This was not Mr Johnson’s first foray into such territory. Two years earlier he had opened an essay headlined ‘From children to rent boys in one parliamentary vote’ by remarking, ‘Nothing is more disagreeable than having to write about male homosexuality….’ but had in fact put himself dutifully through the ordeal with surprising regularity, writing a year later that ‘the theft of this word [‘gay’] by Californian sodomites … and cravenly acquiesced in by lazy sub-editors … who should know better, means that many fine old songs are now completely unperformable.’ Mr Johnson’s defence of linguistic standards has never been extended to protect that good old-fashioned word ‘queer’ in its original meaning, and some fine old sayings like ‘there’s nowt so queer as folk’ still await rescue. So does ‘faggot’.
Matthew Parris in The Spectator re-igniting an 18 year-old feud.
No, me neither.
Please also note illustration of some gayers pictured recently in modern Athens.
The Spectator's just so with it!
The Spectator's just so with it!
Can this be the same Paul Johnson who, it was revealed quite a few years ago, while allegedly happily married, used to pay female prostitutes to whip him? Surely not.
ReplyDelete