Maurice

In this blog I want to focus more on Maurice rather than the Halperin article. I am fancinated with the progress society has made towards homosexuals since this novel was written back in the eraly 1900's. 2000 years ago there was no distinction of homosexuality and heterosexuality. The rules of sex were simple. Make love to whom you please as long they they are inferior to you on some level. Christianity started off as a cult, and to make themselves stand out among all the other countless cults, Christians decided to do whatever was needed be the complete and extreme opposite of the pagan religions of the time. Specially the religions of Rome and Greece. This included outlawing male and male love and being making stuff up about the creation of the Earth. Anyways, I feel sympathetic with Maurice. He is living in a dreadful time for homosexuals. A time when it was seen as the devils doing or something outrageous. Maurice was not raised in a surrounding that spoke about homosexuality, or shown it anywhere. It was seen as abnormal and no decent man would even consider the act of loving, even desiring another man. This was due to the fact that no one knew how to deal with it so hey ignored it. Maurice was only able to find solace in the Ancient Greeks. He could relate to them, and I bet he longed to be in a world like that. A significant point that the author makes is that Maurice is normal. He is average, and there's nothing extraordinary or different about him. The author wants us to see that although Maurice has an attraction towards other men, he is just like everyone else. This is related to the article written by Halperin who states that sex and sexuality are 2 different things. Sexuality is a product of society and sex has been around since the beginning of human civilization. I am so glad that the civilized world, i.e. western Europe knows how to handle sex among men. They are fine with it, and for the most part the Americas are. Times have changed drastically since Maurice has been written and it would be sad if the world was still that way.