"Good Friend"

Many of you greatly respect privacy in the lives of famous people, like Sally Ride, but this is a blog that loiters at the corner of literature and queer, and it needs to report what's being said there. 

A well-known lesbian / novelist re-posted this photo on Facebook with its original caption, Fran Lebowitz and good friend Toni Morrison out on the town. Her only commentary was to repeat the words "good friend" in quotes. Most readers interpreted this to imply the two writers share more than wild hair and nighttime sunglasses. Others say they're not convinced, asking why the two pictured authors can't both be lesbians but not dating each other. The best comment explores this question about legitmate scholarship: 

"How am I supposed to write about sexual politics in the work of someone who insists this is her 'good friend'? This is similar to the problem of not being able to quote Willa Cather's letters. 'I can't tell you what's really up with TM, but, trust me, something's up with TM.' It's childish."

[Savvy readers, please let me know if FB posts are generally considered public speech and may be quoted in the same way as an author's website.]

Comments

[Duncan]

"How am I supposed to write about sexual politics in the work of someone who insists this is her 'good friend'?" By writing about the sexual politics of the closet, of course. This is hardly a new problem; it used to be the norm, for Cthulhu's sake. I can probably save my time and not read the work of anyone who asks such a dumb question.

[Edith]

These pairs is very useful. Look forward to more of your updates, Also, I made sure to bookmark your website so I can come back later.

[butterscotch clouds]

I don't know if FB posts are generally considered public speech, but boy do I want to see this thread. The rumor has been around long enough to warrant "lovers" to pop up in the Google search bar when searching "Fran Lebowitz Toni Morrison" and they do seem to be out on the town a lot... We're never going to see any confirmation, but the gossip is fun, isn't it?

[Asics Shoes]

Yup, signed up. Beautiful world...I'll keep you posted if I come up with anything.