Page 216 - Some Dance to Remember

186 Jack Fritscher

being grand. Only queens are grand.”
“It seems to me,” January had an edge of acid on her tongue, “I must
be very careful of my semantics with you fellows.”
“Don’t call us fellows.” Solly sounded like Bert Lahr playing the Cow-
ardly Lion. “On the outside we look the same as men, but on the inside...”
“Proust,” January said. “Remembrances. Badly quoted.”
“Actually,” Solly said, “nicely misquoted.”
“This is more than semantics,” Ryan said. “Different species of gays
exist within generic homosexuality.”
“I could make a fortune,” Solly said, “selling designer videos of a
Generic Gay Man. He’d sell like the Neanderthal Man or the Cro-
Magnon Man. He could be the ‘I. Magnin Man.’”
“Get serious,” Ryan said.
“You’re too serious,” Solly said. “In ancient Rome, when somebody
started taking himself too seriously, a slave stood behind him and whis-
pered, ‘Remember thou art only a man.’”
“You’ve brought,” January looked at her notes, “something more than
abstract masculinism out of the closet. You write about rimming, fisting,
water sports, and even scatology as political acts. Do you think your writ-
ing has given men permission to do some rather sleazy things they’d never
dare do if you hadn’t glamorized them?”
“You mean,” Solly said, “can a reader sue Ryan if the reader goes out
one night and ends up with clap and a colostomy?”
“Solly!” Ryan said. He had wanted Solly present for more than a
send-up of January Guggenheim. “There is no blame,” Ryan turned up
his intensity, “for what goes on in the baths and bedrooms of San Fran-
cisco. I learn far more from other men than I dream up myself. My friend
here,” and he shot Solly a glance meant to corral his mouth, “says that the
ultimate political act is being able to do ultimate things with your own
personal body.”
“Am I on? Is the video running? I’m never on this side of the camera.”
Solly sat up and pontificated. “Good sex is a combination of mutually
exclusive things all performed at the same time...”
“Omigod.” Ryan said.
“...each one progressively more disgusting than the last.”
“He’s on a roll,” Ryan said.
“Take notes, lady,” Solly Blue said. Leaving his apartment made Solly
aggressive out of self-defense. “I’m the queen dujour!”
“Your friend Solly is a veritable sage. He should write fortune cookies.”
“Lady,” Solly said, “if you want Tales of the City, go interview Armi

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