The BURIED Book Club discussion

American author/poet/critic of films who lived from 1904 to 1974.

Did a long autobiography/appreciation of the Russian Surrealist painter Pavel Tchelitchew, evoking Dante. Here's what Kirkus Reviews says about that:

This is a long, unorthodox biography of the Russian emigre painter best known in this country for his ""Hide and Seek"" at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Friend and sympathetic critic Tyler has attempted to define three stages of Tchelitchew's life: his youth in pre-Bolshevik Russia; his young manhood as member of the White Russian Army and Paris artist; and his working life in the United States with free-living and famous contemporaries. This is done via three key paintings, ""Hide and Seek,"" ""Phenomena,"" and ""Inacheve,"" which, the argument goes, represent Purgatory, Hell and Paradise in that order. But to show the relationship between paintings and life Tyler tunes in on the same supernatural, spiritual and arcane spheres as his subject and although he projects a feeling of existence lived in this fashion, it is hard to say how much is Tyler's and how much is sheer sham. It is perhaps like viewing ""Hide and Seek,"" with its endless appearances and reappearances of child- faces in the tree trunk and foliage.

That description brings to mind Marguerite Young's bio of Eugene Debs.

Also, the painting Hide and Seek is on display at MOMA and may very well have inspired the late E.L. Konigsburg to write about those kids hiding out in that museum.

But, Tyler. Tyler also did a bio on Florine Stettheimer, poet/designer/artist & friend of Carl Van Vechten.

Tyler is most read today by students of film theory due to his extensive writings in that field. He did an entire book about homosexuality in film, a Picture History of Sex in Films (funny/worthless reviews here for that one), another on Sex/Psyche/etc in films, one on underground film (titled, appropriately enough, Underground Film), TWO on non-US films, another on myths in Hollywood and the Hallucination of Hollywood, a World Theory of Film, and one on Charlie Chaplin. (I'm pretty sure that I found one of his foreign film books on the sidewalk once and left it there as I chose other, long-since lost and forgotten title from that offering.)

In 1933 Tyler cowrote The Young and Evil with Charles Henri Ford, which was adapted to film in 2008.

ANd poetry. At least three volumes, one of which includes arguments in prose (who could resist a poetry book titled The Will of Eros??)

Quotes: “...There are as many sexes as there are individuals...the seeming neat correspondence between male and female organs is not the end, but the beginning, of sexuality.”

I'm a big fan of Tyler's, and think he has been unjustly and inexplicably forgotten. I can understand why--he has a baroque, high-camp style that's not particularly easy to follow and not at all in fashion these days. I've read one commentator snidely dismiss his film theory work as "incomprehensible," for instance.

But I find if once you're on his wavelength--one must remember to take everything with a healthy dose of humor--then he's lots of fun to read. I was actually rereading parts of Screening the Sexes: Homosexuality in the Movies the other day, and found myself laughing out loud (he got to the topic Vito Russo gets celebrated for a decade ahead of time, btw).

A fun bit of trivia: Tyler is the film critic the titular character of Myra Breckinridge quotes like Scripture, to hilarious effect. I've read that this was not intended to be complimentary on Gore Vidal's part, but whatever his intentions, it did revive some interest in Tyler in the 60's and 70's and a number of his books were republished in the process.

I'm actually in the process of researching and writing my MA thesis on The Young and Evil (that short film doesn't have a direct connection to the novel beyond the title, however), and it's the type of text that embodies a "buried" book, since some consider it the first American novel depicting queer characters that does not end tragically. Whether or not it deserves such a title, it's an awfully great book, heavily influenced by Gertrude Stein with a dash of Djuna Barnes thrown in (both were good friends of the authors). I really need to write a review up for it one of these days!

Jesse wrote: " I really need to write a review up for it one of these days! "

Please.

Wait, did he write The Young and Evil, or translate it?

Nate D wrote: "Wait, did he write The Young and Evil, or translate it?"

http://www.amazon.com/Young-Evil-Char...

Either co-authored or contributed thereunto.

amazon reviews here :: http://www.amazon.com/The-Young-Evil-...

He's the co-writer with Charles Henri Ford. Ford is generally considered as the main writer, but gave Tyler co-author credit because a lot of the atmosphere, characterization and best lines were drawn directly from the letters Tyler sent him. Both were always very cagey and coy about how the book was actually written though, so it's not known exactly how the novel was actually written.

At the very least, the main character of Karel in the novel is based on Tyler, and the other, Julian, is based on Ford.

It was originally published in Paris (mostly censorship reasons), but it was written in English.

Tyler was a Greenwich Village "exquisite" in his youth, and one of the descriptions of him in Y&E is one of my favorite moments in the book:

"Karel had written that he used makeup achingly but unobtrusively. His eyebrows though Julian thought might cause an Italian labor to turn completely around."

(No typos--the novel is just allergic to punctuation in general :D ).

Thanks for the clarifications, this all seems fascinating.