Anyone else like this book, and Jean Genet? Only other thing I've read by him is Flowers of Evil. It's actually pretty hard to continuously read his work, as I find it takes a rather painful amount of concentration to stay with the thread.
Nevertheless, I also find it to be pretty ridiculously talented writing. I'm a complete heterosexual, but in Genet's writing I am able to really get a grasp of the pleasure of what it means to be homosexual, and to appreciate the bodies, forms, and sexuality of other men. Beyond that, his ideas, style, and elaborations seem extraordinarily sensuous and original. He has so much bravery in his writing, he delves into each idea, cracks it open, and really harvests it for all that it's worth.
Case in point: Querelle of Brest is basically a puff novel about a raging homosexual sailor murderer, and yet it manages to be so full of brilliant ideas and descriptive and imaginative flourishes.
I think I originally found out about Genet from an interview of Kerouac in Paris Review's Art of Fiction, and then I also saw him mentioned by Mailer. Shit can be painful to read, but would love to hear the comments of other people who have read him.
It's kind of hard for me to pinpoint what exactly makes me like it so much ... I think it really is mostly due to the way he shows so much fearlessness in just elaborating about weird, original shit in his own unique way, not necessarily amazing ideas, but just really giving a unique perspective on things. Glad to give examples if anybody's interested. If you hate Genet, glad to hear that as well ...
>>8103882
>I'm a complete heterosexual, but in Genet's writing I am able to really get a grasp of the pleasure of what it means to be homosexual, and to appreciate the bodies, forms, and sexuality of other men.
nigga u gay
>>8103887
Yeah, I saw that comment coming, but ... you have to seriously read it yourself to see what I'm talking about. It's not like I get a hard on when reading Genet, but he is so open towards his homosexuality, and he reveals it in such an original way, that it's impossible not to respect what's going on in those scenes. I mean, in QoB, there's a scene where Querelle gets rammed by Nono, this sort of weird stereotypical brothel owner, and it's the gayest fucking thing in the world, he shoots his load into Querelle's ass and then leans over to rest on his body; all while essentially not giving a fuck about what's going on and that being part of the reason why he is so very masculine and homosexually attractive in the first place ...
"Querelle faced about. He had not been able to catch sight of Norbert's prick. ... Norbert felt himself to be alone. With one finger he lightly, unemotionally, freed his cock from his short pants and held it for a moment, heavy and at full size, in the grip of his hand. He looked at his reflection in the glass opposite, and guessed it must be the twentieth time in this room that such a performance had taken place. He was strong. He was the master. Total silence reigned in the room. Norbert disengaged his balls, and for a second let go of his cock so that it flipped up against his belly with a smack; then, advancing calmly, he placed his hand over it as if he were hanging on to himself."
>>8103919
>actually being this gay
>disengaged his balls
>his cock flipped up against his belly with a smack
>actually being this gay
>actually reading this
Time to kill yourself anon.
>Total silence reigned in the room
>>8104004
Dude, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm just smiling right here, I realize this is prototypical 4chan baiting material, "Hey, let's make a post about how I love to read books by queers and then pretend that I'm not queer myself, even though I really get into the gay scenes," -- but that's not what this is about.
Querelle of Brest has almost every major character a rampant homosexual; does that make you homosexual to read it? Let me ask you this, anon, does it make you homosexual that you have only ever had sex with another man, in the guise of your own hand?
>>8104018
I.......I'm...sorry anon. I just....never thought of it that way. I never realized. Wow.
Wow.
Genet said his works are completely unerotic, that it was impossible to get off reading his works.
Also why are so many hets shitting up /lit/.
>>8104056
Kerouac said that Genet wrote them specifically in prison to use as his own masturbatory material, and that he would reach the point of physical ejaculation at the end of most of his writing sessions.
>>8103882
What did you think about Flowers of Evil?
>>8104045
I agree. At least OP had something to say about a book I'd never heard of from an author I've only seen mentioned, never discussed, only to have an insecure sub-intellectual fling his facile "gay lmao"- type mockery, even though there are plenty of threads with just his level of discussion.
here's a bump. I haven't read it yet, but I picked up Our Lady of the Flowers from a Goodwill a few months ago. I'd only heard of Genet because of the guy from Death in June namedropping him a lot in interviews.
Dude was a massive faggot, fuck that shit.
