The Game From Behind aka Starsky’s Renaissance

Was he or wasn’t he and what that got to do with our boys?

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Thanks to Lesley Smith for the beta, all errors that are there are mine.

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Did you play the game from behind which the Florentines love so much?

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“What are you reading?”

“It’s a book about Renaissance art.”

“God, couldn’t get any duller if you ask me.”

“It’s actually very interesting, Starsk. Especially this section about Leonardo da Vinci. Nowadays we can quite safely assume that he was gay.”

“Was not! He was a ladies man!”

“Says who?”

“’Da Vinci’s Demons’, it’s a great show Hutch! He has all these beautiful women in bed! And he solves these crimes with his incredible inventions that were far ahead of their time!”

“Starsk, that TV show is fictional, it’s… it’s half fantasy, half science fiction and totally lacks any historical credibility!”

“Yeah, and when have you watched it?”

“I’ve watched it enough. Anyway, history – real history – is far more fascinating than any Hollywood interpretation. Take this Leonardo for instance. Now wouldn’t it be much more intriguing to think that he really was someone who had relationships that were not approved of – illegal, to be precise – in his lifetime than some dull macho…”

“No! He was not a fruitcake! Just because some art historians are unable to accept that real men can produce real art doesn’t mean that he was gay…”

“Say again?! ‘Real’ men, Starsk?”

“You know what I mean!”

“No, I don’t!”

“It’s just… I really like this guy, this Leonardo, he’s cool and has all the ladies… and if he was gay it would ruin him for me!”

“How?”

“I dunno, it just would!”

“He was gay, and I don’t understand why you can’t accept it!”

“Because he was not!, Jesus!”

“Why is it so important to you that he was a ladies’ man? Huh? You think that being gay is being less manly?”

“I just think that he is a macho ladies’ man and that’s why I like him!”

“Yeah? So if he was gay you wouldn’t like him?”

“No, I wouldn’t! He loved women, like that Mona Lisa, everybody knows that! And I don’t understand why you try to make him gay just to prove or un-prove some point!”

“Because he was! And it is idiotic to deny such an obvious thing! An why is it so hard for you to accept that he was gay? Is there something wrong with being gay, Starsk?”

“Here we go again…. I don’t have anything against being gay, Leonardo just was straight!”

“Yeah, sure! You watch some fantasy show on TV and suddenly you are an expert in one of history’s most examined artist’s personal life! There are people, Starsk, academics, who have spent their lifetimes examining Leonardo da Vinci’s personal life! Maybe you should share your knowledge with them, art history might get re-written!”

“Maybe I will!”

“Fine!”

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Salai, I want to rest, no more wars. No more war. I surrender.

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“Hutch?”

“Don’t! I’m sleeping!”

“Why is this so important to you?”

“Because every time you say something derogatory about being gay it just feels so personal… like you somehow feel that way about me…. about us….”

“What?!”

“Yeah, Starsk, I’m the old faggot you are stuck with.”

“Wha….why…? For thirty seven years I’ve been sharing a bed with you and you still talk like I was gonna run off with the first pretty lady I lay my eyes on… Jesus!”

“I’ve seen you with Nick’s kids, Starsk. And I can’t help but feel that I’ve taken that away from you.”

“Nick’s kids?”

“Being a father! And it hurts me, Starsk.”

“Have you ever thought that maybe – just maybe – I have chosen this? Chosen you, us!… And why does everything has to have some deeper meaning with you?! Jesus! I just happen to like Da Vinci’s Demons and I happen to like being an uncle! That’s it! And after all these years there is nothing I can say or do to convince you about me, us, is there, Hutch?”

“Marry me. ….where are you going?”

–

“I was going to give you this tonight, but… open it.”

“Starsk…”

“Read the engraving inside.”

“’amor mortem vincit’… love conquers death…..”

“Thirty seven years ago to the day, I died – not for long, but still – and I’ve been thinking about it lately.”

“Starsk, don’t….”

”Gimme your hand, Hutch… the left one. You know that word ‘renaissance’ actually means rebirth – I looked it up on Wikipedia – so that day was my ‘renaissance’. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, no heaven or hell….“

“Starsk… ”

”… all I know is that you were the last thing that I thought of and the first thing on my mind when I came around – the only thing – not that you weren’t before, it’s just… once you have died there’s no more bullshit, Hutch. And I guess that I should have gotten you this damn ring right then and there and not waited these wonderful, blissful thirty seven years that you have given me… – hey… babe… don’t cry… see, now you got me crying too….”

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”You know after you left for bed I looked at that book of yours and I found this ‘Game from behind’ -thing that apparently Leonardo and his favorite apprentice played… and… you wanna play, Hutch? I mean now that we’re engaged….”

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The name and the citation comes from “Il Libro dei Sogni ” (The Book of Dreams) a fictional dialogue on l’amore masculino (male love) written by the Leonardo da Vinci’s contemporary art critic and theorist Gian Paolo Lomazzo, and appears on a dialogue where the interlocutor inquires of Leonardo about his relations with his assistant, il Salaino.

The Debate (The Game From Behind Remix)