Well, Larkin never does say who exactly it is he loves...
He doesn't strike me as a very intensely homosocial writer, pals
Kingsley and Jim notwithstanding. In his own curdled way he seems to
have rather liked women (although he tries to disguise this behind a
lot of griping about sex); he doesn't really seem to have liked men
very much at all (although he tries to disguise this behind a barrage
of jocular obscenity). Mama and Papa are doubtless behind it all.
It's a strange area. I don't feel that the gender relations of
Larkin's era and milieu are quite accessible to us now, although some
things undoubtedly haven't changed all that much. His stance, and his
peculiar mixture of privations and compensations, were reactionary
then, although coupled with a strong will towards their own
obsolescence. That Thom Gunn was publishing at the same time, and at
one point even associated with the same "Movement", seems
extraordinary.
Dominic
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