80 More Gays Around the World: Part 16) A Super Continent

Last time on “80 More Gays”: 40) William Plaine (d.1646) was an ancestor of 41) Vincent Price (1911-1993), whose daughter 42) Victoria Price (b.1962) is a board member of the Vincent Price Art Museum which hosted the first retrospective exhibition of 43) Laura Aguilar (1959-2018), who attended the same college as 44) Jack Larson (1928-2015).

Although 44) Jack Larson will forever be associated with the character of photographer-reporter Jimmy Olsen he was as much a playwright as he was an actor. He was encouraged to write by his tutors at the Pasadena City College in the 1940s, and act in them.

In 1947 a talent scout from MGM Studios spotted Jimmy in a college production and offered him a small role in the film “Scudda Hoo, Scudda Hay” (aka “Summer Lightning”). At the last minute the director changed Jimmy’s character from male to female. Thus Jack Larson lost his screen acting debut to his replacement, Marilyn Monroe.

Back in college Jimmy starred in a musical comedy he wrote called “Balguna del Mar”. After one performance an agent from Warner Brothers offered Jack an audition for “Fighter Squadron”, a film about an American air force squadron in England. Jack got the part.

In 1950 Jack hoped to go to New York to concentrate on a Broadway career. However, his agent persuaded him to audition for a new television series called “Adventures of Superman”. Jack agreed, thinking that non-one would watch it, but at least it would finance his move to New York.

When the series aired it was an instant success. Jack’s contract stated that he was committed to any future season and plan to go to New York was abandoned. Although his character of Jimmy Olsen was very popular Jack considered him to be a cliché and one-dimensional. Superman himself was played by George Reeves. As I mentioned last time George was also a former Pasadena City College student, though he was there a decade before Jack Larson.

Sadly, George Reeves died in 1958 after season 6. By this time Jack had become typecast and it took a while to find other work. It did, however, give him an opportunity to return to writing plays, musicals and operetta. He appeared in handful of films, and produced others that were directed by his life partner, James Bridges. In later years Jack appeared on the comic-con and Superman circuit and guest-starred in films and tv.

The Superman series revitalised the superhero genre on television and every generation has their favourite Superman. For me it is Christopher Reeve. He played him in the 1978 film “Superman - the Movie”. He wasn’t the weak hero we see today who has to team up with others to defeat the villain. He did it on his own.

DC Comics, who own the character, and Warner Brothers who distributed the film, went all out to promote the film, though not to the saturation level we see today. One product was a tabloid magazine-book of the film. The front cover (below) was designed by 45) Neal Pozner (1955-1994).

Most of Neal’s early professional work involved designing album covers for anyone from Jimi Hendrix to Rachmaninov. His Superman book cover was his first work for DC Comics. Very quickly his talent was recognised and he rapidly rose to become the company’s first production designer. In 1986 he was given the task of re-vitalising one of the DC superheroes, Aquaman.

Neal’s major contribution was in the redesign of Aquaman’s costume. The one shown in the recent live-action films is based on the original gold and green costume that Aquaman wore when he first appeared in 1941. Neal gave him a tight-fitting blue outfit. This was subsequently changed back to the original design but last month DC Comics revived Neal’s blue costume for Pride month. Neal continued to work on Aquaman comics until his death.

Sadly, Neal died from AIDS complications. His Aquaman work was continued by Phil Jimenez, among others. Phil is one of the leading comic artists of our time, and Neal gave him his first job at DC Comics. Despite a 15 year age gap they became partners, a fact not known to their colleagues until Neal’s funeral.

Aquaman, like other superheroes, has been revised and re-invented over the years. All of his incarnations share one fact, that he has some connection to Atlantis, even being its king for a while.

Atlantis has captured the imagination for many centuries. For most of these centuries Atlantis was a place from the past, not a place of the present or future. The gay statesman Sir Francis Bacon is probably the first to imagine a future utopian world based on what he believed to have been the Atlantean culture. Later various pseudo-scientific theories were developed, mainly by the author Ignatius Donnelly in 1882 and the theosophists, who believed humanity can communicate with Earth’s guiding deity by receiving knowledge of the ancients by extra-sensory and paranormal experiences.

One of the leading theosophists was 46) Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854-1934). See here for my interpretation of his coat of arms. He was instrumental in bringing Atlantis into theosophist belief. They believed that the Aryan race were the reincarnations of the Atlanteans and were superior to other races. Looking at Charles Leadbeater’s dates you can see who picked up on that idea went.


