Thursday, May 12, 2005
The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective)
welcomes questions about literary mysteries and scandals, which should be sent to: woodyswoody@hotmail.com. The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective) is published by Jonathanames.com. Ames, our mentor at this website, has an excellent new book out called, Wake Up, Sir! and an even newer book out (he is the editor) called Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs.
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Playing with Gelignite
Or,
The Grapes are Ripe: On Lesbianism, Virginia Woolf & Willa Cather
A while back I posted Many Quesions from Joanna . I am now posting Joanna’s questions again plus my response to them. As I did before I’d like to warn you that the following question contains language that some might find hurtful, though we are sure that is not the intention of our letter-writer.
Question: Dear Literary Dick,
Why are Ms. Woolf's books frequently stacked on the gay-and-lesbian-interest shelves in nice, smallish bookstores? I know Virginia Woolf was married, but did she do it with ladies on the sly, in all those rooms of their own? What's the deal with her and Vita Sackville-West? I've heard a lot of snarky jokes and really enthusiastic-- almost downright giddy-- allusions, but were they ever truly sexual partners, or is it all a lot of rumors and speculation? Not that I've read any of them, but didn't Virginia Woolf keep, like, a million and four journals? So did she ever discuss sex with women somewhere in there? Oh, and what's the deal with Leonard Woolf? He always seemed like kind of a fairy to me.
Fondly,
Joanna
P.S. Can you confirm that Willa Cather was a dyke? And wasn't T.S. Eliot horribly sexually repressed? Or maybe it was perverted. . . one of the two. He ditched his wife in a loony bin, right? Did he have weird affairs or something? I think I read that somewhere, or else I imagined it. Is it true that Tolstoy got in trouble for shtupping the serf girls? And last but not least: from what I gather, it is common knowledge that Evelyn Waugh liked to take it up the a** -- so what's with all the Catholicism?
Answer: Woolf and Sackville-West were lovers. I went to the library to find this out but a less involved way to solve the mystery would have been to stay home and play Trivial Pursuit (Book Lover’s Edition). I was playing that game the other day when this question came up: “What novel did Virginia Woolf base on her androgynous lover Vita Sackville-West?” So why am I and the Trivial Pursuit Company confident in stating they were lovers? The most frequently cited evidence is a letter from Sackville-West to her husband Harold Nicolson on August 17, 1926 - about eight months after she and Woolf first become lovers:
“I love Virginia – as who wouldn’t? but really, my sweet, one’s love for Virginia is a very different thing; a spiritual thing, if you like, an intellectual thing … Virginia is not the sort of person one thinks of in that way; there is something incongruous and almost indecent in the idea … I havegone to bed with her (twice), but that’s all…Now you know all about it, and I hope I haven’t shocked you.” (King, James. Virginia Woolf. W.W. Norton & Company, 1994, p. 364-365)
Not as frequently mentioned as the above is Nicolson’s nice reply to his wife. Nicolson and Sackville-West’s son Nigel Nicolson does cite the letter in his book on his parent’s marriage. In Portrait of a Marriage Nigel quotes from a September 2, 1926 letter sent by his father to his mother:
“Thank you for telling me so frankly about Virginia. It’s a relief to feel that you realize the danger, and will be wise. You see, it’s not merely playing with fire; it’s playing with gelignite. Don’t let’s worry about these things. I know that your love for me is central, as is my love for you, and it’s quite unaffected by what happens at the outer edge.” (Nicolson, Nigel. Portrait of a Marriage. Illustrated Edition, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1990. Originally published 1973. p. 194)
But what did Woolf think about all this? Joanna mentions Woolf’s many journals so I took a look at those; on December 21, 1925 - a few days after she and Sackville-West are said to have become lovers - Woolf wrote in her diary:
“I like her & being with her, & the splendour – she shines in the grocers shop in Sevenoaks with a candle lit radiance, stalking on legs like beech trees, pink glowing, grape clustered, pearl hung. That is the secret of her glamour, I suppose. Anyhow she found me incredibly dowdy, no woman cared less for personal appearance – no one put on things in the way I did. Yet so beautiful, &c. What is the effect of all this on me? Very mixed. There is her maturity & full breastedness: her being so much in full sail on the high tides, where I am coasting down backwaters; her capacity I mean to take the floor in any company, to represent her country, to visit Chatsworth, to control silver, servants, chow dogs; for motherhood (but she is a little cold & offhand with her boys) her being in short (what I have never been) a real woman. Then there is some voluptuousness about her; the grapes are ripe; & not reflective.” ( The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume Three, 1925-1930 Edited by Anne Olivier Bell, assisted by Andrew McNeillie. Hardcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980, p.52)
So, it is the opinion of the Literary Dick that Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West were lovers. Whether or not this means that Woolf was a lesbian or bisexual or what is, as we see in our discussion of Willa Cather, a tricky question. The gist of what I read about Cather suggests that she was a lesbian, but there is no concrete evidence of her ever having sex with a woman. The most frequently named possible lover of Cather is Isabelle McClung. Cather’s biographer James Woodress writes:
“Cather’s love for Isabelle McClung has created considerable speculation about her sexual orientation. Contemporary frankness in discussing sexual matters invariably raises the question of lesbianism. Was this friendship a physical lesbian relationship? Some critics believe it was, but there is no external evidence to support it. Indeed, there is not one reference to sexual relations in all the hundreds of letters that have survived. If one defines a lesbian as a woman who has sexual relations with another woman, Cather cannot be called a lesbian on the basis of available records. On the other hand, if a lesbian as a woman whose primary emotional attachments are to other women, regardless of sexual relations, the definition adopted by some feminists, then Cather was most certainly a lesbian.” (Woodress, James. Willa Cather: A Literary Life. University of Nebraska Press, 1987, p. 141)
So, it is the opinion of the Literary Dick that Willa Cather was a lesbian.
