Review:“Queer Britain: In the Key of Blue”

By AJ Birt, Year 3 History

The Bristorian attended the 9th John Addington Symonds Annual Lecture, by OutStories Bristol in collaboration with the University of Bristol Institue of Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition (IGRCT). This annual lecture series is a celebration of the Bristolian John Addington Symonds (1840-1893), a writer, art historian and early pioneer of LGBTQ+ rights.

“Queer Britain: In the Key of Blue”, a lecture by OutStories Bristol [https://outstoriesbristol.org.uk/], took place on the 15th of October 2022. Its focus was ‘In the Key of Blue’, a 1893 collection of writings by Symonds. These works were explored with the Wills Memorial Building as a backdrop, thanks to the collaboration with the IGRCT, situating a riveting talk in the heart of university-land.

For those unfamiliar with Symonds, he was a writer and scholar whose work on sexuality in the nineteenth century proved influential for decades after his passing. ‘In the Key of Blue’ was published in his last year of life, and along with themes of desire and beauty, Symonds also explores youth.

The lecture was given by Dan Vo [https://twitter.com/DanNouveau?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor] of Queer Britain [https://queerbritain.org.uk/], the country’s first exclusively LGBTQ+ museum. This talk featured three phases, beginning and ending with Symonds, with an insightful look at Queer Britain in the middle. This mixed poetry, art and reality seamlessly, an excellent structure that ensured that the audience could engage.

Vo argued that Symonds focused on a whole spectrum of colours, despite blue being the focal pigment used to highlight Symonds’ young lover. An image of the progress flag was put on screen as Vo continued, proclaiming that the aim of Queer Britain as a museum is to explore a spectrum of queer diversity. They aim to be a home for heritage and identity; one of their first exhibits was on South Asian Queerness (though this is admittedly not evident online).

The lecture in full swing.

Whilst the aim of Queer Britain is to educate, they - like Symonds - are exploring queerness in a poetic manner. Symonds interspersed his autobiographical novel with poetry; Queer Britain include artefacts of queer history, such as the door from Oscar Wilde’s cell in Reading Gaol. The museum also collaborates with artists to display ‘what it means to be queer’. Modern contemporary queer history is blended effortlessly with the past. One could argue that the events hosted by OutStories also do this. I was able to talk to three different generations of queer people and learn a little about their experiences, all whilst being a product of the twenty-first century.

The theme of ‘blue’ is returned to in the final third of the lecture. Symonds’ book is apparently rare to find actually in blue, due to the expense of the pigment when Symonds was writing. However, his intentions with having the blue background and white ornate lettering are clearly seen on the mock-up Vo commissioned.

Symonds’ work is striking in its unusualness. The choice of colour would further have (fittingly) made it stand out from the crowd. Additionally, Vo explored how the colour blue has been connected to subversions of masculinity. One can argue then that Symonds’ book cover is a blatant coming out, an evident display of ‘otherness’.

Questions and interactions from the gathering group of (largely LGBTQ+) audience members were answered with charm by Vo. It was only his mentioning that he would love to collaborate again that made me realise he had not met this organisation prior.

The questions themselves were intelligently asked by people who had lived the hidden, “sexual invert” life that Symonds was familiar with. Following the talk I started chatting with a transfeminine woman named Beverly, a Liverpudlian who had only transitioned at 69 years of age. Her story is unfortunately not on the OutStories Bristol website - not that I can find, anyway - but it was enlightening to hear perspectives from other queer generations, particularly when considering what has changed socially, what issues LGBTQ+ people used to prioritise versus what we seem to now.

          It was overall a thoroughly interesting talk that left me with a lot to think about. It also left Vo with some ‘homework’ (his words) as I compared Symonds’ poetry to the “procreation sonnets” of Shakespeare. Both included an older man writing to a younger icon of beauty, both begging them to maintain their youth. Vo was unfamiliar, and to any readers unfamiliar, I recommend this article from the British Library that explores the homosexual undertones surrounding this ‘Fair Youth’: [https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/shakespeare-sexuality-and-the-sonnets] .

          As historians and people, we are often shut off from our own cultural past. This can be through lost sources, lack of conversation or forms of repression. The work done by OutStories and museums such as Queer Britain is a truly invaluable resource. One can only hope that more social, cultural and oral minority histories find their way into the public sphere in the years to come.

The tan/gold is the most published cover, and the one the artist wanted. Symonds encouraged that it be blue. Blue is a rarer colour to find editions in because it was only published in blue during a trial run- see the article’s featured photo.