 Map produced in 1910 in a book by theosophist William Scott-Elliott to show the extension of Atlantis (in pink) at the height of its power and influence, based on the psychic communications between Charles Webster Leadbeater received from the ancient Atlanteans themselves.

The Nazis and Aryan supremacy was covered briefly in my article of 20) Alfred Schuler (1865-1923), the gay man who adopted the swastika. The Nazis even tried to locate Atlantis. It was one of the many supernatural and mystical objects they tried to find, like the Holy Grail sought by Otto Rahn, number 4 in my original “80 Gays” series. Here we can connect Aquaman to the fight against Nazism. He was the creation of the son of Jewish refugees from Austria. His first adventure in 1941 involved rescuing refugees from a Nazi submarine attack.

The Nazis weren’t the first nor the last to look for Atlantis. Obviously, the middle of the Atlantic Ocean has been the preferred location, but all there is at the bottom of the Atlantic is a mid-ocean ridge created by two continental plates splitting apart. This idea of continents moving has been around a long time. The above-mentioned Sir Francis Bacon noted the coastlines of Africa and South America matched but went no further. But among 20th century scientists continental drift was laughable.

In the 1960s a survey dating the geo-magnetism of the rocks across the bottom of the Atlantic proved that there was no continent there and that the continents were moving. Scientists stopped laughing after that. The geophysicist who led the research was 47) Allan Cox (1926-1987).

Next time of “80 More Gays”: We discover the South Pole on the equator, a botanist looking for Nazis in the South Atlantis, and a governor who wants his islands back.

Star Gayzing : The Biggest Homohoax Ever?

It’s not often that I write two articles with the same theme next to each other unless they’re directly connected, but today I stay with the astronomical theme because of an event that took place last week. It’s a subject I had scheduled for later in the year, but it was too topical to wait till then.

Last weekend the first British Flat Earth convention was held in Birmingham. If they are right about the Flat Earth then the idea of a spherical one must be the biggest homohoax ever! (See here for my explanation of a homohoax).

First of all, let’s take ourselves back in history to the “Gayest Games in Ancient Greece”, the Greater Panathenaean Games These were the local “Olympics” held for the citizens of Athens once very four years (with Lesser Panathenaean Games in the years in between).

At one of the games in around 450 BC the young Socrates, the famous philosopher, was a spectator. There he met one of the celebrity philosophers of the day, Parmenides of Elea (picture below). Parmenides was said to be around 65 years old at the time and was accompanied by a younger man, another philosopher called Zeno of Elea. The meeting was recorded many years later by yet another philosopher, Plato. He added that Zeno had been Parmenides’ “eromenos”.

“Eromenos”, a word coming from the same origin as the name of Eros, the god of gay sex, is the term used to describe a young boy Greek men took as his sexual partner (it was Parmenides who wrote, in the poem mentioned below, that Eros was the first Greek god to be created). The Greeks were suspicious of any man who didn’t have an eromenos. Plato hero-worshipped Parmenides, so he must have got to know all there was to know about him as any fan would.

These sexual relationships lasted until the boy was about 20 and got married, but the male couple would always remain close for the rest of their lives. That’s why the old Parmenides had the adult Zeno accompanying him to the Greater Panathenaean Games. Both may have had wives, but women were not allowed to attend the games, just as they weren’t at the Olympics.

By the time Parmenides met Socrates at the Panathenaean Games he had already produced the most important ideas that shaped what we now call metaphysics and ontology. Three ideas in particular had cosmic consequences.

Surviving fragments of the poem by Parmenides, the poem in which he refers to Eros as the first Greek god, set out his philosophy. The poem was originally about 800 verses long but only about 160 verses survive. Basically his aim was to provide a philosophical theory of reality – what is real, and what is not. He used astronomy to help explain his theory.

Parmenides saw change as an illusion. The entire universe has never changed since its creation, including past, present and future, and that space is infinite. In this respect he can be seen to suggest the universe is infinite which until then was thought to consist of a solid sphere around the Earth on which the stars were fixed.

The theory of an infinite universe led centuries later to the Renaissance scientist Giordano Bruno to theorise that in an infinite universe there is an infinite number of Suns, more than the stars that are visible, and that each Sun had planets like Earth orbiting them. What got him into trouble with the Catholic Church was his theory that these infinite Earths were identical to ours and had a Christ on them all. This went against the Church’s teaching of there being only one Christ, not an infinite number, so Bruno was put on trial for heresy and executed.

