Baron Corvo

"But I revolted; esteeming it apt and proper rabidly to inveigh against these heterodoxies, affirming that I for one preferred a dignified death by hunger, rather than to transform myself into a machine, which, when filled by a pig, would produce literature paragonable only to sausages, flabby, flaccid, enervate, and obscene. And upsetting my tea, I fell over the dog (of course there was a dog); and away I went in a rage."

So in my spare time (ha) I like to study people in the counterculture in late Victorian England. Partly because I am fascinated with modernism which is a) incredibly nerdy and b)totally awesome.
There are some pretty strange and fasinating avant-garde (decadents and aesthetes) that defied and rebelled against the social constructs. I respect people who challenge the social forces around them, even if they are slightly crazy. One of these people was Baron Corvo.

He was this man who converted to Roman Catholicism and believed in it sincerely. He tried to become part of the Catholic church several times, but was rejected due to his idealization of the boy body. An obvious problem if you want to be Catholic. He was also an artist, novelist and poet. He would take this very erotic pictures and paintings of little boys as well as write these incredibly erotic and homosexual stories. I'll skip the obvious, Catholic/homosexual popular media lens and discard it accordingly. Like many men in this time period, he was rooted in Greek ideology going along the original Platonic Love (boy:mentor) relationship.
Here is some of his work.
Example:



However, homosexuality, or male:male sex/sodemny was illegal (punishable by time in Prison, and formally punished by death) and his fascination with the young male body is something he idealized for its 'aesthetic perfection." In short, he believed the little body body to be artistic perfection. This however is complicated with his religious affiliation and his increasing paranoia.

But, he was also deeply deeply antisemitic in his writings, along with being completely erotic (if you ever get a chance, read, Stories Toto Told Me). Basically, this man was incredibly talented, completely bizarre and interesting but is not covered in canonical literature. This is a shame and speaks so highly of the power forces that govern the formation of 'the canon.'

He died living on a boat, writing his books while rats literally ate at him because he was incredibly malnourished and starving to death.

Which is terribly tragic and even more tragic no one knows about him. He is brain sex for anyone who gets off on analyzing forms of writing and critically thinking what/how/who they can represent and what ideas they emobody and why.

So sometime I encourage you to read up on him.
http://www.studiocleo.com/librarie/rolfe/corvorolfe.html

/end awesome nerdy post.