The Politics of Silence

by Paul Monette

This is a lecture given by Paul Monette at the Library of Congress during National Book Week in January 1993. In this lecture he escalates his struggle to express being gay beyond the confines of the here and now. He draws sustenance from Michelangelo and Primo Levi, Anne Frank and others. This speech is also included in Paul Monette's Last Watch of the Night.

21 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Online Guide to Paul Monette's papers at UCLA:
http://findaid.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/...

In novels, poetry, and a memoir, Paul Monette wrote about gay men striving to fashion personal identities and, later, coping with the loss of a lover to AIDS.

Monette was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1945. He was educated at prestigious schools in New England: Phillips Andover Academy and Yale University, where he received his B.A. in 1967. He began his prolific writing career soon after graduating from Yale. For eight years, he wrote poetry exclusively.

After coming out in his late twenties, he met Roger Horwitz, who was to be his lover for over twenty years. Also during his late twenties, he grew disillusioned with poetry and shifted his interest to the novel, not to return to poetry until the 1980s.

In 1977, Monette and Horwitz moved to Los Angeles. Once in Hollywood, Monette wrote a number of screenplays that, though never produced, provided him the means to be a writer. Monette published four novels between 1978 and 1982. These novels were enormously successful and established his career as a writer of popular fiction. He also wrote several novelizations of films.

Monette's life changed dramatically when Roger Horwitz was diagnosed with AIDS in the early 1980s. After Horwitz's death in 1986, Monette wrote extensively about the years of their battles with AIDS (Borrowed Time, 1988) and how he himself coped with losing a lover to AIDS (Love Alone, 1988). These works are two of the most powerful accounts written about AIDS thus far.

Their publication catapulted Monette into the national arena as a spokesperson for AIDS. Along with fellow writer Larry Kramer, he emerged as one of the most familiar and outspoken AIDS activists of our time. Since very few out gay men have had the opportunity to address national issues in mainstream venues at any previous time in U.S. history, Monette's high-visibility profile was one of his most significant achievements. He went on to write two important novels about AIDS, Afterlife (1990) and Halfway Home (1991). He himself died of AIDS-related complications in 1995.

In his fiction, Monette unabashedly depicts gay men who strive to fashion personal identities that lead them to love, friendship, and self-fulfillment. His early novels generally begin where most coming-out novels end; his protagonists have already come to terms with their sexuality long before the novels' projected time frames. Monette has his characters negotiate family relations, societal expectations, and personal desires in light of their decisions to lead lives as openly gay men.

Two major motifs emerge in these novels: the spark of gay male relations and the dynamic alternative family structures that gay men create for themselves within a homophobic society. These themes are placed in literary forms that rely on the structures of romance, melodrama, and fantasy.

Monette's finest novel, Afterlife, combines the elements of traditional comedy and the resistance novel; it is the first gay novel written about AIDS that fuses personal love interests with political activism.

Monette's harrowing collection of deeply personal poems, Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog, conveys both the horrors of AIDS and the inconsolable pain of love lost. The elegies are an invaluable companion to Borrowed Time.

Before the publication and success of his memoir, Becoming a Man, it seemed inevitable that Monette would be remembered most for his writings on AIDS. Becoming a Man, however, focuses on the dilemmas of growing up gay. It provides at once an unsparing account of the nightmare of the closet and a moving and often humorous depiction of the struggle to come out. Becoming a Man won the 1992 National Book Award for nonfiction, a historical moment in the history

Reviews

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim volume is the speech given by Paul Monette as part of the National Book Week Lecture at the Library of Congress in Washington in 1993. Paul Monette, who is one of my heroes, won the 1992 National Book Award for Nonfiction for his book Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story This speech can also be found in his book Last Watch of the Night: Essays Too Personal and Otherwise

Paul speaks about 'silence' and how remaining closeted or quiet about being gay fails to address ignorance about the lives of gay people. He understands why people are silent but he explains that silence can be a form of collaboration and he illustrates the importance of not keeping silent by drawing on examples from World War Two, Primo Levi, Ann Frank and others. His main point is that silence in what ever form means that people are left in ignorance and there is nothing to challenge injustice in all its diverse forms. Such silence also gives oppressors the freedom to re-write history and to mis-represent the truth.

He speaks about US Conservatism, religious fundamentalism and the fact that silence in the face of both of these forces, affects the self esteem of those people who are oppressed by these forces, and he states that instead of being silent gay people need to be visible so that others can see that they lead visibly happy and productive lives, thus challenging the lies that are told against them.

He recognises that the struggle for true openness and intimacy is a life long struggle for everyone, gay and straight alike and he expresses gratitude for his life and the years that he spent living openly as a gay man. He speaks about having had a full and joyous life even including the decade of AIDS in which he lost two partners and many friends.

He criticises the pope for what he calls evil and irresponsibility (I think this relates to the Roman Catholic position on condoms and the way that Church has described homosexuality as being intrinsically disordered - but these are just my opinions. Paul does not clarify this in the speech) and he says a line should be drawn between freedom and religion, and the naked politics of hate. At the same time he also talks about his enormous esteem for religious people (priests and nuns) who resist hatred within religious institutions and who thereby act as resisters within such institutions. He commends especially those who believe in Liberation Theology.

And of course I loved this because I am a great believer in Liberation Theology and the need for faith to lead to social justice, and the need for people to understand the scriptures for themselves. This part of his speech warmed me, especially as he goes on to say that these are the kind of religious people who deserve support and gratitude. (Yay)

The best part for me in this speech was that despite all that had happened to him Paul talks about having had a full and joyous life even though he is angry at Government indifference to AIDS and still despairs because a cure for AIDS remains far. He is still happy because he is so glad to be out. And the anger that he does feel about issues is good because anger against injustice is good and sharpens ones soul.

He expresses his work as being a letter to gays and lesbians in the future but also to straight allies more than ever because there is a need for diversity in any social movement.

The book also includes a few examples from the question and answer session. These Q and A are not included in Last Watch of the Night so I am pleased I managed to get this copy.

I loved this speech. I came across Paul Monette's writing just last year and I am slowly making my way through his memoirs, poetry and fiction. He is an amazing writer with insight, wisdom and experience that comes from living in the furnace of AIDS, and his writing is still relevant today because the war against AIDS is not over and there are so many places in the world where it is a crime to be gay.

I also found his speech to be comforting. Having read several of his books my heart was broken because of the things he went through. To read that he was happy and felt he had lived a full life despite AIDS and homophobia is incredibly comforting and also encouraging.

Paul Monette inspires me. He doesn't claim to be religious but he understands what faith should be. He doesn't claim to be wise but his writings provide deep wisdom and experience that will encourage so many other people both gay and straight.

Best of all I loved the story at the end about a thirteen year old boy who came with his mum for a book signing. The thirteen year old just cried without saying anything but Paul knew his writing had helped this boy. Then there was the 17 year old who came for another book signing. He had found Becoming a Man in the library at Paul's old prep school and read it and felt encouraged by it. For me that is just so amazing and the fact that Paul was able to see this and hear those stories before he died is also comforting.

I shall come back to this speech and his writing again and again because there is just so much wisdom, courage and truth in everything he has written.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...I've learned that anger against injustice is good for you. It sharpens your soul."