Going back to Parmenides let’s look at how he theorised that the Earth was spherical. Until his time the Earth as thought to be flat and the Sun travelled over the Earth once, and a brand new Sun dawned the following day. Some say Pythagoras came up with the idea of a spherical Earth long before Parmenides, but this is no more than attributing later great deeds to great men of the past. At best, the theories of Earth’s shape were ambiguous and not specific enough to claim that it was spherical. Generally, however, Greek scientists agreed that the Earth was at least curved because they could see changes in the Sun and stars positions at different geographical locations.

It was Parmenides who took the curved Earth idea further by suggesting it was spherical. The sphere was perfect shape and the Earth was perfect, he theorised. However, he went further by claiming the universe revolved around the Earth.

One piece of evidence he presented was what happened during a lunar eclipse. He wrote that we can only see the Moon because it is always facing the Sun. At a lunar eclipse he said that it was the Earth’s shadow which darkened the Moon’s surface, and that the curved shadow on the Moon proves the Earth is a sphere. What’s more, it proved that the Sun does not die when it sets but that it travels behind the spherical Earth to dawn the next day, and has done so since time began.

By the 4th century BC Greek philosophers all believed in a spherical Earth. The idea passed on to the early Christian Church which began in Greece. The Church represented the spherical earth in early Medieval frescos of the 6th century of Christ sat on a big ball (a bit like a space hopper!), and also in coronations. One of the crown jewels presented to new kings at their coronation is a golden orb with a cross on the top, symbolising God’s power over a spherical earth. If the Church believed in a flat earth, as the attendees of the recent Flat Earth convention in Birmingham do, then the new kings would be given a piece of paper or a map instead of an orb.

Probably the most familiar depiction of a medieval coronation, that of William the Conqueror in 1066 as shown on the Bayeux tapestry, and of the Church’s recognition of a spherical earth. William holds high the orb he received from the archbishop as a symbol of the world.

Parmenides’ theories and ideas influenced the whole of cosmological thought through all succeeding centuries and to the present day. So, if we believe the Flat Earthers are right, then the entire scientific community for 2,500 years has become victim to the most cosmic homohoax in history.

The Seven Heavenly Gay Virtues : Giving Chastity a Good Belting

Chastity is one of those words which wreaks of the Middle Ages. Perhaps no other Heavenly Virtue is so unpopular in the modern world. Considering its opposing Deadly Sin of Lust seems much more enjoyable for most people this comes as no surprise! But the medieval Catholic Church thought there was no higher personal virtue than Chastity. And with Lust being associated with the colour blue it was also associated with Chastity in medieval folklore. So let’s put Chastity onto the blue strip of our Heavenly Gay Virtues flag.

But just as Lust means more than an overwhelming desire for sex, so the same can be said of Chastity – it isn’t necessarily all about sex. The original qualities given to this virtue included purity, honesty and wisdom, in thought, word and deed. It was about looking after yourself and not giving in to what was considered at the time to be unhealthy pursuits. Yet it will always be equated with sex in the minds of people today.

In my article a few days ago I mentioned how the Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola proclaimed his chastity with regards to his relationship with Girolamo Benivieni. This same-sex relationship was acceptable to the church, as it was for a number of priests, cardinals and popes who are known or suspected of loving men. It became unacceptable if sex was involved. A lot of religions require their clergy to be celibate, but that’s not the same as chastity. Celibacy is the act of refraining from all sexual activity, even with if they are married. Chastity is the act of refraining from sexual activity with anyone other than your married partner.

Whatever you thought of Chastity in the past, this reveals that even a sex maniac can be virtuous – as long as it’s only with a married partner!

The medieval Catholic Church, and many Christian churches today, preached that sex outside marriage was immoral. It didn’t matter who or what you had sex with – another man, another woman, or even an animal, the Church didn’t discriminate on gender or sexuality. There are many married atheists who disapprove of sex outside marriage as well. The medieval world wasn’t ready to accept gay sex as being normal (some governments still don’t). It was usually the punishment you received for sex outside marriage that was discriminatory towards gay men, and it was the governments not the church who decided what that punishment was. The Tudor government in England put the death penalty onto it. In far too many countries today it still is politicians and governments who decide whether homosexuality is legal or not, and what punishment to give.

But I don’t want to drift into theology too far. There are other blogs that do that. So let’s lighten the tone and talk about chastity in a totally different context.

