To an Aesthete Dying Young (In Memoriam T. R. K.)

http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2010_07/suicide4657.html ^ | Andrew Solomon

[ventanax5]

In February 1982, in the middle of my freshman year, I was invited to a party by the most glamorous sophomore I had ever met (now one of my closest friends), and I was wildly excited about it. It was in that perfect proportion for a social event: a third of the people were people I actually knew; a third were people I had seen around and wished I knew; a third were people I had never seen because they inhabited a stratosphere too exalted to have been visible to me, some of them even juniors and seniors. The party was in a dorm room in Pierson. Spandau Ballet, Pat Benatar, the Human League singing “Don’t You Want Me Baby,” which nowadays feel to me as sweetly nostalgic as “Dixie,” were at that time fresh as the morning dew. People were dressed in clothing that might in 2010 be coming back into fashion for the fifth time, but that was then just coming into fashion for the first time—even though much of it had been cleverly selected at the Salvation Army. In those days, the drinking age was still 18, and so there were drinks, and there were some people doing cocaine in the bathroom, because it was, after all, the 1980s. I would not have been more thrilled and dazzled to have been invited to the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer one year earlier. People were witty and funny, having a truly good time, dancing well, laughing.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Ok, that was very gay.

[tet68]

Kind of makes you wonder how much “Therapy” contributed
to his suicide.

[garbanzo]

someone who had been pointed out to me as the roommate of Jodie Foster’s boyfriend

Going where no man has gone since.

[nkycincinnatikid]

Sheesh.... can’t this national book award winner just provide us with the tombstone epitaph version.

[softwarecreator]

He generally wore a green Austrian loden cape, and a mad hat with a feather in it. He played the leads in musicals and danced just the same way on stage and off

uh ... yeah.  whatever.

[kalee]

Reads like it was written by Evelyn Waugh or an Evelyn Waugh impersonator.

[softwarecreator]

I would not have been more thrilled and dazzled

Anyone who talks like that hasn't got an ounce of testosterone in him.

[GILTN1stborn]

BLA BLA BLA-sad about the suicide, but what a boring story to be winning awards.

[Orange1998]

Or saying “ Tingle up my leg”.

[kalee]

Ever read Brideshead Revisited? This reminds me of that book, but lacking Waugh’s faith.

[Shannon]

It's impossible to read. Long paragraphs that just go on & on & on.

[Orange1998]

Terry Rossi Kirk

August 30, 1961 - October 17, 2009

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Kind of makes you wonder how much “Therapy” contributed to his suicide.

I read that part and it is clear. The guy was too uptight to commit suicide until he was drugged to calm him down and clear his mind. And then the therapist couldn't figure a way to put the guy's best friend in contact without "violating patient confidentiality". The author damns her pretty well. Maybe the therapist will commit suicide.

Also read enough to know these people are/were pointless.

[Enchante]

this is unreadable drivel!!!

[RichInOC]

Yeah, just a little. That said…good tunes. I’d time-travel back to that party in a heartbeat, get a beer and start hunting preppy girls. And I have news for this guy. They had guys at UC Riverside about the same time who were both impeccably prep and FLAMING. If they had ‘em at a state school here in California, I think it’s a pretty good bet they had ‘em at Yale.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

With the feathered cap, no one would have noticed you’re bald.

[Stormdog]

I guess the real definition of “gay” doesn’t apply here.

[RoadKingSE]

there were some people doing cocaine in the bathroom, because it was, after all, the 1980s.

Those foo-foo flake snorting scalawags! At least we'll never have to worry about one of those arrogant Ivy League @$$holes becoming President or anything.

[Paved Paradise]

That was so depressing but what a beautiful elegy.