But what of Joanna’s other questions? I haven’t investigated these fully but will share some of my thoughts: I haven’t read anything about Leonard Woolf being gay. I have read some things about Eliot and Waugh having homosexual impulses (I wrote previously of Eliot in this light in a discussion of his wife and their relationship with Bertrand Russell - see Archives) but it's unclear to me if they ever acted on them. In any case I don't think Eliot was perverted. Of Tolstoy I can offer nothing. - I hope to make more definitive statements about these matters in the future.
By the way, if you know if exercising diminishes the size of one’s penis, let me know. Also, the answer to the Trivial Pursuit question is, of course, Orlando.
welcomes questions about literary mysteries and scandals, which should be sent to: woodyswoody@hotmail.com. The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective) is published by Jonathanames.com. Ames, our mentor at this website, has an excellent new book out called, Wake Up, Sir! and an even newer book out (he is the editor) called Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs.
-----------------------------------------------
Playing with Gelignite
Or,
The Grapes are Ripe: On Lesbianism, Virginia Woolf & Willa Cather
A while back I posted Many Quesions from Joanna . I am now posting Joanna’s questions again plus my response to them. As I did before I’d like to warn you that the following question contains language that some might find hurtful, though we are sure that is not the intention of our letter-writer.
Question: Dear Literary Dick,
Why are Ms. Woolf's books frequently stacked on the gay-and-lesbian-interest shelves in nice, smallish bookstores? I know Virginia Woolf was married, but did she do it with ladies on the sly, in all those rooms of their own? What's the deal with her and Vita Sackville-West? I've heard a lot of snarky jokes and really enthusiastic-- almost downright giddy-- allusions, but were they ever truly sexual partners, or is it all a lot of rumors and speculation? Not that I've read any of them, but didn't Virginia Woolf keep, like, a million and four journals? So did she ever discuss sex with women somewhere in there? Oh, and what's the deal with Leonard Woolf? He always seemed like kind of a fairy to me.
Fondly,
Joanna
P.S. Can you confirm that Willa Cather was a dyke? And wasn't T.S. Eliot horribly sexually repressed? Or maybe it was perverted. . . one of the two. He ditched his wife in a loony bin, right? Did he have weird affairs or something? I think I read that somewhere, or else I imagined it. Is it true that Tolstoy got in trouble for shtupping the serf girls? And last but not least: from what I gather, it is common knowledge that Evelyn Waugh liked to take it up the a** -- so what's with all the Catholicism?
Answer: Woolf and Sackville-West were lovers. I went to the library to find this out but a less involved way to solve the mystery would have been to stay home and play Trivial Pursuit (Book Lover’s Edition). I was playing that game the other day when this question came up: “What novel did Virginia Woolf base on her androgynous lover Vita Sackville-West?” So why am I and the Trivial Pursuit Company confident in stating they were lovers? The most frequently cited evidence is a letter from Sackville-West to her husband Harold Nicolson on August 17, 1926 - about eight months after she and Woolf first become lovers:
“I love Virginia – as who wouldn’t? but really, my sweet, one’s love for Virginia is a very different thing; a spiritual thing, if you like, an intellectual thing … Virginia is not the sort of person one thinks of in that way; there is something incongruous and almost indecent in the idea … I havegone to bed with her (twice), but that’s all…Now you know all about it, and I hope I haven’t shocked you.” (King, James. Virginia Woolf. W.W. Norton & Company, 1994, p. 364-365)
Not as frequently mentioned as the above is Nicolson’s nice reply to his wife. Nicolson and Sackville-West’s son Nigel Nicolson does cite the letter in his book on his parent’s marriage. In Portrait of a Marriage Nigel quotes from a September 2, 1926 letter sent by his father to his mother:
“Thank you for telling me so frankly about Virginia. It’s a relief to feel that you realize the danger, and will be wise. You see, it’s not merely playing with fire; it’s playing with gelignite. Don’t let’s worry about these things. I know that your love for me is central, as is my love for you, and it’s quite unaffected by what happens at the outer edge.” (Nicolson, Nigel. Portrait of a Marriage. Illustrated Edition, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1990. Originally published 1973. p. 194)
But what did Woolf think about all this? Joanna mentions Woolf’s many journals so I took a look at those; on December 21, 1925 - a few days after she and Sackville-West are said to have become lovers - Woolf wrote in her diary:
“I like her & being with her, & the splendour – she shines in the grocers shop in Sevenoaks with a candle lit radiance, stalking on legs like beech trees, pink glowing, grape clustered, pearl hung. That is the secret of her glamour, I suppose. Anyhow she found me incredibly dowdy, no woman cared less for personal appearance – no one put on things in the way I did. Yet so beautiful, &c. What is the effect of all this on me? Very mixed. There is her maturity & full breastedness: her being so much in full sail on the high tides, where I am coasting down backwaters; her capacity I mean to take the floor in any company, to represent her country, to visit Chatsworth, to control silver, servants, chow dogs; for motherhood (but she is a little cold & offhand with her boys) her being in short (what I have never been) a real woman. Then there is some voluptuousness about her; the grapes are ripe; & not reflective.” ( The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume Three, 1925-1930 Edited by Anne Olivier Bell, assisted by Andrew McNeillie. Hardcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980, p.52)