The medieval chastity belt has been a staple of British humour for centuries. One of my favourite comedy films is “Up the Chastity Belt”. This film is set in the Middle Ages, and it may not be one of the best films ever made but it’s a good piece of fun. It was made in 1971 and starred Frankie Howerd and has a very gay feel to it in more ways than one.

The film was part of a series of spin-offs from Frankie Howerd’s “Up Pompeii”, a highly successful BBC comedy series. “Up the Chastity Belt” was the first non-Pompeii spin-off. Its producer was Ned Sherrin, a gay broadcaster and writer who made his name in the 1960s on satirical programmes. He had produced the film version of “Up Pompeii” the previous year and saw the potential for a series of similar films. However, there was tension on the set between himself and Howerd over elements of the script and on Howerd’s off-set behaviour. Nevertheless, “Up the Chastity Belt” did well in British cinemas, outselling the “Up Pompeii” film.

One particular part of the plot dealt with a famous character and his entourage, Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Here the film produced some of the best comedy in the film, which was already packed with many seasoned comedy character actors. As an added bonus the film also starred Eartha Kitt.

The characters of Robin Hood and his Merry Men was written deliberately as gay. That was very much in the “Up Pompeii” style. The idea that the Merry Men were gay was not new. In 1977 when the International Robin Hood Conference was held in Nottingham one noted scholar said that the stories of Robin Hood were very homosocial. The media of the day took that to mean homosexual and caused a bit of a stir in those very anti-gay days of the press.

Robin Hood in the film was played by Hugh Paddick. He was well known to radio listeners as one half of the camp duo Julian and Sandy on the classic comedy series “Round the Horne”. Hugh played Robin Hood in very much the same manner. At one point in the film Robin is introducing Howerd’s character to his Merry Men. Hugh is clearly seen trying to stop himself from laughing at the absurdity of it all.

Playing Little John was the popular blues singer Long John Baldry. He had been part of the blues band Bluesology with a young Elton John, and was widely known as gay among music circles. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to sing in “Up the Chastity Belt”. Also denied the chance to sing was musical theatre expert and regular pantomime dame Alan Rebbeck who played Friar Tuck. Will Scarlett was played (shirtless) by the young Bernard Sharpe in a most tight-fitting pair of leggings. Despite all being very camp and covered in make-up these Merry Men managed to outwit and defeat the villain’s guards in combat and save the day.

Murder Most Philosophical

If there were ever two gay men who can be said to have created the world we live in today it could be the Italian philosophers Marsillo Ficino (1433-1499) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494). If it wasn’t for them we’d probably be still be living medieval lives with medieval standards. Between them they produced the works and thoughts that turned a local interest in ancient Greek texts into a Europe-wide Renaissance on the 15^th century. Feudalism gave way to capitalism, superstition gave way to science, and a new realism in art flourished.

Underpinning this Renaissance was a “manifesto” and Mirandola was the man who put it all into a book called “Oration of the Dignity of Man” which is acknowledged as the essence of the Renaissance. The Renaissance began before Mirandola was born, but he consolidated its ideas in his “Oration”. What made this possible was two things – Mirandola’s virtually photographic memory and analytical mind, and his patrons the Medici family of Florence.

Florence was a hot-bed of Renaissance thought and the Medici family gathered an amazing group of scholars and thinkers to their court. Mirandola arrived there in 1486 and charmed everyone. In particular he charmed Girolamo Benivieni and Angelo “Poliziano” Ambrosini who are believed to have been his lovers. Mirandola declared his love for Benivieni was chaste and non-sexual (a topic we’ll return to in my next article). In the new Renaissance thinking on love, influenced by the Ancient Greek ideas, male same-sex love was seen as more “perfect” than love for a woman. It wasn’t long before the Catholic Church was preaching the celibate love between men was acceptable.

Mirandola enjoyed the favour of Florence’s ruler, Lorenzo de Medici, but after Lorenzo’s death things changed. The new ruler, Lorenzo’s son Piero, had no time for Mirandola because of the latter’s support for the fanatical Savonarola, a Dominican friar who preached against Medici rule.

Mirandola and his lover Poliziano died two years after Lorenzo in 1494. For many years it was assumed that they both died from syphilis. There was certainly an outbreak of the disease at the time and it is known that Poliziano had caught the infection from a male prostitute. With Mirandola’s death a few months later it was assumed that he died of syphilis also. This immediately suggests that even though his relationship with Girolamo Benivieni was non-sexual the one he had with Poliziano wasn’t. Even Savonarola hinted at sexual activity when he preached a sermon after Mirandola’s death that his soul hadn’t gone straight to heaven but was in Purgatory being cleansed of certain sins. What those sins were Savonarola didn’t say.

