ARTBOOK BLOGEventsStore NewsMuseum Stores of the MonthNew Title ReleasesStaff PicksImage GalleryBooks in the MediaExcerpts & EssaysArtbook InterviewsEx LibrisAt First SightThe Artbook 2023 Gift GuidesArtbook Featured Image ArchiveArtbook D.A.P. Events ArchiveDATE 6/25/2024 LIVE from NYPL presents Michael Stipe launching 'Even the birds gave pause'DATE 6/2/2024 Green-Wood Cemetery presents Eugene Richards launching 'Remembrance Garden: A Portrait of Green-Wood Cemetery'DATE 6/1/2024 There's no such thing as being extra in June! Pride Month Staff Picks 2024DATE 5/28/2024 'Mickalene Thomas: All About Love' opens at The BroadDATE 5/24/2024 Celebrate Memorial Day weekend with Garry Winogrand's intimate, flashing mirror of AmericaDATE 5/24/2024 Beautifully illustrated essays on Arab ModernistsDATE 5/19/2024 Of bodies and knowing, in 'Christina Quarles: Collapsed Time'DATE 5/17/2024 192 Books presents Robert Storr and Lloyd Wise launching Heni 'Focal Points' seriesDATE 5/17/2024 Lee Quiñones signing at Perrotin Store New YorkDATE 5/15/2024 A gorgeous new book on Bauhaus textile innovator Otti BergerDATE 5/13/2024 Rizzoli Bookstore presents Tony Caramanico and Zack Raffin launching 'Montauk Surf Journals'DATE 5/12/2024 Black Feminist World-Building in LaToya Ruby Frazier’s ‘Monuments of Solidarity’DATE 5/10/2024 Artbook at MoMA PS1 Bookstore presents Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez and Juan Ferrer on 'Let's Become Fungal!' | BOOKS IN THE MEDIAJESSE PEARSON | DATE 6/25/2016Jesse Pearson on Gay SemioticsOf what utility is a review by me—a mostly straight man, as the Kinsey scale goes—of a book that outlines, from the inside and with anthropological precision, the intimate codes of apparel and persona that were employed by the gay men of 1970s America? That question is so unanswerable, at least in terms of finding a response that would satisfy each potential questioner, that it’s essentially hypothetical. So I’ll forego any further stress regarding whether I have the right to tell you what I think of this book and instead I’ll just tell you what I think of this book (as long as you keep in mind that the subject of Gay Semiotics is a secret language that was created with the express purpose of communication beyond the ken of the un-gay). |