Word: rudnick
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...toxic age, writer Paul Rudnick dares to celebrate life...
...that they truly love sex -- which gives the AIDS tragedy an ironic cruelness. To stay alive, Jeffrey renounces sex, only to discover that by cutting himself off from his priapic needs, he has cut himself off from life. "Giving up sex is absolutely justifiable these days," Rudnick says, "but it's also a terrible idea. I think it's a universal truth that human contact is an absolute necessity for all people. Whatever it takes, whether it's sex, or a hug, or a touch, it's critical." Jeffrey's eventual decision to once again embrace sex, says Rudnick, "represents...
...second stereotype about gay men is that they are naturally artificially witty. "The gay community has a flamboyant style of humor that I cherish," Rudnick says. "It's a form of gay soul. I hate people who imagine it's simply bitchiness or some sort of ghetto response to intolerance. Nah, it's much bigger than that, and much more fun." It also provides gays with perhaps their sturdiest armor against the gay holocaust. And it is this strength Jeffrey so smartly taps. Most plays about AIDS, including this year's Pulitzer prizewinner Angels in America, send the disease...
...author knows this well. Last year, as Norman Rudnick was dying of lung cancer, the family gathered at his bedside. "Some visitors were very quiet and depressed, with their hands folded. But with my mom and my brother and me, I found that the more we laughed and behaved normally -- the more we acknowledged the awfulness but didn't let it become the rule -- the more it helped...
...here is Rudnick, spinning his bedside stories to people in desperate need of the bright light of his wit. In the age of AIDS, there is something heroic about the task he has set himself: to put the gay back...