morrieandlicky

[morrieandlicky]

E.M. Forster from Maurice (1971)

[morrieandlicky]

i got to speak to james wilby today and it was wonderful

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You’re welcome 😉

Thank you so much 😃

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[morrieandlicky]

Before I send you the article about Stéphane on Le Monde, here's an article about Gabriel & Stéphane published on M, Le Magazine du Monde.

Have a good reading!

Thank you for sharing!

This one I had already read since the archive.ph works for this one. Maybe the paywall changed since then.

I also read in an article that Stéphane did not like this article, saying something like they wouldn’t do it if they were an heterosexual couple.

[morrieandlicky]

Happy Birthday to George Merrill who inspired E.M. Forster's "Maurice" and also paved the way for gay men to cruise and have sex in public lol—WELL YES HE DIED SO GAYS COULD HAVE PUBLIC SEX

In short, George Merrill was a horny man.

August 16th is the birthday of George Merrill, lifelong partner of Edward Carpenter who, together, inspired Forster to write the love story of Maurice and Alec—with Merrill directly causing Forster to come up with the tale by touching his butt.

George and Alec are similar in many ways—besides the obvious fact that both were working class men in a relationship with upper class men:

both swore a lot—George once swore in front of a kid and got reprimanded by the gentlemanly Carpenter

both "clocked" their lover for being gay just by looking at them,

both were love-at-first-sight with their partners

both were the one who pursued their lover for sex—Alec did so twice with Maurice, while George followed Carpenter for a mile and asked him to come over to his (George's) place

Alec is described by Forster as "the sort of person in whom all meet"; George is described by Carpenter as "accepted and... beloved by both my manual worker friends and my more aristocratic friends", and by Forster as "uneducated and sentimental, yet one feels a great respect"

both were sexually experienced

both didn't care for religion: George never read the bible, thought Jesus spent his last night in the garden having sex with someone, and once told a preacher to get the hell out.

both have cute nicknames: Alec's is Licky, George's is Geordie and Georgette

both are said to be masculine and have great physique

You can learn more about George Merrill here. It's an unpublished biography written by Carpenter himself—a biography of someone written by their very own lover!

But what I also want to talk about here is just how horny and sexually experienced with men George Merrill in fact was.... HE WAS A SLUT, respectfully!

I'll keep it short, but the story (also mentioned here) is that:

M.D. O'Brien, a far-right activist, wanted to take down Carpenter by incriminating George—he knew George was Carpenter's lover, not just a servant, and that George was very active in copulating with other men (he and Carpenter had an open relationship).

So O'Brien interviewed many men who knew of George's indecent conduct seeking for sex, which included:

placing his hand upon other men's thighs (likely taught by Carpenter who, in the same police report, was said to have done it)

using wanting to pee as an excuse to show off his erect manhood to other men—then placing his hand upon their thighs

straight up taking his manhood out of his trousers and asking other men to touch and feel it

bringing other men home at night, serving them wine and cigars, drawing the curtains, then sitting on their knees

These examples were told by men who refused George Merrill's advances—now imagine the amount of men who have accepted!

Fortunately both George and Carpenter got away from O'Brien who was years later jailed for libeling against his own wife and mother.

Additionally, George called O'Brien "the rotter of a cur" and that " It would be a pleasure to just twist such vermin’s necks;" and Carpenter was extra protective of George—didn't blame him for the O'Brien incident, even though it was George's promiscuity and indecency and straight-up horniness and hyper-sexuality that caused the troubles!

I knew these from the old letters and documents that I gathered at different archives in the UK, in addition to the biographies of Carpenter I read. I'm still transcribing some letters and reports. Feel free to DM me if you've any question.

[morrieandlicky]

In E.M. Forster's Maurice, Where Did the Idea for the Cricket Scene Come From?

Having visited Edward Carpenter's house, where E.M. Forster initially conceived the idea for Maurice during his visit in 1913, I find it interesting that the Carpenter estate is located right next to a cricket club called "Holmesfield Cricket Club," established in 1905.

For those familiar with Maurice, cricket likely carries some significance—in the novel, it is through cricket that Maurice and Alec first experience their "us against the world" moment:

"Maurice played up too... and he felt that they were against the whole world, that not only Mr Borenius and the field but the audience in the shed and all England were closing round the wickets. They played for the sake of each other and their fragile relationship If one fell the other would follow. They intended no harm to the world, but so long as it attacked they must punish, they must stand wary, then hit with full strength, they must show that when two are gathered together majorities shall not triumph." - Maurice, E.M. Forster

This "us against the world" mentality is exactly what Edward Carpenter and George Merrill (the real-life models for Maurice and Alec) had lived by. The couple resided in this remote, secluded place, surrounded by forests and woods, outside society, like two brave outcasts, mirroring how Maurice and Alec live in their own fictional "greenwood'.

The cricket scene in the novel is obviously a foreshadow to that life as outcasts away from society, but I'd never really thought about why Forster chose cricket as a medium for Maurice and Alec to have their first pivotal "us against the world" moment. I simply assumed that cricket, being a popular sport, was an easy and natural plot device for Forster.

Then, I visited the Carpenter house, and saw the Holmesfield Cricket Club right next to it, and couldn't help but deduce that Forster, who had previously visited the house on a few occasions before 1913 and was inspired by Carpenter and Merrill during his 1913 visit to write Maurice, likely also noticed the cricket club. This observation might have sparked the idea of incorporating a cricket match into the story, thus establishing a direct connection between Maurice and Alec's "us against the world" moment and the Carpenter house—the very physical birthplace of the novel where the real-life models of Maurice and Alec lived.

This is just my theory. In fact, there isn't any mention of the Holmesfield Cricket Club in Forster's diaries and drafts related to Maurice. However, one thing I learned from reading Maurice is that there is no coincidence in the novel, so it's my personal belief that this connection between the fictional plot and the reality of the Carpenter house is also no coincidence—all the more reason why Forster was a freaking genius.

[morrieandlicky]

…Came across a stray Youtube comment that claims that Alec is Irish, but I don’t remember a single hint at this from the book - is there anything, any additional material that says so, or did the commenter just get too happy with their headcanon? Or is it just my own reading comprehension failing me?

…Anyway, whichever the case, hell, headcanon accepted. :,D

[morrieandlicky]

Raise your hand if you too possess an intense, almost religious faggotry

[morrieandlicky]

When you get so irked by someone saying that "Clive and Maurice were the better romantic pairing because they truly loved each other while Alec and Maurice's relationship was based on nothing but sex" that you end up writing a small essay in a Pinterest comment section (which had to be broken up into 500 word chunks because of Pinterest's word limit).

Anyway, I actually like what I wrote so I wanted to share it here. I didn't say everything I wanted to in the exact way that I wanted to due to the word restrictions, but I think it did the job.

[morrieandlicky]

yeah i'd love to bring e.m forster back from the dead to let him know that maurice was published and made into a film and gay people can get married in britain now and stuff, but on the other hand how would we break the news to him that a significant percentage of maurice fans prefer clive to alec from a combination of classism and being horny for hugh grant

[morrieandlicky]

Maurice (1987) dir. James Ivory

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guy who says achillean VS guy who says faggot

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They must live outside class, without relations or money; they must work, and stick to each other till death. But England belonged to them. That, besides companionship, was their reward. Her air and sky were theirs...

The Woodcutters by James Hamilton Mackenzie (1875-1926), Williamson Art Gallery & Museum

artuk.org