Books like Epistemology of the Closet

'Epistemology of the Closet' is an exciting book. It looks into the very physiognomy of 'closet,' and assays the work of some great authors such as Proust, Joyce, Lawrence, and Wilde. Even when one is familiar with these writers, it is fascinating to study their works with the perspective of 'Closet.''Closet' is not something that happens naturally. In countless personal gay narratives, one often hears, 'Oh I thought I were the only one,' 'this is only happening to me.' These are genuinely felt and lived experiences. It requires much effort to learn that this happens because everything is so profoundly heterosexual. So anything that lies outside the rigid normative binary is 'closeted.' What seems unique, abnormal, strange to queer people is not innocent; it is strategically constituted.In the book, the author explores the 'closet' by examining the homo/ heterosexual binaries, how one is constructed to reinforce the other. The more distinct these binaries are, the easier it is to assign people different identity markers. Prior to the end of 19th century, men were men, but since then, they have been transformed into homo and Heterosexual men, whereas no such distinction existed before. According to Eva Kosofsky, the construction of 'homosexual man' has been a presiding term of the 20th century, one that has the same, primary importance for all modern Western identity and social organization as do the more traditionally visible cruxes of gender, class, and race. This new binary has affected western culture profoundly. Binaries such as secrecy/disclosure, knowledge/ignorance, health/illness, art/kitsch, discipline/terrorism, come to mirror homo-hetero binary.As I read this book, I also thought that it was also in the modern/industrial phase when agrarian societies were losing their grip, and the progress in modern science was making it possible for Europe to imagine the world differently. As Europe became more advanced and progressed, we saw the mushrooming of cities and industrial units, the rise of democracy, decolonization and so forth. The changed world, at least in the west, recognized other identities, which were hidden for a long time. Also, modern cities, by their very nature, do not control human 'desire' in the way agrarian societies do. Therefore, even today, the developed world is far more evolved when it comes to the rights of minority sexualities, whereas the pre-industrial societies, the term 'closet' hardly makes any sense because the homosexual man has not yet arrived there. As I was reading the book, I was thinking about Marx. No matter how much one is tempted to denounce Marx; it is amazing to see how well his theories of base and super-structures are in explaining the world. On the one hand, the episteme of the 'closet,' gives the impression that humanity is evolving linearly. However, the more one reads, reflects, and looks at the discourse producing machinery; one sees how easy it is to produce new knowledge systems, new ways of being in the world. Any sense of righteousness and ethics does not necessarily motivate these 'changes' that look so humane; they are as much embedded in pragmaticism.Coming back to the book, I must add that the chapters on Proust and Wilde can still be enjoyed, even if one has not read them. On my second reading of these chapters, I tried to read them as if I knew nothing about their works; they are still accessible. The book, of course, demands patience. The content in it is, after all, the work of a lifetime.