Leaves from a Journal

PAGES DE CARNET

par

ROBERT AMAR

The following three 'pages from a diary of reflections' are translated from the April, 1958 issue of ARCADIE, published in Paris. A fourth follows in French, taken directly from the magazine. The translation is by Dr. Henri Lormier, Review staff member of San Francisco. Homosexuality is a reality. At the same time it constitutes a problen that begs for solution in accordance with the results of scientific research, psychology and morality; in accordance with justice that is fai and benevolent. To deny the reality of homosexuality and the problem it creates is as stupid as it is ineffective. Nevertheless, many do deny it. Roger Martin du Gard, author of the play, "The Taciturn," has one of his characters say to another, Armand, "It happens, even to the best people." Jouvet, a famous French actor, was afraid of protests from the audience, and omitted the word "even." But the next day he went further and omitted the entire clause, "even to the best people," and said only, "it happens." This was real progress, chided Andre Gide, who reported the event. "And though he (Jouvet) does not say it any more, it happens nevertheless, and the indignation of conformists cannot change this fact."

There are still too many who hide their heads in sand like ostriches when it comes to facing the reality of homosexuality. In our time the homophile has only the choice of being forgotten, or laughed at, or to be used-as martyrs of whom Camus speaks-but is there never understanding.

It is permissable to pay homage to those who know how to free themselves from the dark clouds of obscurity and who are the forerunners, who open up the ways to new discoveries which will help succeeding generations. And no one can deny that these generations will need this help. mattachine REVIEW

2 Simone de Beauvoir, author of "Le Deuxieme Sexe” (“The Second Sex"), scores an all too-common vicious circle, one which creates internal unhappiness.

"We know," she says, "the sally of Bernard Shaw when he said substantially: 'The white American puts the Negro on the level of shoeshiners and then draws the conclusion that the Negro is fit only to shine shoes.'"'

We find this vicious circle in all analogous circumstances. When an individual or a group is kept in an inferior position, the result usually is that he then IS inferior. But here we have to come to an agreement concerning the verb to be. It is bad faith to give this verb a substantial value here, whereas it has a dynamic character, in the Hegalian sense: "to be,”that is having become to be, is to have been made such as one does himself come to be known.

While society refuses to acknowledge homosexualism as a reality, and while society speaks about it as if it were an anomoly, a perversion, a vice, or a neurosis, it puts a whole group (and the public in almost every country would be amazed to learn just how large this group is within their midst) in a position of inferiority. It puts a derisive stamp on them and later forces the group to become, in a certain way, the very evil which society accuses it to be.

A vicious circle, a dramatic circle also for all human beings with a heart, mind, and body, who are the victims of this unjust transmutation. Thinking men and women should not rest until each has done his part to level this "Bastille" so that it will meet, sooner or later, its own "July 14th." (The French revolution started with the levelling of the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789.)

There are those of us who are sometimes inflamed with a sensual curiosity when we meet a certain face on the street, a curiosity which chokes and palpitates our breathing and which sweeps away our deepest fears and cautions so that we are forced to follow the other. We must meet by all means.

Andre Gide was one of those persons, a pawn for sensual curiosity. He acknowledges this in his journal, calling it an "imperious propuision, that is so insidious, so secret a counsel, a custom so inveterate, that I doubt often if I can resist it without help from the outside.'

This curiosity which brings with it a kind of intoxication, is also tyrannical. It gives us the keys to a domain which can be either a heaven or a hell when unlocked. Here the intuition is not much of a sure guide; it is too much confused by contradictory elements of reason, sentiment and passion. It makes no sense to ask oneself if one has to envy such human beings, or to deplore them. Each of us would ans25