Why this surge of interest by quite a few here on RUclips for this 1950's gay novel ? Would it be read if Baldwin had written it from Giovanni's point of view and a purely gay point of view ? I doubt it. The room in question is after all Giovanni's place of sexual gay pleasure, and symbolically at the end his death cell. Like Camus's ' The Outsider ' it would have been tougher to read while awaiting the death penalty. In the 1950's gay novels were vilified and some no doubt unpublished. Even this book of destructive bisexuality was under threat.
Thanks for your comment and for raising an interesting question. Could it be that a sustained interest in the novel is accompanied by a surge of RUclips participation in book discussions? I'm not sure. My introduction to this book was through Azar Nafisi's The Republic of Imagination, in which the final chapter is devoted to Baldwin.
Why this surge of interest by quite a few here on RUclips for this 1950's gay novel ? Would it be read if Baldwin had written it from Giovanni's point of view and a purely gay point of view ? I doubt it. The room in question is after all Giovanni's place of sexual gay pleasure, and symbolically at the end his death cell. Like Camus's ' The Outsider ' it would have been tougher to read while awaiting the death penalty. In the 1950's gay novels were vilified and some no doubt unpublished. Even this book of destructive bisexuality was under threat.
Thanks for your comment and for raising an interesting question. Could it be that a sustained interest in the novel is accompanied by a surge of RUclips participation in book discussions? I'm not sure. My introduction to this book was through Azar Nafisi's The Republic of Imagination, in which the final chapter is devoted to Baldwin.