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The White Book (Le Livre Blanc) (2001)

The White Book (Le Livre Blanc) (2001)

Book Info

Rating
3.79 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0872862380 (ISBN13: 9780872862388)
Language
English
Publisher
city lights publishers

About book The White Book (Le Livre Blanc) (2001)

"Il libro bianco" è un racconto di formazione sentimentale e sessuale fortemente autobiografico che percorre la vita del protagonista dall'infanzia all'inizio dell'età adulta. Insieme ad esso sono raccolti alcuni scritti erotici dello stesso periodo o che fanno riferimento allo stesso contesto (poesie e brevi apologhi). Purtroppo l'edizione italiana della Guanda non contiene anche i 18 disegni dell'autore che invece compaiono nell'originale.Ciò che narra Cocteau è lo scarto che intercorre tra il formarsi di una sessualità che all'epoca era considerata normale e quella invece omosessuale: si tratta di un racconto denso di sofferenza, una sorta di via crucis in cui ogni tappa è rappresentata da un amante diverso e quindi da un raggiro e un dolore più grande, un susseguirsi di piaceri unicamente carnali che non trovano una controparte spirituale, psicologica ed emotiva, accompagnati solo da senso di colpa e di inadeguatezza.La vita di un "invertito" sembra potersi comporre solo di bugie, finzioni e doppiezze; quello che io ho percepito è un continuo senso di tensione e insoddisfazione verso se stessi, l'ansia di provare ad essere come gli altri, sapendo fin dall'inizio di andare incontro al fallimento. Il protagonista cerca rifugio nella fede, ma anche lì è costretto ad essere perseguitato dai propri fantasmi, non riesce a liberarsi della propria identità e, poiché non è in grado di rientrare nei canoni della società, di annullarsi, l'unica soluzione possibile è di abbandonarla e di dedicarsi ad una vita di solitudine e di autoesclusione.Si tratta di uno dei racconti più amari, disperati, avviliti e sconfortanti che io abbia mai letto. Il contesto è deprimente, umiliante e squallido e mi ha provocato più che altro angoscia.Ciò che invece ho trovato molto interessante è la lettura che si può fare quasi in parallelo di questo racconto e de "I ragazzi terribili", sono più che evidenti i punti in comune dei due testi e il rimacinare degli stessi temi che tornano a perseguitare ossessivamente Cocteau: il doppio, la coppia dei fratelli, Dargelos e il "tipo" che incarna, sia esso maschile o femminile, e la sua continua ricerca o apparizione improvvisa (si ritrova perfino l'episodio della palla di neve).

Man, it's a good thing that there aren't homosexual males today who are shamed by society and emotionally battered by jocko, bible-beating dads, preachers, politicians, and education systems into disingenuous heterosexual marriages with women they could never truly love, often driving them to live self-hatred-inducing double-lives rather than face their true selves because they are afraid of being rejected by the culture at large and/or disowned by their families, friends, and/or spiritual communities, while those who do decide to embrace their inner worlds outwardly live in constant danger of bigotry manifested as violence and government/church interference in their bedrooms, hearts, and homes, and it all too often ends tragically for all concerned because a simple fact of nature couldn't be embraced by the inbred, Christ-juicin' minds of the masses, or this book may have been really depressing and insightful, even nearly a hundred years later. Hashtag sarcasm.Tragic, lovely, and puzzlingly tasteful in its vulgarity. Also, still sadly relevant. Incidentally, there's a whole lotta sex innit.

Do You like book The White Book (Le Livre Blanc) (2001)?

LOVE HAS TO BE REINVENTED - says book just few lines before the end... this very thin book by Cocteau is very direct without wasting one word and still, say more than hundreds of pages without sense. story of man who deal with his sexuality, his 'tastes' for men, facing the religious cruelty. story of evil and good. one could say it is not anymore so bad for gay person in 21st century. i would;t be so sure about it. i can very intimately relate to this story of shame, looking for not much but love and freedom of one's nature feelings.
—jaroSpring vinarsky

" The arched bodies are riveted together at the sex; grave profiles cast thoughtful downward glances, turn less quickly than the tripping and now and then plodding feet. Free hands assume the gracious attitudes affected by common folk when they take a cup of tea or piss it out again. A springtime exhilaration transports the bodies. Those bodies bud, push forth shoots, branches, hard members bump, squeeze, sweats commingle, and there's another couple heading for one of the rooms with the globe lights overhead and the eiderdowns on the bed. "----" The sun is a veteran lover who knows his job. He starts by laying firm hands all over you. He attacks simultaneously from every angle. There's no getting away, he has a potent grip, he pins you and before you know it, you discover, as always happens to me, that your belly is covered with liquid drops similar to mistletoe. "
—Eadweard

Le Livre Blanc (The White Book)By: Jean Cocteau Le Livre Blanc a descriptive narrative and also as a historically significant and socially important case study on homosexual culture. It presents the existence of gay men and women as being a fact of life, it goes on about a young man who travels the ups-and-downs of life and love, as we all do. He tries and fails at relationships and love; a lot like people do today. He then tries and doing so fails at discovering and rediscovering himself. At one point, he seeks out a place in the Abbey, looking to religion in hopes that this new focus would cure him and allow him to re-enter the world as a “pure” and renewed (normal) man. This, of course, does not work, and the final pages reflect a truer self-realization for the narrator which coincides with the authors wish that he and this group of people be viewed as simply people. For readers interested in the history of gay literature, this book is a good one to read. Also on a side not the author had originally published this anonymously because it was basically illegal to be "homosexual" in France. The author is trying to state that it's difficult to be who you are in this world. This book really did effect me on a personal level. I have family members and friends, even I can say I am part of the LGBT community and it is a very difficult thing to process and get a grasp on when society is constantly bring you down and not excepting you. This book really put out those struggles and really highlighted what's important. The art work in this book that Jean had done him self are not the most appropriate but that's what I like about the book because it is not censored it gives you a raw and real feeling of what's going on. In all this book is a feel gripping and strange but reveling book about what goes through a persons mind in that situation. "I'm not willing just to be tolerated. That wounds my love of love and of liberty." -Jean Cocteau.
—Sophia Glazier

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