When Queens Collide

In this coming Sunday's book review section, the New York Times will be running an adapted version of John Waters' introduction to the new edition of Tennessee Williams' notorious, Memoirs (1972). Williams' Memoirs is one of the greatest pieces of loathed literature of the 20th century. And John Waters' essay is simply marvelous all on its own, rife with rank zingers that convey the acuity of his appreciation of Williams as well as his own distinctive taste. To wit:

Maybe I like “bad” Tennessee Williams just as much as “good.” This year a boxed set of DVDs was released containing all of Tennessee Williams’s best-reviewed movies: “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Sweet Bird of Youth,” “The Night of the Iguana,” and “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.” But I want the “bad” Tennessee Williams boxed set: “Boom” (the greatest failed art film ever made) directed by Joseph Losey and starring Elizabeth Taylor as Sissy Goforth, the richest woman in the world, and Richard Burton as the angel of death; “Last of the Mobile Hot-Shots” (the film version of “The Seven Descents of Myrtle”); “This Property Is Condemned” with Natalie Wood; and even “Noir et Blanc,” the 1986 Claire Devers film version of “Desire and the Black Masseur.” The “bad” Tennessee Williams is better than most of the “good” of his contemporaries.

Waters just loves Williams, and it shows. And StinkyLulu loves them both. Indeed, these two crazy visionaries are two of the brightest flamers in StinkyLulu's own personal pantheon of The Patron Saints of Fabulous Faggotry. (BTW - This post's title rips off another in the Fabulous Faggotry pantheon. Any guesses?) What's handy about this new edition of Memoirs -- StinkyLulu already owns 3 -- is that the Tennessee Williams section of StinkyLulu's bookshelf abuts the John Waters section.

It's so nice when the world sees fit to align according to StinkyLulu's obsessions...