However, there were rumours that Mirandola’s death may not have been caused by syphilis. After Savonarola deposed the Medici he began investigations into possible Medici spy rings. Among his interrogations he claimed to have got a confession from Mirandola’s secretary that he, the secretary, had poisoned the philosopher.

There’s no evidence to substantiate this claim, but in the past decade it has been shown that Mirandola’s remains, and those of Poliziano, contained lethal levels of arsenic. However, other documents from that time also reveal that Mirandola’s secretary had, in fact, only given him medicine during his final illness. Savonarola has exaggerated the confession.

The earliest known medical illustration of syphilis sufferers, dating from 1498.

Arsenic was actually used as a medicine as well as a poison. What is particularly significant is that is was used as a treatment for syphilis. Even if the medicine administered by his secretary contained arsenic, was it enough to kill Mirandola? If not, who administered the lethal dose? Was it an accident? It’s a real medieval murder mystery. Was it a Medici plot? Was it because of Mirandola’s support for the anti-Medici Savonarola, or because of his philosophical views? Were Mirandola and his partner Poliziano murdered? Perhaps we’ll never know.

Queer Spirits Gather

This week the first festival celebrating the diversity of lgbt spirituality takes place in the UK – the Queer Spirit Festival.

When people think of “belief” we first tend to think of the “Big 5”, the historically major religions of the modern world – Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. In my lifetime there has been a visible gradual acceptance of other faiths and beliefs that do not identify themselves as religions. Along with modern revivals of old beliefs such as paganism and mother goddess faiths there has been a recognition that the belief in no god or deity is just as important to a lot of people.

Religion has always had an uncomfortable, often abusive, relationship with the lgbt community. Perhaps this is why so many people seek other spiritual paths that give them a sense of their place in the universe. These are the Queer Spiritualities.

Queer spirituality has a long history. Many modern faiths still retain a certain special status for people who in ancient times were considered to have spiritual links with their gods and deities. Many of these have been lgbt in essence and, in turn, their special status has enabled them to develop esoteric practices that were assimilated into their community’s faith. The North American Two Spirit people are an example of this, and many spiritual practices have entered the Native American ethnic culture.

The global pre-modern Queer Spirit community, rather than being specifically persecuted for their sexual activity as demonstrated in the later dominant religions, flourished. In some communities, however, they were never accepted as full members of their community, just special “outsiders” who helped to commune with their deities. Without this persecution many ancient lgbt people accepted their outsider status and this influenced future generations.

George Klawitter, a professor at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has suggested that this is the reason why there is a disproportionate number of ordained lgbt clergy today in the major religions, about ten times the percentage of those in the community in general.

There seems to be some cultural legacy from those ancient faiths that still attracts lgbt people into religious ordination. As a historian I can see a certain element of truth behind this. All through the history of Christianity, for instance, there has always been a visible lgbt presence among its clergy. The debate on religion’s persecution of gay men seems to be at odds with this, but it shows the misunderstandings that both the lgbt community and the Church have about each others lifestyles. The debate on religious attitudes to homosexuality is a big subject and will be more suitably discussed as part of next year’s main theme – law and justice.

What a contrast there is with the high number of lgbt people who reject religion based on actual and perceived homophobia within various faiths. This has become more evident when the early gay rights movements grew in influence in the 1960s and 1970s. It may be no coincidence (I don’t believe in coincidence) that these decades saw the growth of more spiritual independence – free love, the hippy movement and flower power, gay and civil rights. All are inextricably linked.

In order to find some spiritual heritage the lgbt community looked back to the old beliefs, many of them pre-Christian, and many of them which were in times past the subject of persecution by surviving religions. Paganism, Wicca and Earth Goddess beliefs re-emerged and were embraced by the lgbt community. All of these modern interpretations of ancient beliefs already existed outside the lgbt community and most of them were welcoming to lgbt members.

New spiritualities developed from these modern interpretations. One of the most famous was the Radical Faeries movement which placed spirituality above religion and philosophy above doctrine.

