Aphrodisiac: Fiction from Christopher Street

by Edmund White (Contributor), Ann Wadsworth (Contributor), Ron Harvie (Contributor)

Christopher Street magazine, founded in 1976 as a forum for gay consciousness, has emerged as the mots intersting and influential homosexual literary publication. It publishes provocative articles, interviews and cartoons, poetry and storiesby well-known authors and promising new ones. Aphrodesiac contains the very best of the frankly and affirmatively gay fiction that appeared first in its pages.

Genres: LGBT, Fiction, Gay Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Queer, Gay

309 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Edmund Valentine White III was an American novelist, memoirist, playwright, biographer, and essayist. He was the recipient of Lambda Literary's Visionary Award, the National Book Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. France made him Chevalier (and later Officier) de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1993.
White was known as a groundbreaking writer of gay literature and a major influence on gay American literature and has been called "the first major queer novelist to champion a new generation of writers."

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have shelved this anthology as Literature-USA because, and this is the only real mark against the book, it has no supporting apparatus such as information on the contributors nor on the date of publication any of the stories. As a result without laborious checks I have no way of knowing how many of the authors are from the USA. Although I know one author, Ron Harvie is Canadian, I suspect the rest are American. Otherwise it is a fine anthology of really marvelous stories about, as one reviewer at the time emphasised, '...the human condition rather than the human gay condition...' which nowadays might seem insulting but in 1980 was a testimony to how rapidly 'gay' fiction had moved into the mainstream (Christopher Street only started publishing in 1976). Of course Christopher Street is long gone but this, and other anthologies, have more than historic interest, they are repositories of excellent writing which can still provide pleasure.

Also I hope you take a look at the information I provide, after my review, about the 1984 attempt by the UK conservative government to ban this and many other 'gay' books.

Of course some of it is historic, there is a wonderful story by Andrew Holleran 'Nipples' which revolves around the 'discovery' of men's nipples as an erogenous zone for Gay men! Whether this reflected a 'real' sexual trend, I have no way of arguing either way (see my footnote *1 below). But the story is wonderfully sharp and funny and a reminder that writers like Holleran were very different in their youth to what their later works might suggest.

Other stories reveal how much 'gay' life has changed - George Whitmore's story 'The Black Widow' is, for me, wonderful and funny but would never be written now and probably wouldn't be understood by anyone under fifty. Today the denouement would read as tragic or heart breaking (and I am deliberately not supplying details so if anyone does read the story they will come upon it fresh, without preconceptions) but how we read the story reflects how we have changed.

Overall this is a fine anthology and, like many older anthologies, contains fine stories from writers who never went on to write longer works - amongst them Robert S. Ryan, James D. Wagoner and Noel Ryan as well as stories from those like Robert Emmet Long who abandoned fiction. There are also stories from those like Ron Harvie and Daniel Curzon who are in danger of being forgotten. My final word of praise is for the fine writing from Lesbian writers, it is almost only in older gay literary anthologies that you find this kind of mixture - probably reflecting the optimism of a political unity that didn't last. I particularly enjoyed these stories because I haven't and don't read enough of work by female writers.

A real treat which I recommend highly.

*1 A few years ago I attended a summer party given by married friends at which I overheard a group of my friends children and their friends, male and female, having a loud, amused and robust conversation about both the sensitivities of men's nipples and what they could tell you. It is no longer feet or hands but nipples which are now seen as indicative of plentiful size elsewhere. Surprisingly it is not large nipples, but small ones, which are said to indicate excessive size. I have no doubt there are as many exceptions to this 'rule' as there was to the one about large hands or feet. Still it does beg the question is the appreciation of men's nipples another transfer from the gay to straight worlds?

Aphrodisiac: Fiction From Christopher Street and the 1984 attempt to destroy 'Gay's The Word' the UK's first gay bookshop:

This novel was one of many 'imported' gay books which were at the centre of an infamous attempt to push UK gays back into the closet by the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1984. Amazingly this event, important not only for gays but civil liberties in the UK, does not have any kind of Wikipedia entry. Because of this lack I have assembled links to a number of sites which anyone interested in free speech should read. If we don't remember our history we will be condemned to repeat it.

