I know, but.
Posted by Kate on February 28, 1998 at 08:46:58:
In response to Hard to believe, written by Kay on February 27, 1998 at 20:24:34
] ] ] I know nothing about Forster's life, but for a short biography that is posted in ARWAV, but if as she said, he was 28, he must have known the theory at least!
] ]
] ] Apparently not. He told someone that he had developed a theory for himself which was that sex involved people touching stomachs (!) and that this is what he thought until after he was 30.
]
] I've heard more criticism of the lack of passion in the relationships in "Howard's End" than in ARWAV. I think the last chapter is handled well, all things considered.
] Forster was a late bloomer sexually and all through his life he had many Platonic loves. (Also some actual, but many of his loves were heterosexual.) I think the scene at the "Sacred Pond" was a great fantasy for him.
] But knowing who some of his friends were, I find it hard to believe he knew nothing of sex until age 28. He would have had to miss out on all the Bloomsbury discussions. Lytton Strachey for one was always talking about homosexuality.
This is a direct quote from the Furbank biography of Forster:
"He (ie Forster) said later that it was not until he was thirty, by which time he had published three novels, that he altogether understood how copulation took place"
(EM Forster, A Life, by P.N. Furbank, p 37)
I know it seems unlikely, but it would seem a silly thing for a biographer to make up, since everyone (including us!) would be so skeptical!
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