The comments to the article in the link are rather scathing. And, believe it or not, not one of them is mine!
I came to understand, years ago, that Arthur has a kind of version of Tourette's syndrome. Only it's not the kind you see on Law & Order, where a string of obscenities pours out of the mouth of a wrongly accused defendant.
Arthur's disorder masquerades as "honesty" but it is actually compulsive cruelty, no more, no less. The same judgmental thoughts pop into his head that pop into everyone else's head: "She's ugly." "He's stupid." "He's fat." "She's untalented." And so on...
But we all learn to curtail those impulses and turn our thoughts, for the most part, to more socially acceptable ways of discourse. Not because we're dishonest, but because we're civilized, because we seek to live in a civil society, and because we try to be kind to other people, even though we frequently fail.
Arthur's kindnesses are conditional, and swiftly withdrawn. It's true that Tom's death softened him, but the softening is really no more than a pose, a new character he's now created to live out his nineties, playing the kindly, avuncular, sweet old man with a pixie-like hint of naughtiness. Don't believe it for a minute!
But before Tom's death Arthur never tried to be nice because he never had to--and he never wanted to! Who could have made him? From his lofty self-constructed position, he could pass judgment on everyone who came into his sphere.
At first the cleverness of his quips is seductive. Then their enthralling outrageousness becomes overwhelming and ultimately exhausting. Finally his Tourette's is turned on YOU. Because ultimately he must turn on everyone, or be turned on.
His frequent reason for no longer speaking to an old friend? "He (or she) said some
unforgivable things to me."
To YOU? you wonder.
How could that be? You are the king of unforgivable. When I hear that Mary Rodgers, Larry Kramer and Stephen Sondheim have turned their backs on him, I feel a little compassion...but it quickly dissipates when I hear in my mind what must he be saying about THEM!
It is scathing, it is clever, it is most definitely evil, but ultimately he is to be pitied.
12 years ago, Arthur gave Charles Kaiser the author of the Advocate article, some valuable interviews and background information for Kaiser's history of old gay New York, The Gay Metropolis.
This puff piece is pure payback.
Updated On: 5/12/09 at 12:40 AM