So, it is the opinion of the Literary Dick that Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West were lovers. Whether or not this means that Woolf was a lesbian or bisexual or what is, as we see in our discussion of Willa Cather, a tricky question. The gist of what I read about Cather suggests that she was a lesbian, but there is no concrete evidence of her ever having sex with a woman. The most frequently named possible lover of Cather is Isabelle McClung. Cather’s biographer James Woodress writes:
“Cather’s love for Isabelle McClung has created considerable speculation about her sexual orientation. Contemporary frankness in discussing sexual matters invariably raises the question of lesbianism. Was this friendship a physical lesbian relationship? Some critics believe it was, but there is no external evidence to support it. Indeed, there is not one reference to sexual relations in all the hundreds of letters that have survived. If one defines a lesbian as a woman who has sexual relations with another woman, Cather cannot be called a lesbian on the basis of available records. On the other hand, if a lesbian as a woman whose primary emotional attachments are to other women, regardless of sexual relations, the definition adopted by some feminists, then Cather was most certainly a lesbian.” (Woodress, James. Willa Cather: A Literary Life. University of Nebraska Press, 1987, p. 141)
So, it is the opinion of the Literary Dick that Willa Cather was a lesbian.
But what of Joanna’s other questions? I haven’t investigated these fully but will share some of my thoughts: I haven’t read anything about Leonard Woolf being gay. I have read some things about Eliot and Waugh having homosexual impulses (I wrote previously of Eliot in this light in a discussion of his wife and their relationship with Bertrand Russell - see Archives) but it's unclear to me if they ever acted on them. In any case I don't think Eliot was perverted. Of Tolstoy I can offer nothing. - I hope to make more definitive statements about these matters in the future.
By the way, if you know if exercising diminishes the size of one’s penis, let me know. Also, the answer to the Trivial Pursuit question is, of course, Orlando.
Monday, May 09, 2005
The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective)
welcomes questions about literary mysteries and scandals, which should be sent to: woodyswoody@hotmail.com. The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective) is published by Jonathanames.com. Ames, our mentor at this website, has an excellent new book out called, Wake Up, Sir! and an even newer book out (he is the editor) called Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs.
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A New Question; A Request For Help
Dear Readers: Though here at The Literary Dick we pride ourselves on our handling of genital-related queries I am at a loss as to how to respond to the most recent case I've been handed. However our questioneer came to this detecting service - whether by word-of-mouth or perhaps by an internet search - he has, and I want to help; I am hoping that one of our readers will be kind enough to write me with the solution to this mystery. Here it is:
dear literary dick,
ei yah,,, im just concerned about something... uhm.. i just want to know if weight liftimg makes someones dick smaller... is it true that it makes it shorter or smaller?? coz ive been lifting weights like 3 months and i heard that weight lifting makes it smaller... but i cant see no changes at all... so im just really concerned.. u know.. pls reply as soon as possible.. thanx...
welcomes questions about literary mysteries and scandals, which should be sent to: woodyswoody@hotmail.com. The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective) is published by Jonathanames.com. Ames, our mentor at this website, has an excellent new book out called, Wake Up, Sir! and an even newer book out (he is the editor) called Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs.
-----------------------------------------------
A New Question; A Request For Help
Dear Readers: Though here at The Literary Dick we pride ourselves on our handling of genital-related queries I am at a loss as to how to respond to the most recent case I've been handed. However our questioneer came to this detecting service - whether by word-of-mouth or perhaps by an internet search - he has, and I want to help; I am hoping that one of our readers will be kind enough to write me with the solution to this mystery. Here it is:
dear literary dick,
ei yah,,, im just concerned about something... uhm.. i just want to know if weight liftimg makes someones dick smaller... is it true that it makes it shorter or smaller?? coz ive been lifting weights like 3 months and i heard that weight lifting makes it smaller... but i cant see no changes at all... so im just really concerned.. u know.. pls reply as soon as possible.. thanx...
