The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire, by Wayne Koestenbaum (Poseidon, 271 pp., $22)
THE LOVE that durst not speak its name has suddenly turned loquacious. Not only has the Gay Liberation movement become more vociferous in stating its grievances and proclaiming its preferences, it has also developed into a by no means negligible cranny of the world of cultural criticism. A recent visit to the corner bookstore yielded such treasures as High Risk: An Anthology of Forbidden Writings; Inside Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories; Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men; How Do I Look: Queer Film and Video; and Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety. The tone of the books ranges from militant to flamboyant to soberly practical, but usually implicit in them is the entirely fictional notion that the vice squad is at the door, ready to suppress by forcible means this as well as any other instances of non-conformity. Forbidden writing indeed!
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