kushner at finney
04/15/2005 04:15 a.m.

tony kushner, tony kushner. excuse me whilst i add him to my creepy shelf of idolization. first of all, tony kushner is a genius. let me say it again: a genius. he takes it upon himself to know things. to read things and talk to people in a way most people i know do not. he is articulate and really knows how to think. furthermore, he is completely strange and upsetting. i was amazed by the depth of his discussion of the understanding and analysis of individuals and social trends - and at the same time taken completely taken aback by his insistence on generalizations and labels. compartmentalization is a way of life, indeed. and i know he knows that all republicans are not evil. he said as much. but he insisted on referring to republicans as a "them" with a common goal and shared characteristics in a way that made me uncomfortable. i realized then that he recognizes that he does it but verbalization of those ideas is his way of coping with pain and fear. and that we all do that - but it's when we do it to someone that we become like the people that kushner fears. i loved that he talked about the purpose of art, was able to make it all circular [something i sometimes do not find problematic,] and connected politics and art but separated their true impact and cultural investment.

and we talked about wallace stevens. he used to make his playwriting students read "comedian as the letter c" and "the idea of order at key west" in class, a fact which i found amazing and heart-tugging. he is invested, extremely, in the idea of education of the whole mind, regardless of specificity and explicit motivation.

and then there's the fact that he told clayton koppes, the idiot provost, that he was wrong, and made the man look like a completely disinterested and parroting philistine. congratulations, tony kushner. i'm off to cradle my newly-signed copy of angels in america until i fall asleep to dream of wonderfully paternal gay men.