working on his own novel, Head to Toe (published in 1971), & writing plays. As Orton became a famous, though controversial, figure in London theatrical circles, Halliwell grew increasingly alienated & distraught, largely as a result of the continuing rejection he faced as both a writer& a visual artist & of his poor self-image as an older, heavier, & balding companion to the boyish Orton. On August 9, 1967, he was bludgeoned to death in his sleep by Halliwell, who subsequently took a lethal dose of Nembutals.
• Fred and Madge (1959)
• The Visitors (1961)
• The Ruffian on the Stair (1964)
• Entertaining Mr Sloane (1964)
• Loot (1965)
• The Erpingham Camp (1966)
• The Good & Faithful Servant (1967)
• Funeral Games (1968)
• What the Butler Saw (1969)
• Up Against It (screenplay)
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