LHMP #509 Downing 1989 Myths and Mysteries of Same-Sex Love

There are some books that have been on my shelves since the earliest years of my interest in the subject without me ever having cracked them open. Indeed, it was the accusatory gaze of those books that helped spur me on to starting the Project. But not all of those books are actually relevant to the study of history. And this is one of them. To be fair, once I skimmed through the first few chapters, it became clear that Downing was not attempting or claiming to do history. She's doing Freudian psychology. The book is also, in many ways, a memoir of her own sexual journey and her experiences as part of the queer community during the AIDS crisis. But even to the extent that myths and images from Classical Greece are discussed, it is in terms of what they mean to 20th century people who are trying to frame their own sexuality in mythic terms (as mediated by Freud's peculiar ideas about same-sex attraction). It's very much "of its time"--the author's previous book was feminist-goddess-imagery explorations. But at least I can tick it off from my list now.

# # #