The Queer Spirit festival being held this week has it’s origin in previous spiritual gatherings held by different communities around Europe since the 1990s. Among these were the first Radical Faery gathering in Europe in July 1995 and the first Queer Pagan gathering in the UK in 1998. The 21^st century has seen a big increase in gatherings that have embraced many different Queer Spiritualities.

One of the symbols adopted by the Queer Spirit festival is the astrological symbol for the planet Uranus (shown below). This planet has several queer spiritual connections as described in one of my “Star Gayzing” articles.

Five Centuries of Utopia

We all like to believe in a perfect world, a Utopia where there is no dispute, no violence, no prejudice.

The idea of a Utopia has been espoused by many people through the centuries and one thing they have in common is that they are not achievable, but that shouldn’t stop us believing in one. Most religions have a Utopian world as an afterlife, while philosophers have spent centuries trying to come up with an earthly one.

Many people think that the word Utopia comes to us from Ancient Greece. In a way it does because it probably comes from the Greek for “no place”. But the word wasn’t used to describe a perfect society until the publication 500 years ago this month of the work called “Utopia” by Sir Thomas More.

Many lgbt philosophers and writers have contributed to Utopian literature throughout the succeeding five centuries and I’d like to feature three of them today.

The first Utopian novel following More’s 1516 original was “New Atlantis” by Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Being a great polymath Sir Francis helped to found the basic principles of modern scientific investigation. As with More’s “Utopia”, Bacon’s “New Atlantis” owes much to philosophy more than it does to fiction but they can be seen as both. Unfortunately, Bacon died before completing his work which would have concluded with stories of Utopian law and politics. The fact that he chose to write the first part about science and discovery shows his personal preference for the subjects, despite holding the highest legal office in England, that of Lord High Chancellor.

The Utopian science and research establishment Bacon created in “New Atlantis” was highly influential in real life. At the time the work was published in 1626 shortly after Bacon’s death there was a mood among the English scientific community, backed by King JamesI himself, that a special society should be formed to promote the new scientific methods that were being introduced. In 1660 the Royal Society was formed for this purpose and it is still going strong to this day.

“New Atlantis” also influenced a much more famous work in which a scientific community appears, “Gulliver’s Travels”, though Jonathan Swift wrote this Odyssey of a Nottinghamshire traveller as a parody of Bacon’s work.

After several other Utopian novels another by an lgbt writer was published in 1872. By this time the massive changes caused by global discovery followed by the Industrial Revolution led to many writers turning their pens to satire like Jonathan Swift. The 1872 novel “Erewhon” by Samuel Butler (1835-1902) is one such satirical novel which bases as much of his Utopian nation in a world that feels far removed from the fantastical worlds of Gulliver.

The main concern in Samuel Butler’s time was the publication of the theory of evolution. Combined with the Victorian obsession of judging a potential criminal by his or her physical characteristics Butler turned his nation of Erewhon into one where criminal actions are seen as a disease and possession of a disease is seen as a criminal act.

Perhaps the most contemporary slant in “Erewhon” was the section called “The Book of the Machine”. In the Utopian world of Erewhon machines were banned and consigned to museums. Butler was highlighting the growing dependency humanity had on machines, much less than it does today, and took it to its opposite extreme. Many Victorians saw the growth of industrialisation as a bad influence. After all, industrialisation led to mass migration of people into towns and cities and gave the country levels of poverty that it never had before. Slums, workhouses and mass unemployment didn’t exist before the Industrial Revolution and some Victorians wanted a return to the pastoral past.

Last, and certainly not least, we arrive at a modern vision of Utopia where gender and sexuality is the main focus.

Lesbian feminist and academic Joanna Russ (1937-2011), again, used satire to create her Utopian world of Whileway in her novel “The Female Man”, published in 1975. The novel is very much of its time. The feminist movement was at its height and Joanna Russ wrote extensively on feminist issues. She also developed a genre of feminist science fiction which has become an important part of the modern genre. Science fiction was dominated by male writers and male issues, and Joanna Russ’s “The Female Man” became the leading novel of female and feminist science fiction writing.

Joanna, unlike Butler, deliberately chose fantasy worlds and parallel universes instead of remote fictional islands to highlight the science fiction element.  Her Utopian world of Whileway was just one of the four she created in her novel. In Whileway all men were absent, having died out in a gender-specific plague. In a world without men the surviving women developed a means of reproduction in which two ova from different women are merged genetically. Without man as partners the women of Whileway form same-sex relationships and families.

As a contrast to this world Joanna Russ also created a world where men and women were in conflict and boys are surgically changed to look like woman for the sexual satisfaction of the men.

