Schulman Storm

I haven't been reading the blogs recently, and boy have I missed out! Apparently, there was quite a buzz about "Who's Afriad of Sarah Schulman," a (10/23) article by Jesse Green in the New York Times about Sarah Schulman. Schulman is a fantastic lesbian writer. Her collection of articles, My American History is a wonderful documentation of 1980s in New York with an emphasis on the AIDS crisis and the early days of ACT UP. I recently read three of her early novels, now out of print, and I absolutely loved them. Unfortunately, her career as a playwright has been less successful thus far.

Schulman herself often comes across as the stereotypical 'angry lesbian.' She is in very many ways a squeaky wheel, not afraid to speak out, loudly, when she feels injustice. I suspect even the fact that there is an angry lesbian stereotype and that I reference it and repeat it, thus giving it a little more power, is something to which she might object.

Anyway, Jill Dolan wrote a response taking apart the basic prejudices inherent in the article, particularly the tendency in the article to domesticize Schulman, emphazing her home and generally depicting her as 'reformed' and 'tamed' to fit in with the uptown off-Broadway scene. Apparently, Schulman complained to Dolan about the characterization of the work and her personality, causing Dolan to write a second post questioning her own obligations and commitments as a lesbian feminist critic.

Personally, I find the whole thing fascinating. I love Schulman's writing, especially her polemical pieces. She's brilliant when she's angry, and the world needs people to stand up and say 'this isn't right' loudly and frequently. I'm dying to read/see Schulman's play, Carson McCullers: Historically Inaccurate, which sounds fascinating despite its mediocre reviews, but is tragically unpublished. I would love to see a theatrical adaptation of some of her caricatures of the downtown performance art scene from the early '80s in Girls, Visions, and Everything. Though she repeats some critiques of Schulman without firsthand knowledge, I think the main thrust of Dolan's analysis is right on, and important. What I think is most disturbing and offensive about the Green article, though, it the fact that it takes to page two on the online article to even mention the cause of the article, Schulman's new play. While clearly this isn't a review, drawing attention to the play or the trajectory Schulman's career would be much more interesting than this strange indictment of Schulman's personality. And I'm kind of offended that he calls the WOW Cafe a "downtown dive"; that really misses the point and the importance as a venue and a movement. It's a part of the marginalization of lesbian writiers and performers against which Schulman argues. I recently had a lovely conversation with poet Ami Mattison (who seems to be similarly radical and justifiably angry) about Schulman, and she told me to take all of the critiques of Schulman's personality with a grain of salt. Schulman may be loud, but she might also be right. I don't know her personally, and honestly I'd rather know more about her work, and maybe even have a chance to see it, than worry about whether or not she's learning to play nicely with the powers that be in midsize theater. I'm glad she's getting attention, though. One way or another, I think recognition is a good thing. Cheers to Playwrights' Horizon for producing Manic Flight Reaction. I wish I could have seen it.