Читать книгу The C.A.M.P. Guide to Sex and the Single Gay - Victor J. Banis - Страница 5

INTRODUCTION TO THE 2012 EDITION

More than any of the other books in the C.A.M.P. collection, I entertained doubts about reissuing this one, for the simple reason that it is the most obviously dated. Of course social niceties have changed greatly since all of the books were originally written, but in the Jackie Holmes adventures there are always stories to distract the reader, and the realities of cooking (The C.A.M.P. Cookbook) and astrology (The C.A.M.P. Guide to Astrology) have changed hardly at all in the intervening years.

Sex and the Single Gay was inspired by the bestselling Sex and the Single Girl, written by Helen Gurley Brown of Cosmopolitan fame. Like its predecessor, my book offered advice on a wide variety of fronts—furnishing an apartment, for example, cooking, entertaining, styles and—mostly—attracting and seducing men.

Men aren’t so much different now from what they were then, but otherwise things have changed on nearly every front. To cite just one example, by 1970, no one batted an eyelash at shoulder-length hair on men, but when I was writing this book only a few years earlier, masculine hair that long was still so rare as to look peculiar. Dancing then was still mostly closed dancing; the frug, the watusi and all those moves commonly seen in dance clubs today were still around the corner. To be sure, in a few clubs you could already see guys shaking their booties, but it was regarded as a bit freaky.

Even the realities of day-to-day gay life have changed. The subterfuge I recommended then will surely seem odd to today’s young gay males, who will undoubtedly wonder why the fact of their gay-ness should be concealed from office mates, heterosexual friends, and at straight gatherings. But in those days, though many of us were peeking out of our closets, the gay lifestyle remained perilous—arrests and getting fired from one’s job were still realities for many of us, and straight friends and families could and did shun the openly gay. It was still necessary, in other words, to live a more or less secret gay life.

So, why, then, reissue a book that will strike many as out of touch with the gay life of today’s readers?

The best reason I can offer is that I think much of what I had to say then is still valid today. Much of the advice—on managing a budget, for instance, or furnishing an apartment still applies (though certainly the prices have changed), and even where it doesn’t, there is an even better reason to read—it’s funny. Yes, campy funny, but, hey, take another look at the title.

So, in addition to what I offer in the book, I would add this advice—take what you can use, consider the rest of it a window on what life was like for us back then—and in any case, do enjoy, please.

Otherwise, you’re missing the point.

—Victor J. Banis