rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (02/11/85)
"The God That Failed" Revisited: 3 Controversies
================================================
To follow-up postings on the film IMPROPER CONDUCT, the documentary
about Cuban gays under Castro, here is a list of readings:
CONTROVERSY 1 : Reaction to IMPROPER CONDUCT (film-makers Almendros & Leal)
The journal American Film has a debate parallel to the one below, but
I failed to obtain issues. In the Village Voice:
Richard Goldstein's film review, "!Cuba Si, Macho No! Persecution
of Gays in a Leftist Land', 7/24/84, p 1, 42-44.
Letter from William M. Hoffman, "Gays & the God That Failed",
8/14/84, p 3.
Nestor Almendros' rebuttal article, "An Illusion of Fairness",
8/14/84, p 40.
Tomas Gutierrez Alea's rebuttal article, "Cuba Si, Almendros No!",
10/2/84, p 46-7.
Letter from Almendros & Orlando Jimenez-Leal, "Unfinished Business",
10/30?/84, p 3, 37.
The Voice solicited a second rebuttal from Alea, which hadn't appeared
by the end of 1984.
CONTROVERSY 2 : Gays & Communists in the Tropics
The New York Native 10/10-23/83 contained a special section, "Palabras:
Voices From the Gay Latin Community", p 33-40, which included:
Lourdes Arguelles [sp?] & Ruby Rich, "The Easy Convenience of Cuban
Homophobia", p 34.
Reinaldo Arenas (translated by Richard Sinkoff), "The Closest Attention:
Gays in Cuba", p 35.
Rene Cifuentes (translated by Richard Sinkoff), "The Parameters of
`Paradise'", p 37.
The reaction appears in NYNative 11/21-12/4/83, p 4-5 (letters from Ana
Maria Simo, Reinaldo Garcia Ramos, Allen Young, and Arguelles [sp?]
& Rich. Further response occurs in NYNative 1/2-15/84, p 4-5, a letter
from Scott Tucker.
Nicaraguan gays are described in Vincente Remos' "Three Lives", NYNative
11/7-20/83, p 31.
CONTROVERSY 3 : "Susan Sontag's God That Failed"
"Communism is fascism" declared Sontag on February 6, 1982 and the
liberal/left was in uproar. For the text of her electrifying speech,
see the 2/14/82 Los Angeles Times or a contemporaneous issue of The
Nation. Much of the fallout appears in the 3/2/82 Soho News, p 10-12,
42-43, & is worth reading.
Biased Comment By Rizzo (Warning: skip to avoid ideological contamination!)
=======================
For those netters unfamiliar with debates on the left, the above exchanges
provide a portrait of stalinism [sic.] in action. Stalinism may be defined
as the willing defense of totalitarianism, by both independent apologists
(Americans Arguella & Rich) and privileged publicists of the regime (leading
Cuban film-maker Alea, who, alone among the founders of the island's first
film society, the Cinemateca de Cuba, CHOSE to remain in Cuba and work for
Fidel, thus joining a venerable line of cinematic artists stretching back
to Eisenstein/Stalin and Riefenstahl/Hitler).
Netters who haven't delved into the literature of or about totalitarianism
may confer face validity or at least good faith on the first few above
rebuttals that they read, but, if they pay attention, this attitude won't
last long. To fully appreciate what transpires & is at stake in the above
controversies, may I suggest the following background reading:
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO, 3 v, Harper & Row pb,
1973, 1974, 1976.
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, THE OAK & THE CALF, Harper & Row pb, 1979.
A literary memoir of 1953-1974 detailing Solzhenitsyn's battles to
get published.
Paul Hollander, POLITICAL PILGRIMS: Travels of Western Intellectuals
to the Soviet Union, China, & Cuba, Harper & Row pb, 1983.
"G", "The Secret Life of Moscow", p 199-206 in THE CHRISTOPHER STREET
READER, edited by Michael Denneny et alia, Coward-McCann, 1983.
A subterranean glimpse of gay life in Muscovy.
The revelations about Castro's Cuba, which have just begun, indicate it
is a classic totalitarian social order, to which many of the truisms
from the "Soviet experience" readily apply.
"Better well-read than Red"
Regards,
Ron Rizzo