When he realized he was sick with AIDS, Derek Jarman wanted to testify, yes, to his joy of life but also to the incredible repressive situations and malaise that had forced him–he as well as an entire gay generation–to live their condition almost as if it were a crime, constantly hiding, always branded and scornfully judged by the dominant hetero respectability. He does this by weaving into an astonishing, and in some ways delicate tapestry, poems, first-hand accounts, anecdotes of lived life, and articles taken from the major newspapers of the time. In a book that is ultimately powerful, dramatic, revealing but also shot through with an incredible longing for freedom, joy and much needed love. Thirty years ago, at the height of the Aids plague, saying you were gay was a truly revolutionary act. Perhaps it is difficult today to understand how radical and important this book was. Sure, progress has finally been achieved in the West, but still today in one way or another homosexual love is criminalized in nearly seventy countries, and even in ten nations one can be sentenced to death for homosexuality. In telling us about the condition experienced by homosexuals between the 1940s and the 1990s, this book forces us to confront an absolutely dramatic cultural climate. Unfortunately, history is not linear, and sometimes it is bound to repeat itself. And this book, even in its poetic delicacy, is an extraordinary warning. “The first twenty-five years of my life I lived as if I were a criminal. The next twenty-five I spent as a second-class citizen, deprived of all human rights. Without the right to adopt children-and even if I had children I could be declared an unfit parent; illegal in the military; no right of access to a loved one; no right to affection in public; no right to an impartial education; no right to my romantic relationship and no right to marry. These restrictions subtly deprived me of my freedom. It seemed impossible that it could be otherwise, and so we all accepted it.” “This evening I am tired. My vision is blurred, my back curves from the weight of the day, but – homosexual friends – let me take leave of you singing. I had to write about a sad time as a witness and certainly not to extinguish your smiles. Please read the afflictions of the world I have fixed on these pages; then, put this book away and love. May you, who will live in a better future, love without suffering and remember that we too loved. As darkness fell, stars appeared. I am in love.” (Source IBS.co.uk)
is an Italian Copywriter, Creative Director, writer, partner in the start-up Postobello
