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At the time of the Sydney Gay Olympiad in 2002 I met Dr. Ferguson at a dual conference on Gay history and Gay Studies hosted by the University of Newcastle in Australia. I attended two presentations by Dr. Ferguson and was most impressed. After the second presentation he asked me to join him for lunch at a location removed from the conference site. At that time while discussing his work and theories I casually asked him where he archived his private papers and was surprised to find that he had not yet chosen an archive for his materials. After some further discussion and upon him finding out that we archive the personal papers of the late great Gay Anthropologist Tobias Schneebaum, Dr Ferguson agreed to start archiving his materials with the GLBT Studies Collection located at the University of Minnesota. Thus began what has been our almost five year archival collaboration which has culminated in us having the honor of posting Dr. Ferguson’s Aussen Hui, Innen Pfui! and/or make mine CamP: reconstructing bi Bernhard’s perverse bodies on our website. The gratifying duty of composing a website foreword to accompany the posting of this monumental work has left me at a loss for words. The appraisal of such intense scholarship perhaps deserves more of a response from a philosopher rather than a mere archivist. This is a seminal work that is so profound that I rather doubt that we will see its full implications in our lifetimes. It is a piece of such original and prescient thought that scholars will not realize its full significance for years to come. As such I am sure it will be roundly and savagely attacked by scholars who would have liked to have been able to write such a piece themselves. I am reminded of when the late Professor John Boswell of Yale University first began publishing his works on homosexuality and the Christian church. When Boswell’s works first appeared they were nit picked in a vain attempt to diminish his work as nothing more than the cute musings of a Gay apologist. Now thirty years later Boswell’s works still stand as the essential references in the field and his critics have faded into the obscurity they sought for Boswell’s work. Dr. Ferguson’s contribution to the ethnography and/or sociology of literary texts and/or the linguistic and cultural disciplines will undoubtedly meet a similar fate. The use of humor throughout the book will be used as a weapon against it, instead of being seen as an ability to make serious scholarship also enjoyable. But, as our understanding of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Studies advances so will our understanding of this work. Seldom have great thinkers been understood in their own time, it is a phenomenon of postponed recognition until the rest of the world is able to comprehend their way of thinking. Dr. Ferguson’s work also serves another not so obvious purpose. In the current intellectual climate GLBT Studies are often looked upon as a fad that will fade with time. It wasn’t that long ago when I set upon my own path in life that I was confronted by people who would dismiss GLBT history and culture as not even existing. We can now look back on this as the silliness it was. We know that if a people exist they have a history and by living their lives they create a culture; and to dismiss that is ignorance of all history and culture. Dr. Ferguson’s work has lain to rest similar criticism of GLBT Studies. Such studies will not just fade away but will eventually take humankind in new directions and to a new understanding of all humankind. With this work GLBT Studies has achieved a maturity that will replace theories of history and culture that we as the human race have outgrown. With this work GLBT Studies has been set upon a course of intellectual and thoughtful discussion that will guide our own thinking far into the future. Therefore it is with great honor and pride that we here can offer to you Aussen Hui, Innen Pfui! and/or make mine CamP: reconstructing bi Bernhard’s perverse bodies (AHIP). We proffer our thanks to Dr. Ferguson for his faith in our ability to bring his work to the world. And, we must also thank Michael Welch of Minneapolis, Minnesota, whose technical knowledge has brought our ability to present these materials in a 21st century style that makes them available to everyone no matter where they live in the world. Please read the following scholarly contribution carefully and thoughtfully. Prepare yourself to discuss it, its ideas, its contents, and more importantly, its polymorphous perverse form with the critique which typifies scholarly best practice, but without prejudice, bigotry, or malice. Join us here at the archives in venturing down a new path to discovering the vistas of the future of GLBT Studies. AHIP is the first in a series of osmophilological treatises which complement and/or supplement other osmologically relevant learning resources now housed in the Tretter Collection, for this is truly a “living archive.” Respectfully submitted, |
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