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Larry Kramer (1) (1935–2020)

Auteur van Faggots

Voor andere auteurs genaamd Larry Kramer, zie de verduidelijkingspagina.

24+ Werken 1,754 Leden 23 Besprekingen Favoriet van 1 leden

Over de Auteur

Larry Kramer co-founded Gay Men's Health Crisis, the world's first provider of services to people with HIV and 1987, he founded ACT UP, the worldwide advocacy and protest organization.
Fotografie: Photo by David Shankbone, 2007 (Wikimedia Commons)

Werken van Larry Kramer

Faggots (1978) 608 exemplaren
The Normal Heart (1985) 375 exemplaren
The Tragedy of Today's Gays (2005) 90 exemplaren
The Destiny of Me (1992) 88 exemplaren
Just Say No: A Play About A Farce (1988) 59 exemplaren
Women in Love [1969 film] (1969) — Screenwriter — 38 exemplaren
The Normal Heart [2014 TV movie] (2014) — Writer — 37 exemplaren

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Was Lincoln Gay? in History: On learning from and writing history (mei 2015)

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I nearly bawled reading this last night.
 
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tyk314 | 6 andere besprekingen | Jan 22, 2024 |
I nearly bawled reading this last night.
 
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tyk314 | 6 andere besprekingen | Jan 22, 2024 |
As a young gay man, recently come out to my family (Thanksgiving Break, how cliche, right) & having then graduated in May; I found I wasn't the carefree "gay" I thought I was going to feel-like. I decided on a break year (which I would need to fund myself...eek!). I got a job, turned it into a successful launch for various positions & industries I would later hold. However, sexually I was socially isolated, virtually everyone I was close to graduated and moved away. When I was given the book via USPS, I thought it was meant to be a lighthearted ribbing from a close female dorm mate. After thanking her for the gift (ha-ha), she told me to READ the book, it wasn't meant as a gag. She went to the Village, found a bookstore and talked with the manager & staff about how she could help her friend wandering lost in his rumpled oxfords, chinos, & Topsiders in DC.
The book was a like looking through a window at a world that looked familar, but spoke a different language. I still can quote lines from the book. When finished, I put on my Calvins & grabbed my favorite Lacoste (pre-RL polo) and headed to the gay bookstore that actually sold books. I found an approachable sales guy & tried to explain my situation and if he had any suggestions for further reading?
Quick escape ending, he was done for the day & asked me to dinner. He told me, like college, I was done reading and needed to start doing! I'll leave it there, but 3 yrs later I met the one and just celebrated our 41st Anniversary (11 legal). Oh, ironically, he was a visiting college friend of one of my DC friend and was currently living in Manhattan.
… (meer)
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Huba.Library | 9 andere besprekingen | Oct 3, 2022 |
Larry Kramer was an outspoken advocate in the 1980s, the early days of the AIDS epidemic. While many in the gay community were caught up in celebrating hard-fought sexual freedoms, Kramer argued that these freedoms must be curtailed somehow to protect against biological disease. This position, unfortunately, won him scorn from many fellow gays. However, he wrote this award-winning play in 1985 to advocate for his position while shining the light on what it was like to be gay in this era. Without a doubt, this play humanized the entire confusing experience and teaches us still how to live under threat of disease.

In this work, Ned Weeks, the main protagonist, symbolizes Kramer’s work in the gay community. Ned is a writer who organizes to bring the AIDS agenda to the public’s mind. He shines a light on the hypocrisy of how few resources and publicity are devoted to this epidemic when compared to other recent healthcare scares (like the 1982 Tylenol crisis). Though his organizing efforts are successful, he is pushed out of leadership because he is seen as too radical. Ned simply advocates that the value of life amidst disease should trump any freedoms.

The characters in the play are based on historical figures in Kramer’s life experiences. There is love. There is death. The characters stand out. Ever-moving, they humanize the conflicting cultural forces at play. In 2011, HBO filmed this play and put it on the television. This film version even won kudos from then-president Obama. If you prefer to see plays instead of read them, this film is still available for rental.

It is simultaneously an engaging play and a piece of history. Kramer went on to continue to organize his advocacy and won hard-fought recognition of the AIDS crisis. (Remember, Reagan famously didn’t utter the word “AIDS” until the seventh year of his presidency.) He wrote a follow-up play The Destiny of Me which also won awards. The AIDS epidemic still rages globally despite vaccine and pharmacological efforts. The gay community has continued to win hard-fought rights and acceptance into wider American society.

The play closes on a moving note. It calls us to remember our common humanity amidst crisis – something too easy to forget. I write this review in the midst of another pandemic, and many of the lessons of the AIDS pandemic have been forgotten today. We still attack each other because masks – gasp! – are too restrictive to save human lives. As with Ned, people are pushed away for advocating sane public health measures. We cannot and should not forget the last scene in this book, for it repeats itself in our present history. Likewise, we cannot and should not forget the lives of a marginalized group targeted by biologic agents, for one day, it might be all of us. All this to say, this play has broad relevance to present readers, not just the LGBTQ+ community.
… (meer)
 
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scottjpearson | Sep 10, 2021 |

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Werken
24
Ook door
4
Leden
1,754
Populariteit
#14,666
Waardering
3.8
Besprekingen
23
ISBNs
62
Talen
1
Favoriet
1

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