Joanna’s two other worlds in “The Female Man” are her contemporary world of the 1970s and a parallel world where the Great Depression of the 1930s never ended.

One woman from each of these four worlds meet and discuss the startling differences is their experiences and discover for themselves what femininity means to them. Through this they re-evaluate their own lives.

Through the pens of these three lgbt writers Utopian worlds were created which were shaped by their own lives and the world in which they lived. Sir Francis Bacon’s “New Atlantis” was a mirror to emerging scientific techniques and research, Butler’s “Erewhon” was a response to the theory of evolution and the growth of industrialisation, and Joanna Russ’s “The Female Man” was an exploration of gender in a world of sexual protest and freedom.

Queer Philosophical Achievement

[Achievement – the name given in heraldry to the full pictorial representation of a coat of arms.]

This is the first Irish achievement of arms I’ve featured in this series. It belongs to Gerald Heard (1889-1971), a prolific writer in genres as diverse as philosophy, detective fiction and science correspondence.

His role in the development of modern philosophy began in 1929 with his book “The Ascent of Humanity”, though his most significant work in said to be “The Five Ages of Man” published in 1963. This influenced the “consciousness development” movement. Gerald moved to the USA in 1937.

Gerald Heard, born Henry Fitzgerald Heard, was a junior member of the landed gentry in Ireland. It is said that the first Heard went to Ireland with Sir Walter Raleigh in 1579. The family coat of arms was confirmed by the Ulster King of Arms in 1734 to Gerald’s direct ancestor, John Heard (1690-1763) of Kinsale, County Cork. A confirmation usually means that the family had been using a coat of arms unofficially without heraldic authority. It appears that the Heard family had used these arms since shortly after their arrival in Ireland. The Ulster King of Arms found no reason to prevent them from using them so gave John a confirmation rather than a grant of new arms.

Those strange black objects you see on the shield are called water bougets. They represent leather water bags that were hung around traveller’s necks, sometimes hanging from a stick that the traveller carried on his/her shoulder. This is a very old heraldic device and has become more elaborate over the centuries until, in some case, it is unrecognisable as a couple of water bags hanging from a stick.

When these arms were confirmed to John Heard in 1734 he had been elected Sovereign of Kinsale. This wasn’t a regal title but a civic office originally appointed by the burgesses of the port of Kinsale. The Sovereign was in charge of collecting taxes that were to pay for repairs to the town walls in the 1300s. In 1482 the Sovereign was also appointed Admiral of the Port. Although the official explanation for the design of this coat of arms has not survived we can, perhaps, guess at why the antelope in the crest has a coronet around his neck. Was this an extra detail granted by the Ulster King of Arms to indicate John’s office as Sovereign of Kinsale?

The design of these arms are very traditional, but it could have looked a lot different if the Heards were granted a brand new coat of arms several decades later when one of the family, Sir Isaac Heard, was Garter King of Arms. Isaac was only 4 years old when John Heard had his arms confirmed, and Isaac was to become one of the most famous, and notorious, heralds in British history. Notorious, because he championed “landscape heraldry”.

Heraldry should really be simple and symbolic. Sir Isaac produced heraldry which was more realistic and more akin to historical illustration. For instance, he was responsible for added a depiction of the Battle of the Nile to Nelson’s coat of arms. Sir Isaac himself could have been used the arms confirmed to his cousin John but instead designed something new. To represent his own rescue from drowning at sea, Sir Isaac adopted a coat of arms showing Neptune rising from a stormy sea pulling a wrecked ship out of the waves. Mind you, Sir Isaac did have his good days. In 1801 when the United Kingdom was created he had the idea of adding St. Patrick’s Cross to the Union Jack of Great Britain adopted by “Queen” James I.

Back to our subject for today, the philosopher Gerald Heard. Gerald is descended from the second son of john Heard. On the shield I have placed a red crescent to indicate this. This is called a cadency mark, and English/Irish heraldry has for many centuries assigned a crescent (in any appropriate colour) to a second son. Gerald, however, was actually the 3^rd son of an only son of the eldest of a 2^nd son of this 2^nd son of John Heard. Technically, all of this needs to be represented on a coat of arms, but as you can imagine all those cadency marks would be a bit confusing.

