Tonight as I was waiting for a Chinese meal for me and my mother – waiting too long as it turned out – I had a look in the old Hares and Hyenas homosexual bookshop that I had on-and-off read from my adolescence in Fitzroy (when it was based in Smith Street). Whilst I looked for books that might tell interesting stories I focused on one book I do recall vaguely hearing about called The Gay 100, and looked thoroughly through it.
Whilst, when I read more, The Gay 100 proved terribly flawed and over-speculative, I was struck by the fact that it had one thing in common with Benjamin Wiker and Don DeMarco’s better-written but much less palatable (probably not so if you live in outer-suburban Australia) Architects of the Culture of Death.
This is that John Maynard Keynes stands as the most conspicuous omission from both books upon my reading of them! What makes this remarkable is that none of The Gay 100 is listed by DeMarco and Wiker as among the “architects of the culture of death” (it is true that Margaret Mead, Jean-Pau Sartre and Simone de Beauvior are mentioned by Paul Russell in his text).
How likely is it, do you think, that two lists with no common members could have a common “biggest omission”?? It struck me so clearly when I was in Hares and Hyenas as to make me reflect all night, and I have not thought of an answer.
1 comment:
I can only surmise that Paul Russel omitted Keynes, due to Keynes' bisexuality and longterm marriage to Lopokova (he supposedly switched exclusively to the hetero team upon marriage). Keynes was notorious for his homosexual activism, promiscuity, and pederasty, and there are many biographies on Keynes, so I would think Russel was aware of Keynes.
Keynes' generalized notoriety is for his macroeconomic theories applied to capitalism, not the humanities, and he had modest cultural influence. You did not provide a rationale toward your thoughts on his omission-inclusion in "Architects of the Culture of Death".
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