14 September 2022

One of my favourite gay writers has written a fictional biography of one of my favourite gay writers!

23 March 2017

What is it? A film, directed by Luchino Visconti and adapted from the novella by Thomas Mann, released in 1971. What is it about? See here. Is it a faithful adaptation? Up to a point. The great writer has morphed into a composer. There are scenes in which he and a friend argue about art, which aren’t in the novella. And flashbacks to his relationship with his wife, also not in the novella. And some little (or not so little) things: Tadzio seems more openly interested in Aschenbach here,...

16 January 2017

What is it? A novella, originally published in German in 1912, first published in book form in English in 1925. What is it about? Do I really need to tell you? Oh boy, does that sound snobbish?! (An aside: Have you ever noticed how, just because someone knows about something, they assume everyone knows about it?) Okay, here goes: It's the story of an esteemed German writer, Aschenbach, who falls in love with and/or becomes obsessed by a beautiful adolescent boy during a visit to Venice and...