volatile terrain, vulnerable textures

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Dec 21, 2005

Who needs a slippery slope when you can free fall? In case you're behind on fashion news, pederasty is back "in" this season. Variety magazine reports on a new drama that tells

the tortured story of Jerry, who develops a sexual relationship with his nephew while trying to stay friends with the boy's father.

A delicate, often heart-wrenching piece of theater, the show, which preems Jan. 22 at the Express, never descends to shock-value tactics as it explores volatile terrain, and its lilting country songs give the characters emotionally vulnerable texture. Should it manage to attract crowd, "Love Jerry" could very well leave them cheering.

Let me guess: in the last scene, Jerry impales himself on a sharpened mop handle while his cellmates sing "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine." Well hey, you'd be cheering too.

Dom has unimprovably dubbed the new musical Springtime for Shanley, and I hope the name sticks. As for the shift in attitudes that made such an enterprise possible, Mary Eberstadt perceptively spotted and analyzed it five years ago in her article Pedophila Chic -- an excellent essay that earned her the wrath of (don't be shocked) Andrew Sullivan.

Back when the elite media were at their peak of (entirely well-deserved) outrage at priestly child abuse, Fr. Richard Neuhaus wryly remarked that they "love the sin but hate the sinner." At the time, that crack was viewed as a cheap shot. Today, it's in danger of becoming a truism.

Who needs a slippery slope when you can free fall?