Flamboyance by Jack Parlett: A Serious Study of the Spectacular

The Lead

Jack Parlett's Flamboyance presents a serious study of the spectacular, exploring flamboyance as a form of resistance and political expression. The memoir-cum-cultural history examines how flamboyance can "burn with a resistant energy" and "put politics back into the picture," offering an alternative to ironic or cynical approaches to self-expression.

The Cultural Exploration of Flamboyance

Although primarily concerned with the culture of gay men in the English-speaking world, Flamboyance nevertheless makes a broad set of philosophical claims about the value of sincerity, love and political commitment. Parlett finds examples of flamboyant expression in Oscar Wilde and what the cultural critic Susan Sontag once described as camp, a worldview obsessed with artifice and performance. The book moves between the low- and high-brow, observing that William Morris, whose elaborate floral wallpapers have helped define English design, was "more like a candidate for a makeover on a show like Queer Eye" than one of its chic hosts.

The Historical Context

The term flamboyance, Parlett tells us, has its origins in an architectural metaphor. From the French verb flamboyer, to blaze, it was in the 19th century used with a twinge of romantic longing to describe the gothic style of 15th-century churches whose ornate curves looked like flames rising up to the sky. He suggests that there is something erotically charged in this image, although it requires a bit of work to see the connection. "I would probably not be yelling 'slay' at the stonework around rural church windows," he tells us.

The Personal Narrative

In the memoir sections, Parlett describes his struggles with alcoholism and his gradual recognition that it is possible to "find fulfilment without the aid of intoxication". Read in the light of these revelations, it's hard not to view Flamboyance as an extended metaphor about drinking and the author's hope of finding some way of facing, rather than detaching himself from, his own life. The book makes a case for a rather austere vision of flamboyance, an outlook whose motivations become clearer through these personal revelations.

The Critical Assessment

Unfortunately, the connection with cultural history is made weakly, and this in turn makes the discussion of art, literature and film seem unmotivated. The breadth of coverage can at times be overwhelming: Wilde, flamenco, the slain 1990s rapper Big L, Frank O'Hara, Lil Nas X and Donald Trump all get a look-in. Often, passages are held together more by word association than argument. Despite these shortcomings, Parlett succeeds in introducing a cast of writers, artists, dancers and musicians of which he has deep knowledge, meaning there is undeniably much to learn from Flamboyance.