The genesis of the prosecution of 'Gays The Word' was the anger of homophobes to books like 'The Milkman's On His Way' by David Rees which were written for young people and presented being gay as ordinary and nothing to get your-knickers-in-a-twist over. Unfortunately there was no way to ban the offending books because censorship of literature had been laughed out of court at the 'Lady Chatterley Trial' nearly twenty years earlier. But Customs and Excise did have the ability to seize and forbid the import of 'foreign' books, those not published in the UK. As most 'gay' books came from abroad, specifically the USA, this anomaly was the basis for the raid on Gays The Word and the seizure of large amounts of stock. The intention was that the legal costs, plus the disruption to the business, would sink this small independent bookshop long before it came to trial. That it didn't is testimony to the resilience of Gay's The Word, the gay community and all those who supported them.

The best, not perfect, but only, guide to the event is at:

https://www.gayinthe80s.com/2012/10/1...

There follows a series of links to the event connected with an exhibition at the University of London:

The background:

https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...

The 142 books seized:

https://exhibitions.london.ac.uk/s/se...

The history of the prosecution:

https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...

The fight to clarify the law after the prosecution was dropped:

https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...

[Klaus Mattes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr schöne Story-Anthologie mit meist etwas längeren Geschichten, die zuerst in der amerikanischen Schwulenzeitschrift „Christopher Street“ abgedruckt worden waren. Hoher erzählerischer Standard, was bei Autoren wie Edmund White, Andrew Holleran, Felice Picano, Tennessee Williams und Jane Rule sich wohl von selbst versteht.

Fast vergessen ist inzwischen, dass diese Texte auch ins Deutsche übertragen wurden und als Taschenbücher in der als solcher nie offen deklarierten schwulen Reihe im Knaur Verlag München erscheinen sind. Während man für die Originalausgaben oft Edmund White als Herausgeber angegeben findet, tauchen die, mittlerweile natürlich ziemlich vergilbten Taschenbücher, die zu bekommen allerdings nicht schwerfällt, bei deutschen Versänden meist unter dem wie als ein Personenname gebrauchten Avatar „Christopher Street“ auf. Oder aber unter dem Namen des Übersetzers und Herausgebers jener Knaur-Reihe aus den achtziger Jahren: Heinz Vrchota.

Die Inhalte des hier gezeigten ersten Bandes wurden in Deutschland auf die zwei Taschenbücher „Aphrodisiac 1“ und „Aphrodisiac 2“ verteilt. Eine weitere Ausgabe erreichte uns mit den Taschenbüchern „Geteiltes Haus“ und „Franks Party“.

Geschrieben wurde das noch in den Tagen vor Aids und im Bereich von New York, sodass es sich meist um weiße, gebildete Männer in anständigen Jobs dreht. Oder um deren Jugendjahre. Alle suchen die Liebe, sind aber zu etlichen Seitensprüngen bereit. Der Stil ist eher dezent, also nicht erotisch und auf keinen Fall pornografisch, was man bei schwulen Publikationen aus jener Zeit wohl dazu sagen muss. Außerdem fühlte man sich verpflichtet, eine lesbische Minderheit im Buch zu haben, ohne schon eine große Queer-Theorie an der Hand zu haben.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of fiction from the pages of "Christopher Street" magazine. First published in the late 1970s and early 1980s these stories consider the human condition and deal with gay issues in the way they should be presented, naturally. The writers included are both well-known and promising new writers. The title story is a short piece by Christopher Bram, but Edmund White, Andrew Holleran, Felice Picano and Kate Millett are also included. Perhaps the most interesting story is about an atypical Wall Street lawyer from the pen of Tennessee Williams. I would recommend this diverse collection to all readers who enjoy short gay-themed fiction.