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Given a 200-page book in which no other character appears as remotely human, as anything other than a sketch or cipher, and in which the author admits to never having loved, or been loved, the final effect of this strangely empty memoir is bleak indeed. Because, ultimately, this is the autobiography of a narcissist. Although Crisp does nothing to present himself in a more favorable light - if anything, he goes out of his way to make the point that the reader's approval matters nothing to him - by the two-third mark, one cannot help but develop a grudging admiration for the man.It's hard to know why this happens - perhaps just a case of sympathy for the underdog. I feel a certain admiration for Quentin Crisp. This book is an account of the price exacted. "When the telegram announcing my father's death arrived, I felt nothing except irritation at the thought of having to go home, attend the funeral, and come back."Quentin Crisp is not a likeable human being.
And a peculiar thing happened. Reviews of this book invariably mention its wit and brilliant self-mockery, qualities I found singularly absent. About one quarter way into this book, I was tempted to throw it aside for good. While the reader may be moved toward a grudging admiration for Crisp's refusal to be ground down by the prejudice and cruelty surrounding him, it's impossible to feel any real sympathy for the man. But I can't say that I enjoyed spending time in his company. But given its generally favorable reviews, I felt I should give it another chance.
Crisp was born in a time when homosexuality really was the love that dare not speak its name, and made his mark by never obliging those who would have him live life in a shadow, instead choosing to flaunt his difference.
Crisp, despite his flamboyance, was not immune to it: "Homosexuals were ashamed. To read "The Naked Civil Servant" is to be impressed by a great personality and a brilliant, acute observer of sex and society. Rereading "The Naked Civil Servant" after many years, I find Quentin Crisp's melancholy wit just as bracing as I did when I first encountered the book. One famous example: "I would have been tempted to say that he was ill did I not know that health consists of having the same diseases as one's neighbors." Another: "'Immaturity' is one more word that requires definition. Yet the loneliness and melancholy never really left him. Here I find myself for once inclined toward the masculine view." Yet despite the humor, the overwhelming mood of "The Naked Civil Servant" is of loneliness. Reading his autobiography shows a younger generation of gay men precisely the mindset a hidebound society instilled in homosexuals in the early 20th century.
It was private and irremediable." In subsequent years--he lived to be ninety, outliving the publication of "The Naked Civil Servant" by three decades--Crisp found a measure of public acceptance and acclaim he would have thought impossible in the 1930s. It had little to do with God or the neighbors or the police.
A woman flings it at anyone who doesn't want to marry her. The feeling varied from irritation to the anguish of irrevocable exile.
The chiseled perfection of Crisp's aphorisms recall Oscar Wilde (though Crisp's distaste for Wilde was famous; Wilde's hubris and subsequent downfall made life that much harder for the gay men, such as Crisp, who came after him). They resented not being in the mainstream of life.
But, at the same time, you wish he could have found a little more happiness for himself. To men it means the inability to stand on one's own two feet.
Crisp, who outed himself flamboyantly forty years before Stonewall, presents himself as a wildly contradictory character: exhibitionistic yet inherently and Englishly modest, too honest to present himself as anything other than he was, yet realizing fully the opprobrium and loss of companionship he would suffer by doing so.
I found Quentin Crisp to be a singularly unpleasant and self absorbed man who strives for fame by being outrageous, but never pleasant. I have heard of The Naked Civil Servant for many years and finally decided to pick it up to read. I found his humor to be too cute in many cases and his quest for self-importance highly aggravating. His personality took away much of the value that I was hoping for in this book. In many ways it is a great piece of gay history that would have been lost were it not for Quentin Crisp's acerbic wit and very English sense of time and place. As a historical piece, The Naked Civil Servant is well worth reading.Unfortunately, I also found myself wanting the book to end - in the same way that I wanted the movie Capote to end.
What kind of title is that. He outed himself as flamboyantly gay in 1931, and manages to be both sincere and parody at the same time. So there you go. Now there's a career choice my high school guidance counselor never told me about.
"His wit is brilliant, his observations acute, his self-mockery undiluted by the need to sentimentalize." "'As soon as I stepped out of my mother's womb. Forget the gay part. His writing style is quite crisp, ho ho. I realized that I had made a mistake,' Quentin declares, giving a small hint of the witty and wry approach he takes toward the life he describes with undiluted exuberance in this classic autobiography, which is both a comic masterpiece and a unique testament to the resilience of the human spirit." "His hilarious descriptions of encounters with parents, friends, employers, soldiers and sailors, and the law reveal the strength and humor of an honest man, determined to face the world with the uncensored, unapologetic truth about himself." "A work of great wit, intelligence and sensitivity." Quite. Time to scan the cover again, as opposed to being original. Well, for 35 years, he was a nude model for art classes.
Focus on the outsider part. A naked civil servant. Quentin is the quintessential outsider.
Though he was harassed, ridiculed, and beaten, he was determined to spread the message that homosexuality did not exclude him or anyone else from the human race. His is a unique life story. "This is an unusually riveting, exuberant autobiography of a man who, in 1931, 'came out' in the streets of London as a self-confessed and self-evident homosexual. ¶ Quentin Crisp has become a cult celebrity since the highly acclaimed dramatization of The Naked Civil Servant was first aired on American television. One feels the strength and humor of an honest man, determined to face the world with the truth about himself."--© zebraz At a time when the slightest sign of homosexuality aroused immediate disgust, Quentin Crisp made the courageous decision to be true to his nature. He adopted an outrageously effeminate manner and appearance ('I wore makeup at a time when even on women eye shadow was sinful'), and his flamboyant exhibitionism, henna-dyed hair, and unconventional behavior shocked London society of the thirties.
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