Word: venusized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...important work by the Venetian painter Sebastiano del Piombo, were shredded by flying glass. No doubt the terrorists, whoever they were -- and Italian authorities seem to be in little doubt that the beleaguered Mafia set the bomb -- would have much preferred to have taken out Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Michelangelo's Doni Tondo and perhaps a Giotto or two. But as an image of unrepentant terrorist power striking back against the Italian state, the bombing of the Uffizi could hardly have been improved upon. Florentine tourism may plummet. No Italian museum or church, however great or venerated...
Even when Brown of the characters in the book do express a decided opinion on an issue, it is not likely to be what you would expect. For example, Venus provides a rather odd rationale for having gays in the military: these are the people who are most expendable in a world "developed to protect the children." But Brown denied that she was depicting gay people as irrelevant to society. "Can you imagine what life would be like without gay people? There'd be no medicine, there'd be no arts, the school system would fall apart. It would...
...goddess Venus notes: "I think if Michelangelo were straight, the Sistine Chapel would have been painted basic white with a roller...
Which leads naturally to the main point of Venus Envy, the importance of coming out of the closet. "Tell the truth. Be who you are. I can't ever know you and love you until I know who you are," she told me. And later, when a member of the audience asked her for her opinion of media outings (adding, "I'm not talking about picnics, of course"), Brown said: "There is a part of me that leaps for joy every time one of those liars is yanked out of the closet." But she added regretfully: "I don't think...
...individual, Brown pointedly refuses to accept the usual burden of political correctness that comes with being a "gay author." With enormous relish, she has her characters tell stories of sniffing cocaine from an erect black penis ("It doesn't look as good on a white cock.") Nor does Venus shy away from the reputation of promiscuity enjoyed by the gay community. As she tells Frazier: "We shared our bodies. We gloried in the experience. I go my way and you go yours far richer than before we met. If I sleep with someone else, how can that take anything away...