“Dear Lytton,
Reached Everest today. Quite cold here. Still very gay. More later.
– GM”
*
“Lytton. Did you know Everest is the tallest mountain in the entire world? Also, remember all the sex we had, with our penises?
Affectionately,
GM”
*
“Dear Lytton,
Plan on descending the mountain tomorrow, homosexually. More later. – George.”
Tags: george mallory, history, i know he wasn’t writing these from the top of everest and also you could argue he was bisexual i personally wouldn’t but one could make the argument, like of course they were “explicitly gay” because he was gay and he was gay all the time, unintentionally funny headlines, you can just say explicit you don’t have to add gay we’ll figure out the gay part soon enough
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Time we talked base camp. Yrs, GM
“Tonight I intend to summit a peak or two.
Kisses, GM”
“He collapsed on the lawn, exhausted and gay.”
Still one of the best Onion articles I have read to date.
I just looked it up and OH, what a joy. Thank you for mentioning it was an Onion article.
For the curious but lazy: http://www.theonion.com/article/area-homosexual-s…
“Doctors describe his condition as stable but homosexual.”
There are so some immortal Onion lines that I have remembered for more than a decade, and that is right up there.
That one and “Ugly Girl Dies, Nation Fails to Mourn.”
I think my husband’s fav is “Man Lands on Fucking Moon. Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket.”
I will always treasure “Man Has Magnificent Ass.”
“This mountain reminds me of something. Heh heh. I will do more climbing once I return. Heh. Heh heh.”
“Camp correspondence”
I see what you did there.
I was dizzy, short of breath, swooning, and dazzled by incomparable vistas–but that was all before I left England. Now I’m on this fucking cold mountain and I’m horny. Can’t wait to plant the fucking flag, get down, get home and get laid. TTFN, GM.
“Descending mountain, homosexually”
The only way to do anything, honestly.
just an fyi this has all my favorite things in it: history of everest, lytton strachey, teh gays, gay correspondence
AND opportunities for 12-year-old level wordplay in the comments!
Dearest Lytton,
We pitched tents at base camp today. Thought of you and pitched one more.
THIS IS THE BEST ONE.
“On my way home to you now, Lytton. Soon we will be reunited and able to have sex again. Gay sex. Because we are both men and also, homosexual. Love and kisses, GM”
That’s some really solid work going on there in the tags. Well done.
I mean like there is a FINE LINE sometimes between looking for historical bisexuality versus taking “being forcibly closeted” for “genuinely interested in members of that sex,” right? LGBT history is FRAUGHT, I’m telling you!
Having spent years doing research on this, I keep thinking that there must be a code that distinguishes between the two, but the only way I’ve come up with so far is if they were pleased (bisexual) or not (forcibly closeted) when their friends had happy marriages to women.
This piece comprises my four favorite things: Ortberg, Mount Everest, gayness, and letters.
Quote from actual article, from actual expert-person:
“The very camp tone is quite typical of letters of the period from these Cambridge circles, where after all there were no women in those days, and there were a lot of them dabbling around in this kind of thing. Things often changed when they left and met some real women.”
Haha, oh yes, remove the women, and it’s nothing but guys commenting on how red their friend’s lips are. *throws hands in air*
No real women anywhere! They had no choice but to turn to each other’s manliness. NO CHOICE.
Forget EVEREST, *Cambridge* is a vast desert, void of femininity.
To be honest, if some of the university’s current inhabitants had their way it would be.
ah. those ‘experts’ really are the best.
2/5 stars, The Guardian – you said explicitly gay, but I can find more explicit RPS on fanfiction.net with but a moment’s search!
Love how dramatically some of the researchers try to walk it back. “They only flirted until they met girls! No penises have ever touched! Friendship! Frieeeeendship!” *wailing off into the night*
“He wasn’t even attracted to Rupert Brooke! CASE CLOSED.”
WAIT I want to talk about this quote from the original article:
However, Matthew Haley, head of books and manuscripts at Bonhams, thinks Mallory is sometimes just being whimsical to amuse Strachey. He writes “I have an odd prejudice against climbing in dress clothes”, and in another letter imagines himself in the future: “I, in about 1930, have stood my trial for sodomy in defence of my conduct and am playing altogether a very heroic part.”
…what?! What? I mean, sure, joke about standing trial for sodomy, because it was a law for 100 years and OF COURSE people make jokes, but I think WHIMSY is really stretching it as a term.
classic black whimsy, dude. I like my whimsy like I like my coffee: dark, and bitter enough to sour my whole day. 😛
“Because he’s there!”
Brb, updating the Bloomsbury group sex chart.
Right?! I think I have their web of sex untangled, and then -boom- someone else jumps in on the action.
On a related note, I’d love to see someone at the-toast do an extensive series of articles on the Bloomsbury Group.
“Why do men climb Everest? Because it’s gay.” – George Mallory.
"Why do men climb Everest? Because it's gay." – George Mallory.
I will always treasure "Man Has Magnificent Ass."
ah. those 'experts' really are the best.
Has everyone seen the naked pictures of George Mallory? There are two that look like they are in photographer’s studio and there’s at least one of him stark naked on Everest, with two other guys one of whom is wearing no pants.