Throughout his career Thornton Wilder had ample opportunity, in such novels as
The Cabala (1926) and Theophilus North (1973), to portray
homosexual characters without giving himself away, but he seems
continually to have sidestepped it. Both of these novels are brimming
with people who think and behave in eccentric and
non-conformist ways. Many of them are rich enough for the disapproval
of others not to make any difference. Even if they inhabit milieux in
which marriage is expected of the respectable, few of the marriages
portrayed are actually as stable or respectable
as they have to seem. The absence of any sign of even bisexual
desires, let alone homosexual actions or relationships, itself comes to
seem perverse. Wilder’s cumulative silences on this theme are
thunderous. While even the most fearful gay authors have
managed by sleight-of-hand to indulge their interest in people like
themselves, Wilder, in contrast, seems to be acting not in fear but with
a deliberate and proud refusal to be forced to write about a topic he
chooses to ignore. In certain moods it is possible
to respect him for it.
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