This set of poems began as a recuperation of the lost work of another poet, in the vein of Whitman, who felt deeply the interconnection between democracy and sexuality. We are only as free as our bodies are free to explore, discover, and love. The naive formulation may seem quaint to our postmodern, post-structuralist, post-queer sensibilities, but it is a formulation worth pursuing again in the light of recent attempts by many governments to curtail sexual freedoms--our right to pursue pleasure.
To forward a re-assessment of Carpenter and his vision, including its limitations, these poems are set in Webbed context designed to provoke further inquiry into the connection between sexuality and democracy. As such, I intend both the poems and the site to function as a critical, it not necessarily academic, intervention.
Edward Carpenter
in the New Millennium
a queer fantasy
Carpenter in 1900
