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JESUS ACTED UP

Name: JESUS ACTED UP
Author: Robert Goss
ISBN: 0-06-063318-2

A GAY AND LESBIAN MANIFESTO

by Robert Goss ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

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Former Jesuit priest Goss (an executive headhunter who's also a gay activist with a doctorate in comparative religion) starts this combative study by asking how gays and lesbians can be Christians. After explaining that Christ was ``queer,'' he concludes that gays and lesbians may be the only true Christians, and exhorts them to reclaim their Church. Drawing on the aggressive rhetoric of Act-Up and Queer Nation, the subtle logic of traditional Catholic theology, and the intellectual paradigms of Foucault, Goss creates out of ``subjugated knowledges'' a liberation theology—one that denies the universality and global theories of the institutional Church in favor of contextual theories, an ``inclusionary theology'' based on sociological, cultural, and historical change. Historically, the Church, the military, the legal system, and the medical profession stigmatized ``queers'' (Goss's word) as pathological, sinful, and deviant—and queers, the author says, responded with inhibition, shame, and internalized homophobia of their own, until the civil- rights movement, the women's movement, and the Stonewall Riots of 1969 helped empower them. Goss offers a ``transgressive'' theology to express the new gay freedom, proposing a Christ who manifests the erotic rather than denying it, who ``came out of the closet'' and became ``actively queer'' by his solidarity with the oppressed. Such theology requires a radical rereading of the Bible, of course- -a rejection of what Goss calls the ``Biblical terrorism'' that condemned homosexuality (a term Goss avoids because of its supposed ``medical'' connotations), identifying it with the heretical. Rather than exhorting gays to leave the Church, Goss calls for a reworking of Christian rituals such as baptism and the Eucharist to make them more relevant and inclusive, sacramentalizing ``queer'' experience. Identifying God with erotic power—with pleasure rather than denial—he envisions same-sex marriages, a queer clergy, and the assimilation of primitive religious concepts such as shamanism. Bold, wide-ranging, cerebral, cryptic (``God is HIV positive''), and utopian—with the charm of both prophecy and outrageousness.

Pub Date: July 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-06-063318-2

Page Count: 256

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.