Getting to Know Quentin

As I get further and further into watching films about Quentin Crisp, I realize the depth of the questions raised here.  
 

Now you may ask, “Why should any of us care about Quentin Crisp?”  For myself I can say that I was profoundly affected by watching The Naked Civil Servant.  And why was that?

It was that a man who was profoundly different—because homosexual and effeminate—chose to live openly and take the consequences.  He believed that people didn’t understand effeminate homosexuals and so feared them.  He was determined to show people that effeminate homosexuals were nothing to be afraid of.  

But here, already, we run into a quandary.  He was indeed no one to be afraid of.  He was beaten up by men, or gangs of men, on multiple occasions.  He always remained polite, considerate—and never hit back.  After release of the film The Naked Civil Servant he was asked, “So you never struck back because that would have reduced you to their level?” and he replied, “Oh no.  I never hit back because they would have killed me.”

Having grown up in the time of Martin Luther King, and having also been deeply affected by watching the film Gandhi, the idea of standing against oppression appealed to me.  The idea of non-violent resistance appealed to me.

But Quentin avoided “movements.”  He did not attempt political action.  He simply asserted who he was, and took the consequences.  This strikes me as much more problematical.  And yet this idea exerted a strong influence on me in the years after I learned about Quentin.  And yet:  Had any of his attackers actually killed Quentin, we would probably never have heard of him.

I’m currently rewatching the sequel to The Naked Civil Servant.  More on that shortly.