Michael Hone

Male Bonding Michael Hone

Men are naturally omnisexual and from the most ancient times they have bonded, intellectually and physically under the Greeks, a trend that continued through the Romans until the advent of Christianity and its denaturing effect over the minds of men, as symbolized by Savonarola and his bonfire of the vanities, where even many of the works of the sublime Botticelli went up in smoke, cast into the flames by Botticelli himself. But male bonding, with or without sexual release, is staging a comeback, as witnessed by Australian mateship and French matelotage, both thoroughly covered herein. This book is devoted to the men who lived intense male friendships, male bonding limited to the sheer pleasure of sharing and complicity, the ease of instant understanding due to the similarity in upbringing and body. It is comradeship that has as its foundation the happiness of being with another, in which sexuality may play no role whatsoever. It's the buddy in war who will die for his companion-in-arms, in the pure tradition of the Theban Sacred Band and the Spartan 300 who saved the world from barbarism at the Thermopylae. This book will cover the lives of History's greatest friendships, their sexuality an ingredient as it is in life itself, whether it be heterosexual, homosexual or omnisexual. Often one of the men was homosexual, as in the case of Herman Melville whose heterosexual companion was Nathaniel Hawthorne. Often both men were heterosexual, as was Jack Renton, stranded for nine years on the island of Malaita with his cannibal best friend Kwaisulia. Houdini and Conan Doyle were inseparable heterosexual brothers until spirits from the beyond split them apart. Abraham Lincoln had several close companions, with whom he shared beds for an overall seven years. The Australian Kelly Gang was built on male loyalty, and it was Steve Hart who put a bullet in the head of Dan Kelly, his inseparable mate, before shooting himself.