So, how could I depict Gerald Heard’s full achievement of arms without cluttering it up with cadency marks? After all, all the male line and female heirs descended from John Heard’s second son would inherit this coat of arms as well. One method I’ve used through this series, something permissible under heraldic license, is to put the Rainbow Pride flag colours on the back of the motto scroll, which I’ve done. But I wanted to indicate Gerald’s arms specifically in an additional way.

Gerald had no personal military honours or awards that could be shown hanging from the shield so I went back to his academic career. Even though he worked at several universities I thought the most appropriate choice would be the college from which he obtained his degree, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. The only part of Gerald’s full achievement of arms where I could show this is on the mantling, the fabric glowing from the helmet. It’s using artistic and heraldic license again, but I thought I’d colour the mantling in the colours of Gonville and Caius College - black and light blue.

I hope you like today’s heraldic achievement. Several regular readers have sent me messages to say how much they enjoy these articles, and I’ve even had several commissions offered to me (all of which I’ve turned down – I prefer this to be a hobby, not a career). Next time I’ll celebrate International Heraldry Day with another Heraldic Alphabet.

Duck, Rabbit? Rabbit, Duck?

I’m sure you’ve all seen the illusion below before. It’s a duck’s head. Or is it a rabbit’s head? It has been reproduced in so many books and magazine, even since it first appeared in 1892.

But how does this illusion help us to understand the philosophical ideas about reality, interpretation and language?

The duck-rabbit was used by the gay philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) to illustrate just that. Basically, what he said was that the duck-rabbit can be interpreted in the mind as two different things – a rabbit or a duck – but never as both. To do so would mean coming up with a new interpretation of the image in our mind that is neither, a new image called a duck-rabbit. All we are doing by using the new name “duck-rabbit” is creating a new way to describe it, but the image itself hasn’t changed.

Until “duck”, “rabbit” and “duck-rabbit” can all define the image perfectly, none of them can. So, according to Wittgenstein, it is pointless trying to describe it at all. That’s what he originally believed about philosophy itself. It can’t be described perfectly, so that it encompasses all philosophical beliefs. That means there’s no point in philosophising. Yes, he talked himself out of his own job! Later he modified his views to concentrate on language and logic.

Wittgenstein said that that some sentences can be interpreted differently at different times by different people in different circumstances, just like the duck-rabbit can be interpreted differently. He used the duck-rabbit image to represent philosophical concepts such as consciousness, morality, justice and equality. Our mind interprets these differently depending on the context in which we use them. For instance, justice for some may be vigilantism to others, depending on the context. Neither is adequate to define justice with ultimate precision.

In another little puzzle Wittgenstein asks us to imagine a group of people carrying one box each. Inside each closed box is an object which the carrier refers to as a beetle. But how do we know that each person uses the word “beetle” to describe what is in everyone else’s box? Only a common consensus on the definition of “beetle” which agrees with what is contained in their own box can make them all say that they all have beetles in their boxes, even if they can’t see them. Once the definition of “beetle” has been agreed they can all imagine a beetle in every box.

Wittgenstein used these language-games, as they are called, and others, to explain how he believed concepts cannot be described if there are no precise words to describe them. He emphasised the role of context. If I say “rose” you’ll immediately imagine something in your mind which you perceive as “rose”. Is it the same thing as I am imagining? Without knowing what context I imagine “rose” to be it is impossible for everyone to know what I mean. Actually, “rose” is the colour of the table-top I’m sitting at as I write this. Were you right? Wittgenstein would say that it doesn’t matter whether what you imagined was the same as mine, because your definition is still correct as far as you perceive it.

Language-games are the stock in trade of comedy, and thanks to Wittgenstein we realise how good jokes work. In the end it doesn’t matter, for example, if the duck-rabbit is just a duck or just a rabbit. The concept behind comedy, particularly double-entendres and puns, is that we perceive jokes differently in different contexts. Unlike Wittgenstein’s early views on philosophy, we can define the joke to make it understandable to all.

This leads me on to one of the classic sketches in British comedy. In fact, it was voted the best comedy sketch of all time by BBC viewers. It explains Wittgenstein well in that it displays how our perception and definition shifts as the context of the words change. This sketch may be difficult to understand if English isn’t your primary language. But that in itself explains Wittgenstein. Comedy, like philosophy, only works if there is a universally accepted logic behind the use of words.

This sketch pays tribute to one of the men in it. Ronnie Corbett, one of the UK’s greatest and best-loved comedy actors died recently and was buried last month. He’s the shopkeeper in this sketch. The other man is another much-missed comedy great, Ronnie Barker, who wrote this sketch.