Roderick Thorp, words and fountains

They're interesting things, words. How they mutate, change their meaning over time.

Now I always thought, though that might be my insular British nature, that 'gay' meaning wanting/being attracted to 'same sex' relationships is a relatively recent entry into the lexicon going back to, maybe, the mid-seventies. However I was watching the film 'The Detective' (starred a little known, and ultimately unsuccessful actor, one Frank Sinatra) which was made in 1967/8 and which is 'set' for want of a better word in the homosexual community in New York and is based on the novel by the same name by Roderick Thorp written in 1965/6. The word 'gay' is always used to define the sexual orientation by the characters in the gay community itself, while 'fag(got)' is used by the police officers. I suspect that this was in Thorp's novel for a reason; to show the intolerance of most of the detectives towards homosexual men, except for our hero, of course!

Which led me to...........

'Gay' has been associated with sex since at least the eighteenth century; a 'gay women' was a prostitute, a 'gay house', a brothel. However, some time around the turn of 20th century, the term started to be used by the homosexual community to describe themselves. Why appears to be a mystery but it is perhaps the normal obfuscation undertaken by clandestine groups, criminals, at least in the eyes of the laws pertaining to the period. Back slang, rhyming slang. Perhaps its original application to solely heterosexual sex, albeit of an illegal nature, made it a useful 'cover' word. After all, it is only in the recent past that sodomy laws have been repealed; and not everywhere!

(Worthy of note, most sodomy laws do not confine themselves to the act of 'buggery' {derived from the Bulgar heresies and which the Catholic church accused the Bulgars of. Anal intercouse sounds so crude in comparison}. It's any 'unnatural' act. Oral sex is also included! So beware the next time you have a blow job, in some states in the US it's illegal! It's an unnatural act! Really?)

While the film (and the novel) were made (and written) at the height of the 'permissive' sixties, it still seems remarkably 'daring', not the kind of 'mainstream film' you would have thought would have been made. Although I suspect that Sinatra would have 'well up for it' having made the 'Manchurian Candidate' a few years earlier. I'm surprised that the scene in which gay males are shown kissing even made it passed the censor at the time, although there is at least one precedent I know of. Two semi naked female 'slave/hand-maidens' snogging on the steps of some temple in one of Cecil B De Mille's 'Biblical Epics', although apparently that was quite common in the twenties! So long as it's a 'long shot', no problem! (I got that from a fascinating documentary on clandestine 'pornography' in mainstream cinema about 20 years ago! No sorry, I don't remember anything else, guys! But you get to see the clip so......it's real! Not myth!)

Interestingly, Thorp wrote a follow up novel to 'The Detective' a decade or so later starring the same central characters, Joe Leland and his estranged wife. It was called 'Nothing lasts forever'. It too was filmed.

Die Hard!

Talking of words.....'wrought' is absolutely fascinating. Wrought-iron, overwrought, "(Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel,) What hath God wrought!"

Wrought is a hangover from the middle English past participle of the verb 'worchen', to work, but only exists in the participle form now and only in certain instances. While 'wrought-iron' may be safely be replaced by 'worked-iron', ie iron which has been 'worked', fashioned in some way, overwrought does not mean 'overworked', although it did originally, but excessively agitated or excited.

Better still are words like 'cleave' which means to cut (apart), ie 'cleave asunder' and 'to come together' as in 'I cleave to you, my love' (and you can't blame {according to most dictionaries} different Old English or Middle English roots which NOW are spelt the same). Or how about, 'It's downhill all the way from here' which means both 'things will be easier now' and 'things will be worse'.

There is no doubt about it. English is a very cranky language. No wonder people have trouble with it!

Oh joy, such beauty, such grace. The graceful arc of an aqueous jet, a fountain of sparkling jewels in the sunlight, the gentle sound of trickling water. There is something sublime about a small fountain, don't you think? Well not when it's in your hallway as opposed to your garden! Jets of water pitter-pattering on the underside of your floorboards.

Sprang a leak in my water main today. 30 pound per square inch pressure coming through a tiny pinhole; think minature fountain in the 'Plaza d'Espana' under my floorboards.

Fixed now but after the catatrophe that was the hob cover shattering in to a thousand tiny pieces of glass (you have to hit toughened glass just right for it to do that), I am inclined to think that the flat has had a stroke too!